Fall Comdex '96 - Las Vegas

Actually the title is only for the search engines. I'm not going to talk at all about Comdex except to say that I was there and these photos were taken the same week.

Ain't this hard to read with this Ancient Egyptian thing going on?

We stayed at the Luxor - the Big Black Pyramid Thing (800-288-1000). As you can see it's a jolly strange place. All very Vegas Ancient Egyptian. It's cavernously hollow, all the rooms cantilevered around the perimeter. A good place to walk like an Egyptian. A structural nightmare. We would hang out at the Nile Bar, or perhaps the Millenium (captured left) pondering how the bloody thing stayed up. We were all Scientists, huh - and it just couldn't be done - huh?

The inclinators took us back to our rooms at more than an alcohol-induced angle and we slept restlessly in the knowledge that it could tumble down around us at any moment. I spoke to one of the hard-hat dudes and he said it wasn't likely to fall down in the immediate future as they had stemmed the slippage with yards-and-yards of concrete.

Well the Big Black Pyramid thing wasn't the only piece of architecture out of whack. Check out this big scary looking building toppling over onto a Castle-like thing. It's good for the tourists and keeps the kiddies amused. Such things are common place in Vegas, a place that's twisted even when you ain't. It's in the desert, right? 3" of rain a year. Well we got more than an inch on the Thursday. The place just don't drain and the rent-a-cars became hovercrafts.

A day in the life may involve getting hitched, swimming in the authentic Nile like Pool of the Pharoahs, admiring the tasteful recreation of the gambling floor where Moses spent his formative years, and then hitting the streets for a bit of naughty stuff.

We escaped the pyramid and fed on big bits of dead cow, here dwarfing a human hand and asparagus spears. The booze felt threatened and decided to gang up. Chris and Jennifer enjoyed the abattoir atmosphere at Kokomos, in fact we all had a jolly good time. One of our British friends caught on pretty quick, here exclaiming "This is a Rent a Car!". Off to the Hard Rock and then into the night.

But then it was all over and we were like out of there, man. Mr Techno-Wiz on the plane told his girl what a goose I was for taking these photos - from a plane - where do I think I'm at? Gee - I wish I was as smart as you. And that was Vegas. Off to Denver and to Woody Creek to compare notes with Hunter.