Date: Tuesday Apr. 20, 2010 1:33 PM ET

LOS ANGELES — First the Beatles and Elvis, now Michael Jackson.

The acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil announced Tuesday that it will put on a live touring show featuring the songs of the King of Pop starting late next year.

That will be followed by a permanent production in Las Vegas in 2012 at a property owned by casino operator MGM Mirage.

The casino company did not say which venue will host the show.

Cirque and Jackson’s estate will each own 50 percent of the project and share equally in the cost of putting it on. The estate will also receive royalties from the use of Jackson’s music and other property.

And CNN.com:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/04/20/michael.jackson.cirque/index.html?eref=edition

Los Angeles, California (CNN) — Cirque du Soleil and Michael Jackson’s estate have struck a deal to bring the late pop star’s music to the big tent starting next year.

The show will go on tour near the end of 2011, and a Las Vegas, Nevada, show will debut the following year, according to Cirque du Soleil President and CEO Daniel Lamarre.

The circus company first talked to Jackson six years ago about the possibility of a Jackson-themed show, Lamarre said Tuesday.

“Having attended Cirque du Soleil performances with Michael, I know he was a huge fan,” Jackson estate administrator John Branca said.

The shows will be based on Jackson’s music and dance, Lamarre said.

The project is the latest major deal announced by the estate, which recently signed a long-term contract with Sony Music to distribute the music of Jackson, who died in June at age 50.

The partnership — in which the estate and Cirque du Soleil are equal partners — has been long rumored.

Members of the Jackson family have been critical of the handling of Jackson’s estate since a probate judge gave Branca and John McClain control last summer. In this case, however, the matriarch of the family gave her blessing.

“Our family is thrilled that Cirque du Soleil will pay tribute to my son in such an important way,” said Katherine Jackson, the singer’s mother.

Cirque du Soleil is legendary for its creative and acrobatic performances, but Lamarre said it will be a challenge to live up to the imagination of Michael Jackson.

The MGM Mirage has signed on to host the Las Vegas residency. The hotel also will open a nightclub based on the Jackson show, the hotel said.

Conrad Askland, from Mount Vernon, WA USA, is currently living in Macau (SAR) China while working with the Cirque Du Soleil ZAIA show at the Venetian Macao. In Asia he has also performed in Shanghai, South Korea and Japan.

October 1, 2009 – 中国加油，中国万岁

Happy Sixty Year Anniversary to the People’s Republic of China!

It’s a four day holiday for the locals here in China. When locals have holidays it usually means that I work more; doing entertainment shows to accommodate the tourists.

China’s last 60 years has been bittersweet with a unified people exposed to both hard living and the largest economic boom in modern history. At the end of my blog post there’s a link to a great CNN article by Jaime FlorCruz that gives an overview of China’s 60 years as The People’s Republic of China.

I have posters of Mao Zhe Dong (Mao Tse Tong) in my Macau apartment. They are reproductions from the originals that call for united workers. I picked these up on a vacation to Beijing that included the typical tourist activities of climbing the Great Wall and visiting Tiananmen Square. Local Chinese and Macau residents that see the posters smile and are suprised I have them. I myself was surprised no one chastised me saying “Why do you have photos of Mao?”.

Mao Zhe Dong is loved and revered overall in China by my experience. I have asked many mainland Chinese what they think of Mao and the most common response is “50-50” or “both good and bad”. My perception is they recognize many problems but also recognize it is part of their history and the country is headed in a new direction. I have never heard a mainland Chinese person speak poorly or critically of Mao in private conversation.

While vacationing in Beijing I met a Chinese college student and she had asked me which locations I was visiting for my vacation. I mentioned Tiananmen Square and she said, “Why would anyone want to go there? It’s SO boring!”. I replied, “Well, you know, because of what happened there?”. She answered, “What happened there?”. She didn’t have any knowledge of the Tiananmen events of June 4, 1989. (You can read about those events here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989)

I was surprised by her response that she knew nothing of it and I chose to let the subject go. I’m here in China as a guest to work and in the process want to learn about their culture. I’m not here to project my culture onto theirs.

