Entertainment

It's past midnight on a cold, wet Tuesday and the MGM club is hopping. Scantily dressed women stand behind a large circular bar, playing dice with customers to see who will take the next drink. Disco balls twirl from the mushroom-shaped ceiling. Cigarette girls peddle roses and Havana cigars. David Xu, a 24-year-old businessman with a wisp of hair under his lip, is on his fifth glass of wine and crooning along with a band performing on stage. "This is my home," he says.

Apple Computer Inc. took its first steps into the living room Tuesday, introducing a speaker system for iPods and a new Mac mini that can stream music, photos and video from other computers. Together, the two products provide "a clear indication that Apple intends to expand more into the home and move away from its on-the-go focus," said Gartner Inc. analyst Van Baker.

Wynn Las Vegas, casino mogul Steve Wynn's flagship resort, will pay $15.9 million to buy the rights to its headline show "Le Reve" from creator Franco Dragone so he can add lights, lasers and perhaps more performers. The sum, revealed in a filing this week by Wynn Resorts Ltd. to the Securities Exchange Commission, will pay for "substantially all rights in and to the show and to repay certain unreimbursed excess production costs," the filing said.

In a city where public figures have a propensity for sameness, Loch David Crane stands out. Maybe it's his Buffalo Bill look. Or Merlin look. Or cowboy look. Or his motorized three-wheeled Star-Trike (Captain Kirk is also one of his personas). Often seen on local freeways, the trike is capable of high-speed wheelies, back and front. Crane, 56, is best known locally as the clown prince of municipal politics. He's had five unsuccessful -- but highly entertaining -- campaigns for mayor.

CRAVING a bit of the mother tongue, pub life and British theater at its apex, but don't have time and or funds for a weekend trip to London? There is a much cheaper and time-efficient way to satisfy your English cravings. In San Pedro, the folks at Shakespeare by the Sea offer a free alternative to summer blockbusters. Since 1998, the organization has been staging Shakespeare plays on the bluffs at picturesque Point Fermin Park.

Microsoft Corp.'s plans to offer an iPod competitor could take up to five years of investment, but the spending is worth it in part because it will help the software maker's broader entertainment agenda, a company executive said. Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices group, told financial analysts that the company's planned Zune product line would require millions of dollars in investment and would not pay off immediately.

MTV Networks said Wednesday that it would acquire online video and games distributor Atom Entertainment Inc., accelerating the race of old-media giants to snap up websites that cater to young audiences. The $200-million deal for Atom, a survivor of the dot-com bust, signals the increasing rivalry between MTV parent Viacom Inc. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. as they diversify into new media. News Corp. has turned heads with its acquisitions of MySpace and other Internet businesses.

TO the non-musician, the idea of an open-mike night is freakishly masochistic: It's a veritable free-for-all, where anyone can sign up for five minutes (or so) of stage time and perform to a sometimes indifferent crowd, most of whose members are waiting for their own brief moment in the spotlight. There are open-mike nights of all stripes: poetry, hip-hop, comedy.

MANNING the decks under the moniker 2 Many DJs, Belgian brothers David and Stephen Dewaele helped usher in the mash-up era in the early '00s by exploding existing notions of what gets bodies moving on the dance floor. They were among the first turntablists to sonically commingle, say, Salt 'n Pepa with the Stooges, or Michael Jackson with AC/DC.