Halos Heaven: Live in Las Vegas

So this year's Halos Heaven Las Vegas meetup didn't draw as many people as some of the previous years, and it was outside of the All Star break for the first time. But the group that showed up had a fun time, and getting to see the Salt Lake Bees play a handful of games was a welcome change of pace than the usual watching of the home run derby or All Star game in a sports book.

Here we have a decent view of Cashman Field, home of the 51s and also home of a nightmare-inducing mascot that is supposed to be an alien. There is definitely a Jar Jar Binks vibe from this thing, which is not really the association you want your mascot to have, since pretty much everybody on the planet hates Jar Jar Binks.

Here is a shot of an Angels fan, transplanted from Azusa to Las Vegas, that we met at the double header, dollar beer night. He was with his family, including a son decked out in Mike Trout gear, and told us an anecdote about how he DM'd Trout on Twitter asking for some pointers for his son, who was in a slump in little league. Mike Trout actually responded to him, and he still had the DM to prove it! That's one way to make a fan for life.

Here is a shot of the Halos Heaven crew(minus Maze88, who showed up later in the game), settling in for the Bees/51s double header. This was on Thursday night, and Rev had not only been to the game the night before, but he also already had a reputation as a troublemaker among the ushers. So we have VPBOB in the foreground, then MissusHaloFan, Rev Halofan and the legendary CallMeTheBreeze. I had never had the pleasure of meeting Breeze or VPBOB before, and they couldn't  have possibly been cooler dudes. It was so cool to get to put faces to names, but to also get down to some nitty gritty Angels talk live, in person.

Here is VPBOB, demonstrating the correct way to do a dollar beer night at the ballpark.

Here is a picture of Kaleb Cowart (at first) and Grant Green(at bat) doing their thing. (Grant Green pic is dedicated to a certain Grant Green lover we have on this very site...she knows who she is)

Here is the aftermath of our vicious, 4-man penny slot tournament. at The D. Breeze was on a broken machine at the start, which heralded his doom. Rev and Mayhem were middling and VPBOB ended up taking the top honors with a massive $7 and change in winnings. The VP in VPBOB stands for video poker...and this guy knows Vegas like the back of his hand, so perhaps he should have had a handicap. It just wasn't fair! But I'm smiling anyway, just because I was happy to be there.

Day at the races

A video posted by Go Die (@go_die_music) on Jul 11, 2015 at 2:00pm PDT

Here is a clip of a game that was in The D, right by where we were doing the penny slot tourney. It's called Sigma Derby, and is an old-school, quarters-only horse racing game that blew my mind. VPBOB was quite familiar with it and filled me in on it's history. I was basically obsessed with this game for the 3 days I was in Vegas. On the day I left, I sat down at this thing for over 3 hours, on $5, and came out with $13 in winnings. That is about as good as Vegas gets, as far as I'm concerned.

Here is a panoramic of the gang, now with the legendary Red Floyd and his very lovely lady friend in tow. We were enjoying a nice brunch at Hash House-a-go-go in The Plaza Hotel; it was my first time going to this place, but it was excellent and I will definitely be going back.

Next up was KISS mini golf! We split into two teams, and had a rock-n-roll battle for putt putt supremacy, with live KISS music as our soundtrack and trippy black lights to guide our way. Here is Team Red Floyd.

She got a hole in one, woot woot!!!

This is me. I look really, really good in this picture. You'll just have to trust me.

The whole gang, after finishing up our mini golf excursion. That place was pretty fun.

Here we are, outside, next to the KISS car. Don't mess with this gang.

More baseball action from Cashman Field. This was my first time in a minor league ballpark, and my first thought was "Are they all this crappy?", but I was told that Cashman Field is about the bottom of the barrel as far as AAA parks go. Good to know. At least the Angels fans come out in full force when the Bees are in town.  Also, this elderly lady had on this Elvis mask and it was probably the creepiest thing I've seen on a long time. LSD has nothing on Old Lady Wearing Latex Elvis Mask, or OLWLEM as they call it on the streets.

Okay, so let's get to the elephant in the room: Rev has BLUE HAIR now. Before you go saying he's switched allegiances over to the Brooklyn Bums, let me assuage your fears and tell you that this was done by the discretion of a professional stylist, working on a television pilot that Rev is filming. That's all I can tell you right now, but Rev is going to be a star. Maybe. Also, I told him to make Matt Welch face(because I was going to tweet this at Welch, who was also in town but for different business) and this is what he came up with.

This is the Blarney Stone, in The D(formerly Fitzgerald's). I rubbed it and kissed it, and it didn't give me much luck. Whatevs, bro.

On Saturday, we did the yearly trip to the Pinball Hall Of Fame, one of the most glorious places on planet Earth. I spent most of my Sigma Derby winnings here, and regret nothing! Here's MissusHaloFan eyeing the Frank Thomas Big Hurt pinball machine, which would be the game we all went toe-to-toe on.

In the heat of battle. Show them NO MERCY Breeze!

I'm getting schooled by Rev, MissusHaloFan and Breeze.

Final Scores: Breeze is our 2015 PHOF tourney champion!

Take a bow, Breeze.

Picture of Gorby, from an 80's pinball game. NOT Gorbachav5, though.

I took the Computerized Sex Tester exam, and got "Amorous" and "Afraid". I don't know what that means, but I texted it to my girlfriend and she said "Sounds about right."

Lineups for the final Halos Heaven game at Cashman Field. Tropeano on the mound, and everybody in attendance got a 51s pint glass. Rev was more excited about the pint glass than should be legally allowed. MissusHaloFan was not excited about the impending point in the night when she has to carry said pint glasses in her purse. We both agree that Rev, as a full fledged art critic, needs to carry around a satchel or hipster man-purse of some kind. It just makes sense. Also, a beret wouldn't hurt.

Chilling out after the Bees/51s game. Here we have JocoAutry and Breeze. The aforementioned, prized pint glass is also pictured.

SideSalad, smoking a stogie like a boss.

So there you have it. Nothing crazy, nobody ended up in jail(that I'm aware of) and we all made it out of there having met some new friends and Angels fans. It wasn't a huge, throng of Halos Heaven members that showed up, sure, but our tight unit of rabid HH members made it easy to duck and dodge through the insane crowds of Fremont street, and allowed us to get more time sharing stories, histories and generally getting to know one another. I had a blast. Thanks to Rev(and Ladybug, who sadly couldn't attend) for planning this thing, and continually giving us reasons to leave our couches and go stoke the friendships that we started right here on this site. We are family. Til next year...can't wait!