Recently I received an email from a Canadian friend that said, “China’s great to visit, but I think the US is a whole lot safer, and has a lot more opportunity.” I don’t know if that’s true.

Living in Macau (SAR) China and the strong influence of neighboring Hong Kong; I have the unique experience of being able to visit mainland China and have mainland Chinese friends while also having the progressive thinking and relative autonomy of Macau and Hong Kong residents. Macau and Hong Kong are now “Special Administrative Regions” as part of China. They will officially be integrated totally under China in 2050, but until that time retain local government and infrastructure. So in a way it’s like “China light”. I get to experience Chinese culture from a base that is very Western and comfortable for someone from the US.

What do locals think of the US? To my face people give a thumbs up when they learn I am from the USA. And the first question after that is usually “Do you like Obama?”. When I say “Yes!”, they smile and give a thumbs up.

Although in a Hong Kong taxi I was wearing an Aussie shirt and told him I was Australian when asked my home country. He was from VietNam. Told me about his escape from the country and the evil acts of Mao Zhe Dong’s brother. Then told me that the USA only wants war. “They only know war. It’s all they do.”

Many of the younger generation in China are dreaming of new opportunities and possibilities. Many ask me about how to navigate jobs and how to be an entrepeneur. Many ways of thinking in the West seem to be new to them. Or maybe it’s because of a great change in thinking between the generations. The older generation went through many great difficulties and were very used to fitting in and doing their part as part of a whole. The new generation has only known the great propulsion of the China economy and has heard first hand accounts of many friends who have had success during this opening to business in the West.

These are exciting times for China. Happy 60th Birthday to the People’s Republic of China, and many sincere thanks for letting me learn about your culture and to see first hand the development of your new era.

Read the CNN article “China 60 Years On: From Mao to Today” here:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/30/china.60years.preview/index.html

Lady Gaga performed in Macau at the Sands Venetian Casino (where I work with Cirque Du Soleil’s ZAIA show) as the final concert of her tour. There is an interview released by CNN here:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/25/lady.gaga/index.html?iref=intlOnlyonCNN

Lady Gaga attended our Cirque ZAIA show the night before her performance.

Excerpt: “If one person imitates what a monkey does, and the other person does not imitate, the monkey prefers to spend more time in front of the person that imitated them,” said Dr. Annika Paukner at the National Institutes of Health offices in Poolesville, Maryland.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/13/monkeys.imitations/index.html

Excerpt:
Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it.

*********************

I’m sure the blogosphere is on fire with this one right now. I have a friend who is Catholic and I asked her about this. She said it’s only for conservative Catholics. I said, “But the Pope is in Africa where millions of people have AIDS, and he’s telling them not to use condoms.” She replies, “Cannot. If people do not use condoms they will die. So they must.”

I’m not really “Anti-Pope”, I just don’t understand it. The only response I can hear is someone saying “Well, people should just not have premarital sex and all the STD’s and AIDS would be wiped out.” I suppose that might be true. But it’s not going to happen. So is the real response that lies between the lines really this: “Evil people must die. AIDS is from God to destroy people that have premarital sex.” I know for a fact there are people that think this. They have posted that on some of my religion discussion forums.

To me this is all an example of where religion is stuck in following certain rules set by it’s theology, and the outcome is ridiculous.

In Thailand not too many years ago a large portion of the population had AIDS, like one percent of the entire population. They did a major public awareness campaign to promote condom use and in just a few years cut those statistics dramatically.

A friend who lives in Bangkok told me that Bill Gates sponsored a prize for the country that could make the biggest change in it’s AIDS statistics. And Thailand won.

In just the last few years China has begun to sell condoms at convenience stores. Before this the condoms were only available at adult stores and “naughty” places. The idea was that no “good person” would ever use a condom. It was only to be used by someone who was sick. So if you use a condom, it means you are sick. Don’t use them, and you are healthy. There was not really an understanding of AIDS and how it was transmitted. It was thought of more like a game of chance, a random choosing of Buddha or the Gods. Do you see how this kind of thinking is so dangerous?

