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What happens in Vegas...
Mar. 27th, 2019 02:22 am...is really weird.
I'm in Las Vegas, for a conference. It's my first time. (It's also one of the first times I've been at a conference where I wasn't a vendor, and man, the conference experience is very different when you're being sold to instead of being one of the ones selling.)
This is so very much not my place. I hate it. But it's FASCINATING. It's so ludicrously mercantile that it's really interesting. Literally the first thing you see coming off the plane is slot machines. Like, that's what's sitting at the gate.
The pool is locked down. The gym is locked down. I guess it's 'cause people wander off the street to hit the casino, but it's elaborate and very unwelcoming. Everything has an upcharge, everything. But you can buy anything. Also, the buildings all smell like tobacco and the streets all smell like pot. Absolutely reek of it.
It's a good conference (Adobe/Marketo) and I'm learning a lot and I'm glad to be here. I did manage to take an hour or two and I've wandered through the canals (literal canals, with gondolas) and Caesar's Palace (there's a circular escalator, WTF) and I saw the fake volcano at the Mirage. Thought about going up to Circus Circus for the circus acts, but it's like a 20 minute walk through a construction zone and I'm not taking a cab.
It's particularly surreal because I've been to a lot of these places in real life. I've been to the real Doge's Palace, and the real Colosseum. I live in New York. All the restaurants (well, most of them) started in New York. Cake Boss's bakery is 10 minutes away, I've taken cake decorating classes from them. I just came back from a party at Tao, the real one is a few blocks from my office. Carmine's and Delmonico's and so on, they're all weird inflated versions of the real thing.
This place is super weird.
I'm in Las Vegas, for a conference. It's my first time. (It's also one of the first times I've been at a conference where I wasn't a vendor, and man, the conference experience is very different when you're being sold to instead of being one of the ones selling.)
This is so very much not my place. I hate it. But it's FASCINATING. It's so ludicrously mercantile that it's really interesting. Literally the first thing you see coming off the plane is slot machines. Like, that's what's sitting at the gate.
The pool is locked down. The gym is locked down. I guess it's 'cause people wander off the street to hit the casino, but it's elaborate and very unwelcoming. Everything has an upcharge, everything. But you can buy anything. Also, the buildings all smell like tobacco and the streets all smell like pot. Absolutely reek of it.
It's a good conference (Adobe/Marketo) and I'm learning a lot and I'm glad to be here. I did manage to take an hour or two and I've wandered through the canals (literal canals, with gondolas) and Caesar's Palace (there's a circular escalator, WTF) and I saw the fake volcano at the Mirage. Thought about going up to Circus Circus for the circus acts, but it's like a 20 minute walk through a construction zone and I'm not taking a cab.
It's particularly surreal because I've been to a lot of these places in real life. I've been to the real Doge's Palace, and the real Colosseum. I live in New York. All the restaurants (well, most of them) started in New York. Cake Boss's bakery is 10 minutes away, I've taken cake decorating classes from them. I just came back from a party at Tao, the real one is a few blocks from my office. Carmine's and Delmonico's and so on, they're all weird inflated versions of the real thing.
This place is super weird.
