**THIS TICKTOCK GUIDE IS AVAILABLE AS A WORD DOC AT THESTRIPPODCAST.COM ALONG WITH A MAP OF THE PROPERTY TO FOLLOW ALONG. THIS TEXT IS ALSO IN THE LYRICS TAB FOR ITUNES USERS.**

Below is a tick-tock of Steve Wynn’s tour on Nov. 16 of Encore Las Vegas. Times are close to exact but may be slightly approximate. Some audio has been removed for irrelevancy or to save time. Find the map of Encore at TheStripPodcast.Com or VegasHappensHere.Com. If you appreciate our content, we urge you to click on the donate button at VegasHappensHere.Com or TheStripPodcast.Com. You can also just go to Paypal and send a donation to TheStripPodcast@aol.com. Any amount is appreciated.


0:00: Intro to this audio and beginning of Encore tour. Tour starts in front of the Wynn and Encore theaters past the box office. We turn south towards the first leg of the shopping hall for Wynn. Within 10 feet, he points left and discusses plans for TASTE OF WYNN store to open in January, replacing the original Le Reve store. Proceed down the hall.

5:20: Wynn bemoans a ladder outside In Step, a shoe store.

5:40: We’re in the new building, Steve. Discussion follows of the new Chanel, and we stand outside Chanel and XS looking down the hall.

6:50: As Wynn explains the colored-glass pinapple-shaped chandeliers at 5:07, he discussed chief designer Roger Thomas’ role and job.

8:20: Wynn explains why he believes most pedestrians will enter Encore via the Wynn, not from the north. A discussion of the Rolex shop follows.

10:55: We enter the nightclub XS, designed by Victor Drai and Roger Thomas, and stand at the top of steps, descending onto the dance floor and explains the process of creating the statues of naked women around XS.

11:50: We exit the XS doors along the dance floor to the topless pool. Wynn describes the pool, XS and nearby Botero steakhouse as part of an outdoor nightlife complex. (Wynn says we’ll walk through Botero later, but we never get around to that.)

14:40: Wynn walks me around to the other side of the bar at the center of the topless pool to show the gaming tables.  More explanation of the design concept. Mentions Fix at Bellagio for party-nightclub-restaurant feel, Palms Place-Kerry Simon-pool as reference points.

16:50: Wynn explains how profitable the pool retail is at Wynn, acknowledges that non-guests must be allowed to play at the pool at Encore and Wynn under Nevada gaming rules. Also quickly dismisses the idea of mobile gaming devices. “It’s not interesting to me.”    

19:55: As we walk towards the main Encore pool, Wynn explains thoughts behind strollers in casinos and points to the two-story meeting hall building at the north end of the pool. We be inside that area later. “The one upstairs” he refers to is the Beethoven Meeting Room. Wynn also points to the stage that is roughly below the Beethoven Room windows. He also discusses the use of fake grass and its cost.

22:20: We leave pool area via a north door and proceed north out the front door of  the north porte-cochere. Wynn explains planting lots of trees along Desert Inn Road to block the view to the north of the Gold Key shops and other crap. Wynn explained where the trees comes from and discusses demolition of the Frontier Hotel sign. Wynn discusses the intriguing décor of the taxi tunnel.  Wynn also reveals that there’s a Desert Inn Superarterial access, left over from the old DI resort.

24:50: We walk back south and are facing the main entrance of Encore with a glass wall that looks out at the pool we had been walking around earlier. Wynn agrees it mimics the Wynn Macau entrance with the glass wall looking out at the pool but also references another piece of his past, the entrance to Golden Nugget. “Once you get on an idea, we sort of stick with it,” he said.

27:15: Wynn points out that the table to the right immediately when we enter and says its top is made of red tiger eye and the background of the wall installation, which appears to be a rope weave, is actually made of banana fiber. “The rough, coarse texture of that coupled with the shiny red rose on top of it, that mixing of textures, that yin and the yang, the rough and the smooth, this place, everywhere you go its DNA is revealed in its details.”

28:30: Wynn explains “play dates” as we stand in front of the front desk, then leads us past Lobby Bar, its function and its similarity to Petrossian at Bellagio, and we turn right down the hallway to Sundries, the sundries shop, and the room elevators.

31:16: In the elevator to the spa level, Wynn explains the color scheme of the hotel. Then we enter the spa, walking through the men’s locker area into the quiet room, down the hall of the treatment rooms. Wynn reveals the walls change color in each treatment room at the customer’s choice.

34:03: As we exit the spa, an employee shouts to Wynn, “You did it again!” I ask about the coming Encore Macau, opening Christmas 2009, is “better” than this. He doesn’t really answer.

38:03: Getting off the elevator on the lobby floor again, Wynn inspects a piece of art on the back wall of the elevator bank. When I ask him why, he notes that it had not been flush to the wall the last time he saw it and he was checking whether it was fixed. Wynn then comments about Phil Ruffin’s purchase the day before of the Treasure Island for $775 million.