Fast forward to today and China has condoms available at most convenience stores and grocery stores. I don’t know statistics on the effect of this, but I would safely assume it is cutting a large dent into AIDS transmissions.

So, tell people not to have premarital sex. But they do. If they do, they can use condoms and cut down AIDS transmission. But you have a Pope telling people not to use them. So they have sex without condoms, get AIDS and die. What is the sense of that?

When I lived in America the AIDS phenomenon was a fairly distant thing. I do know some people that have died of AIDS, but admittedly most of them were gay. So we can still hide under the false banner that it’s a “gay” disease.

But I’m in China now. Closer to those third world countries where I read the news about what’s going on over here and how public perception is adding to the spread of the disease. It comes down to education and the social consciousness of different cultures as to how they act in response to AIDS.

And the pope is telling them to not use condoms. Score one for the army of God.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed it’s last newspaper on March 17, 2009. It will now only be available online as an internet newspaper.

Excerpt: The paper published its final print edition Tuesday (March 17, 2009) as the P-I makes a transformation into an online-only news outlet. A skeleton crew of 20 to 25 staffers will remain at the new Seattle PI.com while more than 140 staffers will lose their jobs.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/03/16/pi.closes/index.html

Part Two

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1k0zdIpFRM

Obama Inauguration speech part one and two.

CNN analyzes the speech content here:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.speech.sources/index.html

Chinese officials are not amused about the new album released November 24, 2008 by American rock band Guns N’ Roses. The album, which began recording in 1994, is called “Chinese Democracy” and is described by one Chinese listener as attempting to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn.”

What struck me as interesting is wondering if the title of the album was decided on back in 1994. There was certainly more things to criticize about China in 1994 than there is today, or am I wearing rose colored glasses as an expat living in China?

I haven’t heard any of the tracks on the album and don’t know anything about the content. I just know Chinese officials are pissed. It’s rock ‘n roll’s job to stir things up a bit so all of this seems to go with the territory. Nice to see GNR getting some publicity again.

China has opened a lot to the West in recent years and there are some growing pains with that. Don’t expect China to become “Americanized” – it is an extremely different culture and way of thinking. More than just outward appearances. This is interesting to see from overseas, and my first reaction is to stick up for China a bit. Is that why they call us expats, short for “ex-patriots”?

Read the full article on CNN:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/24/china.guns.roses.ap/index.html

“11,000 To Lose Casino Jobs in Macau” – front page featured news at CNN.com today. They are referring specifically to the Sands Venetian.

Well now, not the best news for us working at the Venetian in Macau – but insiders have known it was coming. The dream to make Macau the Vegas of Asia does not come without an element of risk. Granted, Macau IS currently the largest gambling destination in the world, having already surpassed Las Vegas. But a 12 billion or so development project (just to START) by the Sands is monstrous.

There are things I can say and things I can’t say. But about the mood of us over here working at the Venetian? Some are a little nervous wondering what the future brings, and others see ourselves as pioneers like the old Wild West. Not everyone made it in those wagon trains…

Me? I’m of the pioneer mindset. I follow paths to see where they lead. Sometimes it’s fun to do that, sometimes it’s not. But I can’t live without knowing which it is – so I’m in.

I believe in the vision of Adelson – and I think he will stop at nothing to see it through. And I believe in the vision of Cirque Du Soleil. I don’t mind bumps in the road – it tells me I’m still above ground…

CNN Article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/11/13/macaus.sands.ap/index.html

EXCERPT:

The Macau sites, which have cost $1.16 billion so far, are part of the company’s $13 billion master plan in Cotai. Sands is trying to arrange between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in financing to continue building in Macau, but Weaver said it’s not clear how long that will take or when construction might resume, though he’s confident it will.

“We’ve got $1.2 billion sunk in to the ground, we’re not going to walk away from it,” he said. “I think there’s no possibility that it’s never going to start again.”

Weaver wouldn’t rule out further layoffs in Macau.

“We can’t promise that there won’t be people that ultimately are laid off,” he said. “But at this point no decision has been made.”