I don’t particularly like Las Vegas – sorry for its fans!
Here to learn the state of an industry much bigger – wireless – that is redefining ours (music), I take advantage of the few moments I can get away to (re) acquaint myself with the place. One word comes to mind: excess! And God knows, we are in a recession – if it is happening here, you wouldn’t know it!
Plenty of people walking the streets (people sticking to sidewalks and overpasses to be more exact – this is not exactly the most pedestrian-friendly city; you got to walk long until you find a street-crossing path!) Middle America, Middle Asia. Young America, Retired America. Trash America, Fat America. It’s all here, not necessarily nice to see...
Paris, New-York, Egypt – the Eiffel tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Pyramid, all replicated in near-scale models along the famous Strip – it’s a DisneyWorld that, I suppose, gives tourists the comforting impression that “they have been there” (“why bother to go to any of these places – I have been to Las Vegas”!) The Bellagio, with its vast water plan at the front and a stunning lobby, I must admit, for its huge light well as a center piece, covered with multi-color flower-shaped glass decorations; striking – as if Chehuly had inspired the whole thing.
I won’t talk about the casinos, these interminable, cavernous halls that define each hotel I had to go through to go anywhere, populated by the omnipresent noisy, clinking and light-flashing slot machines, and peopled by a human fauna that ranges from the naive, I’m-going-to-make-it, star-struck neophytes, to the jaded, drinking and smoking, button-pushing past-prime players.
The Monorail is a novelty – not around last I was there in the 70’s. Quite convenient to go around town – stops being defined by the hotels they service (the one thing though, once you enter the first hotel at any station exit, you are lost as to where to go to get to the other establishments announced in the Monorail for that stop – so you walk and walk until you get to the front entrance, and then look up for the other hotel signs!) While being shuffled from one place to the other, you learn a few things over the Monorail PA system: In 2005, there were 20,120 conventions held here, attracting 6.5M participants, to which, to have a total count of visitors, you have to add some 33M others who came here just for fun – a stunning 40M visitors in a year! We learn that there are 6000 people coming to settle and live in Las Vegas every week; the city’s population mushroomed from 200,000 people in 1970 to 1.8M now! And other tit-bits: the average visitor spends in a stay 13.4 hours gambling some $660 – but who’s counting as the voice over the P.A. adds ironically!)
The good thing, if you are a fan of the Cirque du Soleil, there are 5 permanent shows in Vegas – 5! Went to see “Love”, an homage to the Beatles done in true Cirque-signature fashion, with lots of color and flying Lucy-in-the-Sky type of woman figures. Stunning! Less impressive is “Zumanity” with its erotic, titillating show, of near-naked, athletic bodies, male and female, doing tricks in water and in the air, with the benign contribution and support of the crowd. Should have gone to see “Kà”...
Loads of restaurants nested away in hotels - each with their celebrity chef, competiting for patrons. Went to Il Mulino of New York with an American colleague at his suggestion; excellent of course, but again, too much all around!
Will be back only if necessary to keep on top of this wireless industry that is so recasting ours!
