Momo-i Night Fest in Vegas
I haven't been to Vegas since Winter CES '95, so it's been a while and I wanted to go back and see how it's changed and some shows. Omar's dream finally came through of throwing his own Momoi event in Vegas, so I went.
Momoi Night Ad
Arrived in Vegas on Friday, ate at Stripsteak in the Mandalay Bay the first night. (American Kobe Beef Ribeye Cap, Truffled Mac & Cheese, Spinach Souffle).
Dinner at Stripsteak
Saturday we all met up and spent the day hanging out with some great people. We eventually headed over to the concert venue and some people on the forum were worried it'd sell out. This was clearly not the case, so we had no issues at all. We got in, watched the event and had a good time. Afterward, we tried to go to an Izakaya but it was too crowded, so we went to some chinese place downstairs from the Izakaya, then back to my hotel to sleep. (It was nearly 3AM by the time I got back.)
Momoi in Vegas
Sunday we all met up for breakfast (I picked a place local to my hotel which was ok, but I REALLY wanted to go to Hash House a Go Go because the food/portions are INSANE! Also, I hear it's amazingly good!) We said goodbye to the group as almost everyone headed back, then one of the Momoists from Japan and I headed to the strip to walk around. We went to New York New York as I wanted to ride the coaster but the line was HUGE! We walked to the MGM Grand, the Tropicana (I wanted to go see if they had any props/pictures from when they filmed that episode of Angel there, but they sold the hotel a year ago and the previous owner took all that with him. Aww!) Went to the MGM Grand and saw the lions, took the Monorail to the Venetian, walked around there for a while. I had tickets for the 7PM Blue Man Group show at the Venetian so checked that out then went back to our hotel to pack and then sleep for the flight the next day home.
I enjoyed the trip overall, but I wished I could've seen more shows and done more in Vegas. I'll have to save that for the next trip! 
Superfly – Dancing at Budokan!!
I haven't been to Japan since 1997. I went with some friends back in October of last year to Tokyo and since I was burnt out of the whole anime scene there for a while (having done it since 1986!), I haven't been too current on music or other things. I decided to check out some new stuff. On the plane they had some music tracks and I listened to Rodrigo y Gabriela's "Buster Voodoo" and then played around with the various music types. On one of the J-Pop Hits channels, I heard a song by Superfly which I really liked. I went to buy the album in Japan but I ended up buying her previous album. I realized too late there was a new one and so I didn't pick that up.
I came back and did a little more digging on Superfly and found out she's decently popular in Japan. She's had quite a few hits and both her albums hit #1 on the Oricon charts. She's a huge Janis Joplin fan and performed at the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock with Big Brother & the Holding Company singing Janis's songs. She also performed a song with some of the members of the Australian band JET. I also found covers of other popular American rock songs by her, including "Rock n' Roll Hoochie Koo", "Desperado", "Honky Tonk Woman", "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" and others. I liked the first album I bought, but I really loved this new album she has out. You can find Youtube videos of her stuff on her own channel to get an idea if you like the sound or not.
Last week, a concert DVD/Blu-ray was released in Japan and I imported it from amazon.jp. It arrived quickly and I had no problem watching it on the Playstation 3. (I love Region A for Blu-ray!) It's a great compilation of her early and current stuff as well as a few other covers and other goodies. It even has a bonus section documenting her trip to Woodstock and performing there on stage. All and all I think it was a very worthwhile purchase and hope that more people discover Superfly in the US that we see her perform here just like Utada did.