I am in Vegas. It is hot. It is sunny. It is 100 degrees but as they say, ”It is a dry heat”.
Vegas is packed. My hotel is a total sell out. My room wasn’t ready upon check-in and my bag got lost but all is well. It is Vegas baby, Vegas. My cell phone doesn’t work either. I am brother from another planet now.
Who are all of these people in Vegas? They all look like they have been transplanted from Disney World. They wear shorts, athletic socks, sneakers; and fanny packs. They walk the malls but they don’t go into the stores. They walk the casino halls but they don’t gamble. Lots of people smoke cigarettes here. It is packed. The dining establishments are packed. Doesn’t anyone here know that we are in a recession? 
I went to the pool to kill some time. Everyone has a tattoo - I mean EVERYONE - on shoulders; on calves; near belly buttons; above the waistline; in the back end; on fingers; on legs. Everyone has a tattoo here. I look like the edgy and hip one in that I don’t have a tattoo! I saw an 85 year-old woman with a chest tattoo in the pool and a mother and daughter with matching tattoos.
The waitress by the pool asked me if I wanted something to drink. I ordered an ice tea and she asked me where I was from and I said, “A galaxy far away from here.” She laughed and said, “You should see this place on weekends. It would scare you back home.”
Las Vegas is so busy and so crowded that the NHL Awards show is NOT registering a blip on the buzz radar screen. Here at the Palms it is front and center but elsewhere it is just another event in the mad house of Vegas baby, Vegas.
Tomorrow I play in a celebrity golf tourney and then go to the NHL Awards show and the after party. I have some meetings with tech partners and with some folks in the league. It is a jam packed few days. I doubt I will enjoy all that Vegas has to offer in that – with the time change – I will probably be sleeping by 10:00 pm tonight.
The city has changed a lot in the last five years. It is so much more vertical. There is a huge development that is now defunct called City Center. It is a bunch of big buildings that are almost completed - cranes everywhere - but they look abandoned. No workers or people anywhere near these sites. Sign of the times.
This place is like no other place in the universe - flat and dry - and now a huge metropolis dropped in the middle of the desert. As was said in the film Bugsy, ”What are we, Bedouins?” The energy here is palatable. This should be an interesting 48 hours. Go Caps! Wish Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green luck at the NHL Awards ceremonies.
So is there some unwritten rule I missed that says we can’t wear shorts in Las Vegas?
ted–you hit vegas exactly right….i first visited vegas in 1979 and was a regular visitor till 82 when it was still old school. i then did not visit until summer 98 and my exact comment was that i felt that i was at disneyland. everyone who was walking around outside looked like they were from the mid west-dressed in shorts and kids in tow.
in the last few years i have spent much time in vegas and even thought about moving there, but given that i play a lot of poker in the casinos and dislike smoke, i decided against the move. everyone smokes there! i think as soon as people arrive in vegas they become smokers! in fact up until two years ago people were allowed to smoke everywhere including food courts in malls.
btw-i had hoped to play in the nhl poker tourny this week, but entries were restricted, maybe next year hockey fans should be allowed to play.
I always thought that Vegas was 72 degrees and dark.
Have fun, Ted. Just make sure that you don’t end up with a Tiger in your suite…or a Chinese man in your trunk.
Oh; also wanted to mention; I was working on a scene today on sidewalk near Pennsylvania and 9th and was placed with young woman; mother of two boys who lives near Camp David. At one point I asked her if she had noticed my OBEYKNH shirt I had tied on my back pack. (to make it not the same back pack as day before as we were to be completely different all new people from day before; but were same people. It’s that acting trickery
She replied right away, “Oh Yeah. I got mine. Wear it to watch the games with the boys.”
I asked, “Really?” (Just little surprised she had that answer right there at the ready.)
Her reply, “Oh Yeah. Were big hockey fans; my Family.”
“Oh that’s great. I say”
She offers, “We were able to go to two games this season with tickets we won by bidding at a charity action. We really had a great time as a family going to the games.”
I said, “Wow. That’s fantastic. Ted would be very happy to know that.”
She asked, “Ted?”
“Ted Leonsis; owner of the Capitals.”
“Oh”
Mentioned to her that you have all along had the fostering of said good time with family as well thought out purpose and goal of the big picture and keep weeknight games at 7:30 facilitate the families with kids.”
“She had a bit of an “aha” moment, followed by wish that could afford to attend more.
I conceded that it does take a certain amount of expendable income to go to games. It’s a business model and must be profitable to continue. To which she agreed.
