You may have noticed by now that we’ve changed formats here at Various Things & Stuff.

It’s true; we’re launching an all-new blog page, which will very shortly be home to CityBlog, the coolest alternative-newspaper staff blog in the entire Las Vegas area. If not, you know, the world. There, you’ll be able to find work from the award-winning CityLife staff, and some of our most popular freelancers, too.

We’ll have breaking news, snippets of upcoming stories, random bits of stuff that we find interesting and a place for you to get involved with the discussion, too. So be sure to visit often.

But, as with all advances, there are some glitches to work out. Bear with us while we get those things squared away. We promise that it will be worth it once everything is up and running.

Yes, we can! And we did! For those of you waiting with anticipation to find out the results of the fifth annual KNPR-FM 89.5 online auction, know this: We at Various Things & Stuff (along with our colleague Jon Ralston) won the highest bid among media celebrities. Woo-hoo! We are No. 1!

Well, almost.

But with a bid  of $550, we came in ahead of other media celebrities with whom a lunch was up for grabs. We beat George “The Knappster” Knapp, who fetched a still-impressive $470. We beat freelancer/blogger/columnist and podcaster Steve Freiss, who brought in $160. We beat Review-Journal “Online Guy” Al Gibes, who snagged a bid of $110. Unbelievably, we beat R-J gossip columnist Norm Clarke, who offered a copy of his book and a Norm! bobblehead doll! (He scored $470, just like Knapp.)

We even beat lunch with KNPR General Manager Flo Rogers and chairman of the board for Nevada Public Radio, Dave Cabral! (They earned $270.) And she’s got an accent you can just listen to for hours!

Yes, we can! Si, se puede! And we owe it all to you blog readers who responded to our call to put yours truly and Ralston ahead of the pack of other media celebrity types. You are truly the heroes, and because of you, the terrorists have not won. Give yourselves a round of applause. Right now. There, at your computer. Put down the BlackBerry and do it. You’ve earned it!

Alas, we cannot claim unblemished supremacy. See, there was one person who came in just slightly ahead of us: Food critic John Curtas, who managed to score a bid of $551. You read that right — he beat us by just one dollar.

Now, normally we’re not given to wild conspiracy theories, like the river that runs under Las Vegas that could totally supply our needs for the next century, or the theory that there are alien bodies stored at Area 51, or that Gov. Jim Gibbons is an advanced cyborg sent from the future to kill us all with budget cuts. But we can’t help but wonder if the winning bid for Curtas was submitted by one “Johnathan Shamus O’Curtas” using an untraceable Pay Pal account.

Hmmm. Could it be?

Anyway, now is not the time for recriminations or second-guessing. By our tally, you love us at Various Things & Stuff (oh, and Ralston, too) more than anything except for a fancy meal at the Bellagio. And we can live with that.

Plus, congratulations to everybody who participated in the auction. The media people mentioned in this post alone managed to bring in more than $2,500 for KNPR, to keep programs like Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air and our very own State of Nevada on the air. And that’s something we can all be proud about.

Something tells me dildos are more popular on Valentine’s Day than one might imagine. Jeff Wood put them to the most creative use during his New Jersey band Shat’s equally memorable and execrable show Feb. 14 at Beauty Bar. The singer donned the minimum amount of protective gear to a) avoid an arrest and b) affix 23 rubber phalluses.

And yet the peni may have been the least offending element of the performance. The setlist was stacked with songs like “Vagetarian” and “Born to Be a Lesbian,” though the biggest jawdropper was during “Kill Baby,” when Wood took a child’s baby doll and slammed it against the stage repeatedly before tossing it into the crowd. All throughout, Wood implored female members of the audience to flash their breasts; imagine his disappointment when Sin City’s bravest indie gals all demurred.

The spectacle might’ve been the most misogynistic thing this well-seasoned concertgoer has ever seen — if it wasn’t so incredibly over-the-top. The satire, or whatever, was duly noted by the end of the performance, when the band jumped off the stage as if to barrel into the crowd … and merely said, “Excuse me,” as they gracefully passed, wagging willies and all.

After buying the shuttered, torched and crumbling Moulin Rouge more than four years ago - and after more false starts than we can count — the guys behind the Moulin Rouge Development Corp. might finally have some money to start rebuilding the thing. But is Bonanza Road ready for … this?

That’s the official rendering from Ed Vance and Associates. I think the technical term is “consummately and face-scrapingly blingalicious.”

Mark Adams of www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com , meanwhile, has proposed a different take, which he drew up with for his design portfolio. He sees it as more faithful to the original hotel’s mid-century Modern design. It’s certainly easier on the eyebulbs:

He writes:

The main differences between these two plans are the colors and material choices. My plan calls for extensive use of limestone, glass block and ebony wood tones, which creates a more subtle color palette. These materials were widely used in the ’50s and are making a comeback.

There is one element I use in my rendering I would love to see in this and other projects: A second-floor restaurant near (and looking over) the main entrance. This idea was a trend in the ’50s and ’60s. When you drove up to the entrance at the Sahara in 1967, you could see folks dining behind large windows at the Don the Beachcomber restaurant on the second floor. It looked inviting, a place you wanted to be. Other Strip resorts used the same element. The Sands, Flamingo, Dunes, Desert Inn, Hacienda and others had these restaurants.

Second order of business: imploding the blight directly across the street!

Cough! Choke! Whine! Sigh. Seems like Sierra Pacific can’t build a good old-fashioned pollution-spewing, greenhouse gas-emitting power plant without enviros - not to mention fans of the quaint habit known as breathing — getting all up in their smoky-ass grill.

Up till now, opposition to three proposed coal-fired power plants in Nevada has largely been from greens, conservationists and other ilk the power companies find it easy to write off as egg-eyed, tree-licking commies. Oh, and then there’s Harry Reid doing his celebrated mime act in which he has balls.

But - whoa! Whazzis? A former state energy regulator and adviser - a full-bore suit it’s a bit harder to write off - thinks there’s a better way as well? Indeed, this recent report by Carl Linvill of the Energy Foundation pitches a four-pronged alternative to Sierra Pacific’s proposed Ely Energy Center that rejects coal and proposes instead things like a north-south transmission line to open up access to energy and promote renewables, better energy efficiency management and exploring natural gas to feed energy-hungry, ever-growing Southern Nevada.

Why, it’s so incredibly reasonable and considered, Sierra Pacific officials find themselves positively mesmerized in full Jedi mind-trick fashion as they actually agree with most of what Linvill’s saying. Said one official in a statement to the Review-Journal, “While we have not had an opportunity to review the report in its entirety, initially it doesn’t appear to be inconsistent with our company’s diversification strategy.”

So that means … uh … you’re changing your mind about building the thing, then … right?