39:13: We walk along the north edge of the casino, which is to our left, and at the left turn toward the Las Vegas Boulevard atrium entrance, he points out the very prominently located high-limit baccarat room and the VIP concierge for Tower Suites guests. We are near the entrance of the front door of Sinatra, and Wynn and I joke about having to move Sinatra’s Oscar, Emmy and Grammy, now in his office, to the restaurant. Wynn also points out how fancy a service entrance is.

41:48: We enter Sinatra. He shows the dining room, pointing to the first booth down the steps on the right as his. He discusses the music and sensibility, then shows the private room with a portrait of Sinatra with a young Wynn from the cover of a magazine called Chairman of the Board. Wynn notes the music is “stuff from the archives the family gave me” and we’re putting it together with a film.”

44:38: We walk onto the Sinatra outdoor dining terrace. Gardeners are hard at work and we discuss the Wynn horticulture division.

46:18: We walk out Sinatra south, parallel to the Strip inside the resort. Wynn notes the high-limit slot area and the High Limit Bar as we walk out the Strip porte-cochere where he explains that he opted not to have a large piece of artwork in the arch across from the front doors as he does at the South Wynn valet because he decided they’d put up trees and block the northward views. He discusses his history with the Frontier and the sign he helped remove.

50:18: We return into the hotel and stand outside Switch as Wynn clamors for the tech folks to make the walls change. In the middle, he takes a call from Clint Eastwood. While they talk, Switch’s open walls give way to glass ones. After the call, they change a third time to another image with “Roger’s beautiful windows.” He also discusses sound levels for Switch music and introduces the scientist from the University of Michigan responsible for ensuring the survival of the trees inside the property.

55:23: We proceed south towards the Society restaurant where we briefly encounter Elizabeth Blau, the food consultant who selected Wynn’s chefs as far back as Bellagio. We then walk along the south side of the casino, past the South Side Bar and by Wazuzu, the sushi-noodles restaurant. Wynn points out the huge crystal dragon installation, a replica of one in Wing Lei at Wynn Macau. He points out that we’re at the centerline of the casino towards the north porte-cochere and the front desk. When we pass the East Side Bar, Wynn explains the simplicity of the naming of the various places.

58:43: We begin towards the convention center and Wynn reiterates the “chambered” effect of the casino floor. He says he won’t move into an Encore suite. We walk past the front desk again and as we pass the glass wall at the north entrance looking out at the pool again, we encounter Roger Thomas’ successor. He and others work with crews in and outside on the artwork that will stand on the outside of that glass. Later, off audio, I catch Roger Thomas specifying where a 10-foot urn would be located and Thomas explains he painted it himself in recent days.

1:00:03: We walk up the steps to the convention area and we enter Beethoven I, which overlooks the pool to the west. Wynn describes that it’s surrounded by glass, but the curtains are drawn and nobody can figure out how to open them. Later he informs a manager that the curtains are always to be open in that room. We walk down the main concourse of the convention center, which is arranged exactly like that of Wynn LV.

1:04:18: We walk south through the main concourse of the convention center and, eventually, Wynn declares us “out of Encore and in Wynn again” when we face the Country Club Restaurant with the North Fairway Villas to our left, completing the convention center loop that connects the combined properties.

**WE WALK THROUGH CASINO, GO LEFT AT PARASOL UP AND INTO WYNN ESPLANADE. I’VE CUT THAT OUT BECAUSE IT WAS OTHER CHATTER THAT I’LL AIR ELSEWHERE.**

1:05:38: During a chat about Wynn’s cult of personality – which he denies – he spots a young kid with sneakers with retractable wheels. He stops the kid, feels them, explains he was worried about their impact on the floor. One person asks who he is, he says he works there. Then he is noticed and IDs and tourists fawn over him.

1:06:33: As we walk down hall to his office, we talks about an idea he got from a member of the public back at the Bellagio. He also identifies the idea maker of the volcano and fountains, the fish behind the Mirage front desk. Wynn’s dogs charge at us as we enter but then just start playing. Wynn mocks the dogs.

1:08:58: Wynn makes final sales pitch, offers a final narrative. He also mocks me for noticing the fonts. We discuss a Warhol in the office of Santa Claus. He shows me fixed Picasso and has a photo of the damaged version.

1:11: Wynn declares tour over.

REISSUING THIS 11/07 INTERVIEW WITH PATTI LUPONE IN WHICH SHE HINTS AT SOMETHING BIG SHE MAY HAVE COMING UP... WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE THE SHOW THAT WON HER HER SECOND TONY TONIGHT.

Tony winner Patti Lupone talks about her long Broadway career and why she hated playing her signature role, Evita. Then, Ellen DeGeneres discusses the writer’s strike, her dog controversy and the TBS variety show she filmed in Vegas last week. Plus, news about Planet Hollywood, Zumanity, Crown Tower the Plaza and more.Donate $25 or more and pick anything you want off the prize list on thestrippodcast.com. You get a prize and you help us up. Good deal! There are a couple of items on the list that are exempt.

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