Fundamentally; it’s not the cost of going to the games that is prohibitive or overly-high, but the permanent, river of outgoing monthly funds that the family of three; four; two, or even just the one must effort constantly to feed; most of an individuals income being expunged right away instantly needing more. Never getting ahead or seeing the light.
If a family with Two vehicles can off load one of those; that’s significant amount of funds remaining in the household; car payment, gas, maintenance, and insurance. This amounts to a significant portion of monthly earnings remaining in the pocket of the individual. I have great affection for certain autos and love; LOVE to drive; but the benefits to me by having that cash available monthly far-and-away surpasses any benefit I receive with car ownership.
Later; I asked her how she rocks the red; at home; put’s on jersey to watch game the boys/family
I attempted to get my Rock the Red Tee approved by wardrobe to get it in a shot. The Red is Too Rockin’ (It really is a brilliant shade of red) I’ll make it happen
Ciao, Jeff
Maybe they quit watching the local news.
A phenom. really insofar as there is virtually no other place in the word more specifically crafted to be a singular world unto itself. There are no televisions in Casinos you’ll notice. There is a general hum; a auditory environment; being of the place which levitates the mind upon entering. The spinning of this and the chimes, bells, and far of hopeful chiming sounds of that are a brilliantly conceived and realized concert which quickens the step and heart. I truly is a different; singular world; and the fact that it is packed makes it your community if that’s where you are. This most elemental and profound way of being for the human. Many people together in the same location doin’ the same thing at the same time. That’s it. Doesn’t even matter what it is; just that there’s lots of people; together; doin’ the same thing and the same time. If occurs as 15-20 people in a row of slot machines with big buckets in thier laps all putting coins in; then pulling the handle or just pushin’ the buttons and watching the spinning of the wheels; then that’s what it is. the fact there is the posibility of winning a little money merely the (seemingly) logical reason to get on a bus, travel to this otherworldly place, and engage in this behavior.
As I think of it now; mainly may be THE place where the elderly of America seek to replace, find, and rebuild the void of community he or she lives in the rest of his or her time in this place we call America.
If one watches the local news; he or she will hear a report; delivered in a grave, inflected, male voice, “Today; national retail giant “Circuit City” announced they will be closing the doors for good in the Fall of this year citing 8 full fiscal quarters in which the company failed to met national sales goals, citing continued downward spending on the electronic devices and household appliances which have long been the primary source of revenue for the company. This comes along with the previous month’s figures for new unemployment claimes filed nationally; up almost seven-and-a-half percentage points as the same period last year; with the overall percentage of the national workforce claiming unemployment in August jumping almost a full percentage point to 5.3 up from 4.6 in August of last year. Also, national retailer Sears Roebuck and Co. announces plans to scale back it’s specialty automotive departments in about a third of it’s North American stores over the remainder of the fiscal year; citing continued slumping sales and loss of market share to wholesale and discount retailers.
This would be accompanied with the images of ; interior shots of an empty Circuit City store, cut to employee staring off into space, cut to woman in seventies making small purchase – fishing pennies out of her change purse; then a quick pan shot of que in some unemployment office somewhere in America at sometime; ending with a landscape shot of Sears store with abandoned parking lot somewhere in the mid-west under overcast skies.
Then comes female voice; much brighter, but with the gravitas where needed; “In our next segment; new indications and figures from the national Centers for Disease Control on the likelihood of a national Pig Flu pandemic; along with new guidelines for you and your family to avoid the pig flu; and new pig Flu Map, but first; look at this cute little kitty. Isn’t it cute. We’ll show you this cute cat, and tell you why it is in this basket with these other cute cats and how that is making out comunity a better place. And; Ms. Mary Lou Washington celebrated her 102 Birthday today. We’ll have some thoughts from her about remaining young at heart. Don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back.
That is a healthy economy, not a sick one. If Ford and GM closed their doors for good; this would be a great thing for the American Economy. Why didn’t the federal government bail out Circuit City. They also had a vast supply, distribution, support, and employee network. Why do we allow Circuit City to go under, yet place the continuing business operation of Ford and Chevy THE primary concern of our entire nation and vast majority of time and effort of out Federal government?
***Working on feature film on National Mall yesterday; while reseting for the next take; I passed a young woman walking along. She was propping a bag open as she walked to search for something in it, so had her paper back book between her teeth. The back cover of her paperback pointing up. I saw red, a cactus; knew the book. I asked as we passed one another, somewhat incredulously, “Are you reading, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?” She smiled with book still in mouth, nodded, and gave me a thumbs up.
I think that was the best moment of my day yesterday
Suggest you might think of picking up copy of same paperback and keep in pocket as spend time in Las Vegas.
Break a Leg, Jeff