Bella Dog Magazine used a quote from me in their “Top 10 Dog Friendly Cities” article. You can read the article here.

Well it’s January and another Affiliate Summit is drawing near. Affiliate Summit Las Vegas is my least favorite show of the year – it’s tough pulling show duty when Vegas is your home town. I absolutely refuse to get a hotel (that’s just a waste of money), so the commute sucks. I wind up going to many of the places that I intentionally avoid the other 362 days of the year, eg. Wynn’s Parasol Bar or whatever the hell it’s called. One of my largest objections to ASW, though, is that many attendees tend to do the same dinner/drink/party routine over and over again.

I have good news – Baldguitardude.com is going to save you from your misery. Here are 5 alternatives to the same ol’ same ol’ in Las Vegas.

Red Square: Although Strip Steak at Mandalay Bay does offer some phenomenal cuts of meat, steak night after steak night gets a bit boring. Mix it up by going to Red Square. This contemporary Russian restaurant and vodka bar features a huge decapitated statue of Lenin at the entrance. If you’re adventurous, try the fois gras french toast or the siberian nachos, easily the best two appetizers on the menu. For high rollers, enjoy bottle service by donning some fur coats and drinking in their 0-degree vodka locker. Did I mention that the only table in the vodka locker is Mr. Lenin’s head, encased in a block of ice? Rad.

Nora’s: Nora’s is the least “Vegasy” restaurant in all of Vegas. It is located about 3-4 miles west of the strip on Flamingo, and shares a parking lot with Studio 21, BGD’s favorite Las Vegas tattoo shop. Nora’s is an outstanding Italian restaurant. The wine list is modest, very Italian, and fairly priced. If you’re a fan of pasta you need to try the crazy alfredo. Best part of Noras, other than the food? No slot machines in the whole friggin’ place.

Hash House a Go Go: I had the pleasure of first visiting HHAGG earlier this week, and WOW. They are billed as “twisted farm food,” which I think is an apt description. We were there for lunch. I chowed down on the chicken and waffles, while Stephanie had a corned beef scramble (made from fresh corned beef). While this isn’t an upscale eatery by any means, the food is interesting and the view is great. I should mention that the portions are ridiculous. My chicken and waffles came on a serving platter stacked approximately 12″ high on the plate. Yowza.

Marinelli’s: Located in the M Casino, Marinelli’s is, quite simply, out-freaking-standing. The decor is hip and modern, with a small bar just off the entrance full of very attentive bartenders. Service is usually outstanding. Try the lobster risotto. There is a party room that can seat somewhere around 25 guests.

Restaurant Roulette: For the very adventurous, hop in a cab, tip the cabbie $10 and say “Take me somewhere cool for dinner.” Vegas is a service-based town and you’ll be amazed how far that $10 will go. Most of the time you’ll end up some place phenomenal. It might be a restaurant you’re already familiar with, or maybe you’ll find a new favorite. Maybe you’ll wind up at some dive and risk getting trichinosis. But hey – you’ll at least have the story…

Behind every great man is a….lioness?

In a shocking bit o’ local news, one of the trainers at MGM Grand got a little bit up by a male lion last week. The lion looks fairly relaxed until he starts running after one of the trainers…note that the fight was broken up not by the other trainer but by a lioness who was not about to have her day f***ed up by her hubby’s antics. (My wife does the same to me when I’ve had a Dewar’s or two.) Interestingly the male lion only went after one of the trainers, not both of them….check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW_x-2MXrkI

What have I learned from this?

1. The female of the species has a lot of influence over her male counterpart.

2. In times of crisis, cool heads might not always prevail. Sometimes a 4-500 pound cat does.

3. It is unsafe to be in the same glass tank as a large, pissed off lion.

4. You can only train an animal so much. At the end of the day he was still a frickin’ lion.

What are other lessons we can learn? Comment below!

I never really had to deal with SEO at PartnerWeekly. We got most of our traffic from affiliates. Whether they were PPC, email, organic – we really didn’t care, we just knew that we didn’t have to do it.

When I started this blog (and, more recently, a couple other projects) I had the rude “you need to get your own traffic beotch” awakening.

It’s cool to see that I rank for such in-demand phrases as “bald guitar player” and “joe lilly las vegas dog trainer,” but in my infinite wisdom I totally spaced on including the word “guitarist” in any of my shit.

….not that a blog about internet marketing, guitar, politics, rescuing dogs and whatever else is gonna ever amount to much…..but still…..that was pretty friggin’ stupid.

So for the record, I am a bald guitar player guitarist that plays guitar guitarist in Las Vegas who rescues dogs while being a guitarist and guitar player and internet marketer.