February 04, 2007

A Week in Vegas The company is sending me for a massive conference. Anyone got some insider info on something awesome to do that a tourist wouldn't normally know about?

The conference is MAGIC and the company is memorable, so I'll probably have my time filled. But I thought I'd ask if anyone here has a brilliant idea. This would also be a good time to share that story you always tell at parties. You know, the thing that "stayed in Vegas?"

posted by Weezel 17 years ago
  • My partner and I went there two Februaries ago and learned this: 1. You get what you pay for regarding comics and/or magicians. 2. The Hard Rock Hotel is neither hard nor rockin'. 3. The Hofbräuhaus is delightful, but off-strip. Go for dinner if you're down with drunkenly singing in German. They give you crib sheets.
  • Never been, bt one day I will. One thing I would have to do is go to Circus Circus. There's not too much left from Fear and Loathing, I'd think, and it's just too bizarre and old not to be bought up and bulldozed. And that roller coaster on top of the tower. Me likey. Other than that, idunno. I'd be prepared for one giant exercise in living in an alternate reality. That, and eating a lot of steak.
  • I've been too many times to count. Used to be a big fan, not so much anymore. Don't miss going downtown. At night. It is very different than the strip in that everything is close together, older, and not as Disneyesque.
  • Oh, Vegas. My Vegas. *sigh* I was my dentist's test case for a veneers course he was taking at the Las Vgas Institute for Cosmetic Dentistry. I went twice, during one of the coldest Februaries in recent New York history. My psoriasis completely disappeared under the desert sun. The night after the final procedure the pain was so bad I took two Vicodin along with something called a "SpaceQuest Quencher" from the Star Trek bar at the Hilton. As I lay in bed afterwards looking at the top of the Stratosphere outside my window, I kept hallucinating that it was a spaceship coming to steal my new "Vegas teeth." Other than strolling down a neon-lit Memory Lane, I dunno if I can be much help - probably everything I did each time was pretty touristy. I'm sure I'm probably not even he only New Yorker to come down wih a sudden kidney infection and spend Saturday hanging out in a North Vegas pharmacy listening to the pharmacist chew the fat with my regular pharmacist back home figuring out the insurance coding for my Levaquin. "I heat you guys got fourteen inches of snow last night" sounds so much better from the other end. They even had slot machines in the pharmacy. That must the the Vegas Prescription Plan. I love Vegas cab drivers - they're kind of like New York cabbies mellowed and made friendlier by the sun. The guy I had that day was waxing philosophical about 9/11, and how all his fares for weeks after that were foreigners because so many Americans were either afraid to travel or unable to get flights, and how much he learned about other cultures. He sid "I had never heard of Tony Blair until that week, but I got to know a lot about him real quick!" His cab had been searched the night before in a huge bomb scare at a convention and he was so cheerful about it I found myself laughing right along with him. I wish I had had more time to go out into the desert.
  • I used to live an hour from Vegas. So many paychecks I left behind...*sigh* Anyway, don't gamble on the Strip. Everything is too tight and you'll lose money quickly. See Blue Man Group. No, really. It's awesome. Do not see Penn and Teller.
  • Oh, and when you're walking down the Strip, and you pass those guys trying to hand you those little cards with prostitutes' phone numbers on them (which they flick and snap in your face), tell them as loudly as you can that they are making Baby Jesus cry. If you can say it in Spanish, even better.
  • One more thing, for TUM: Levaquin made everything I ate taste like a dirty foot covered in hairspray. Definitely not something I would recommend doing in Vegas.
  • don't gamble on the Strip!! if you do want to gamble, go to downtown aka Fremont Street. this is old vegas, a great little slice of history. the casinos are smaller, friendlier, cheaper, just more fun. be sure to take a stroll thru the Golden Gate, a san francisco "themed" casino that is very old, and also is my fav casino. there are great gift shops filled with silly items and a crazy light show over yr head. if the weather is nice go out to Red Rocks if you can, it's quite beautiful and offers a spectacular view of the massive cloud of smog that hangs over LV. say hi to my cousins!
