The strangeness for our trip to Las Vegas started in SFO before we were even in the air. And all without a Hunter S. Thompson lookalike in sight.
While waiting for the flight, Ashley and I sat next what can only be described as The Busiest Salesman In The Universe. He had several cell phones. He was using two of them simultaneously. In different languages. Ashley counted Spanish, Hebrew, English, and something vaguely Arabic in the mix. And his phone calls came in rapid succession - “What? No….tell him no! It’s 100 or nothing.” followed by a switch in cell phones. This rapidfire conversation continued down the loading ramp and into the plane, until the stewardess told him to unceremoniously hang up.
Mr. Sales was soon surpassed on the weirdometer by the plane’s captain, who only seemed capable of speaking in one continuous stream of consciousness. It was like listening to someone read the French instructions for fastening the seatbelt, without either the benefit of a French accent or an inkling of comprehension. The words “fasten your seat belt and make sure your seat and tray table are in an upright and locked position” had obviously lost all meaning for the man. The least he could have done, if he was resigned to be incomprehensible, would have been to spice it up a little - you know, maybe a little tribute to Denis Leary:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome aboard! Your pilot today is Edward. He’s drunk and hooked on crack. The man sitting next to you has a nailclipper and the woman in front of you appears to be trying to light her shoes. Good luck, folks!”
Vegas itself was pretty weird - I still haven’t decided whether I love it or hate it. On the one hand, it’s a very liberal city. Why, the guys on the street handing out “escorts to your door” literature are obviously big supporters of equal rights - they had no qualms attempting to hand pornographic flyers to both Ashley and I in equal measures. Yah for progress! On the other hand, it did have this sweaty, desperate, and slightly inebriated quality to everything - but that was to be expected, I guess.
On Friday, We caught Cirque du Soleil’s “O” at the Bellagio. The show features some pretty fantastic visuals, and the pool/stage was a feat of theatrical technology. My only complaint with the show was the technology overshadowed the performance - I found I spent the first half-hour of the show trying to figure out how the stage worked! What a geek.
The Phish show on Saturday (the main reason we were in Vegas to begin with) was mind-blowing. Phish was obviously having a good time - it was the third night of their three-night appearance and they were tight. Ironically, I crossed the arena to take a photo of some people wearing silver shirts, only to end up taking a photo of some guy we hung out with at the last Phish show - I didn’t recognize him until I downloaded the photos from my camera! I’ll have some photos up soon, including a pretty cool shot of the glow stick riot in the middle of “Piper”. Stay tuned for that in the next couple of days.