Monday, January 7, 2008

Gates to Las Vegas

Las Vegas Happenings

All Hail the Techies: They keep on coming - a flood, a plethora, a locust-like stream of people using every means of transport are coming to town. 300,000 New Years celebrants have returned to their homes and have been replaced by 140,000 Consumer Electronics Show attendees. They were led Sunday by Elvis and his guitar.... well, Elvis was played by King William of Gates and the guitar was played by an X-Box. The Gates Man played the big room as well as the other King, Midnight Idol, or Sigfried and Roy. Ok, he didn't make anything disappear, except perhaps anxiety over the next decade of technology, he did not play multiple instruments, at least not musical ones, and he didn't toss his scarves into the outstretched hands of crooning women. But he wowed his audience just the same.

His performance marked a decade as the headliner of the CES. Future performances might be less frequent as he soon will change his focus from all things Microsoft to philanthropic endeavors. He reflected on the success of technology's first decade and teased the audience with peeks into the technological future. Microsoft's sync technology for music and talk while in the comfort of your car is just around next model year's corner. Hollywood will come to the home theater (uh, the media room) room through the X-Box and allow for more interaction. Voice recognition and touch screens larger than life are but a few of the future ways of life. Bill Gates has become our Jules Verne.

Nugget Becomes More Golden: The Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino, one of the stalwarts among the Fremont Street Experience, has once again reinvented itself. I watched in the 1980s when then new owner Steve Wynn personally sat behind the wheel of a vehicle and crashed a wrecking ball into a Nugget wall as a symbolic gesture to tear down the old and replace it with a newer, better, more glamorous property. The Hotel-wrecker has since gone on to grander designs and the Golden Nugget has changed hands a few times.

Present owners have announced another expansion and makeover of the property to the tune of $ 60 million. A multi-purpose events center to be called the Grand and expanded gaming floor will complement the Red Sushi, a new restaurant and an even grander night life venue will be called, what else? The Gold Diggers. The dance floor will be bordered by bartenders to cater to the whims of the movers and shakers on the dance floor. The nightspot opens up on an over sized balcony to give party goers a grand 180 degree view of the Fremont Street Experience. Something about the Nugget seems to attract designers of vision.

A little blogging music Maestro... How about Ian Brown's "Golden Gaze."

Dr. Forgot

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