  • I don't have much to recommend as far as non-touristy things, but if you go to any bars off the strip, be careful. They're rough. I nearly got into a fight once and was actually escorted from the bar. Non-confrontational me. Some weird kinda "shining" thing going on there. Watch the ship battle at Treasure Island. It's fun and it's free. Ditto the autoanimatronic show at Caesar's (in the middle of the mall). Pig out at the buffets.
  • Cirque du Soleil: Mystere! Which i found to be better than their other shows. The Fremont Street Experience downtown's kinda neat. These are all touristy things actually. Hmmm...... Okay, play a few hands of blackjack, no-one's ever done that.
  • Koko, sadly, the pirate battle at Treasure Island is no more. I loved that thing. I think the Mirage still does the volcano tho, which is fun, and the Bellagio fountain thingy is cool, altho I always get irked thinking about the wasted water in a flipping desert!
  • Re the Treasure Island ship battle. Learn the times of day when it is being played out and make a point to NOT have to walk past TI during those times. You'll not make it. It is also kind of fun to find the bar in Caesar's where Tom and Dustin sat in Rain Man.
  • Also, TUM: Best teeth on Mofi.
  • zomg Weezel, you work for Utilikilts? Awesome! DangerIsMyMiddleName is their biggest fan! I've been to a few tech conferences in Vegas, and if this one is anything like them, bring comfortable walking shoes because man, the convention centres are huge. As mentioned upthread, Blue Man Group and Mystere do indeed rock very hard and are totally worth seeing. Why the counsel against Penn and Teller, nunia? The Vegas phone directory was also where a colleague of mine found the best/worst prostitute advert ever, which said, "Third World Girls, Live and Grateful..." *shudders*
  • Why the counsel against Penn and Teller, nunia? I love Penn and Teller on television, but their live act is lame. So very, very lame.
  • Walk through the Venezia. Pretend you're in Venice. Don't gamble too much. You'll have more fun if you get outside and leave the smoke-filled casinos behind.
  • It sounds like the moral of our collective stories is: Don't worry about touristy vs. non-touristy in this particular city, 'cause the touristy stuff is pretty damn cool and it's really what the city was built on.
  • Waitaminnit, why is no one here asking about KOKO'S BAR FIGHT?! I want DETAILS! hmmm... "Koko's Bar Fight" sounds like it should have been an Atari 2600 game
  • No, Koko's Bar Fight is a hot new emo band. I thought everyone knew this.
  • She's so common...
  • The first rule of Koko's Bar Fight is ....
  • ...take off your watch?
  • Seconding Dr Teeth TUM about Vegas cab drivers. One of the coolest taxi rides I ever had was in Vegas. This was towards the end of the Clinton presidency, and the guy (who was Brazilian) talked about how he wanted Clinton to move to Brazil next and sort out their economy. "And in exchange," he said, "he can have all the women he wants!" Still can't help feeling that Bill missed out.
  • And in this Cawnaahhh . . . The gorilla from MoFilla! The Fantastical Phantasm of Freezevania! And the Cantankerous Canny Commentatooooooorrrr . . Koko! And excellent choppers TUM! Babily mugged!
  • *cue music: "Why Can't We Be Friends?"
  • *reels in awe of lovely TUM teeth*
  • Carpe Dente: Seize the teeth.
  • Hmmm... if we had this "show us yer teeth page"...
  • What? There's no "teeth page" in the wiki? For shame.
  • /wonders if there's a tooth fetish market to be cashed in on, shuffles off to read Poe's "Berenice"
  • Unlike with fridges, only people with fancy-schmancy teeth would submit photos, I suppose. Preferably with them still in their mouths. And koko would floss first.
  • Yo, I'm with it.
  • I wonder if you can get these with "Monkey" on the top, and "Filter" on the bottom? Or no, wait... MoFi MoFo! Damn, I know what I'm doing with my tax refund!
  • "MoFi MoFo" sounds like our next t-shirt design ...
  • LIVE on Pay-per-post TV "The Bananination Conflagration!" Koko vs. Capt. Renault! A ten-round thread with only one victorrrrrr!! See! The presupposing polysyllabic pugilism! Hear! The roar of the preview button! Smell! The acrid odor of defeat! (Or possibly the slices of bread you put on to toast just a wee bit longer and then got caught up talking to the dog again and they started to burn but not enough to set off the smoke alarm!!) Don't Miss It!
  • Monkeyfilter: Hear! The roar of the preview button!
  • We have a preview button?
  • Good stuff, people. Thanks. StoreyBored it's funny that you recommend Mystere. A friend of mine from college is singing with them, and she's going to get me tickets. Oh, and nunia? "Usted está haciendo que bebé Jesús grita!!!"