I consider it my duty to send my best wishes for Nevada Day cheer to all of my fellow Silver Staters, and to educate all non-Nevadans about this glorious celebration of…Nevada.
Here’s a quote from James W. Hulse’s The Nevada Adventure: A History:
We who live in Nevada are likely to forget what a strange and forbidding landscape our state presents when compared with the usual habitats of men.
The odd thing is that the Imperial Palace wasn’t open yet when he wrote this.
There has been plenty of gambling art: Huntington Press even has a book filled with it. Here’s a story about a Northern California artist’s arm’s length approach to the subject. From the Oakland Tribune:
LISA ESHERICK is a Berkeley artist who currently has an exhibit of her casino paintings on display in San Francisco. But in her case, life doesn't imitate art. She isn't a gambler.
"Not in the least," she said Tuesday. "I would go to a nickel or quarter slot machine, but I don't even do it. I'm interested much more in the faces of people, and that's what drew me to it."
While showing a guest from Germany a slice of American life, she took him inside a Reno casino, a place that was more foreign to Esherick than it was to the tourist.
"I was just amazed," she recalled from that mid-1990s experience. "I was struck by the light, the way it exaggerated the features on faces, and the sharpness of color, which is vibrant in the American casinos."
…
”I don’t know anything about the tables,” she said, ”but I’m fascinated by what goes across the (faces) of people as they’re handling their money. They’re sort of putting themselves out, but they don’t really want to disclose exactly what’s going on. There’s an intensity and yet a restraint at the same time — the classic poker face.”Esherick wasn’t fooled. She captured perfectly, in acrylic abstract figurative form, the faces and mannerisms of the gamblers.
…
Esherick was allowed to photograph gamblers in Reno. She had the same courtesy in Las Vegas until dealers decided she might be counting the numbers. In Germany and Russia, she was permitted only to draw the gamblers.
Dave Newhouse: Berkeley artist rolls dice with gambling-themed paintings – Inside Bay Area.
You can kind of tell that the artist (and the reporter) isn’t an advantage player from that last bit. Or maybe she is. I know when I was in CCTV, players “counting numbers” at the table would give us all fits. You’ve really got to watch out for those number counters–they’ll put you right out of business.
Arne K. Lang. Prize-Fighting: An American History. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2008. 266 pages.
In my all-too-brief, but then again way-too-long career in casino security, I always looked forward to fight weekends. Boxing fans, I discovered, were among the most interesting, intelligent, and historically-engaged casino patrons I had the pleasure of meeting. Folks coming to see Tom Jones or Foreigner never had too much to say. But one simple question like, “so who do you think was the best pound for pound fighter of all time” would be enough to spark a long conversation with a boxing fan.
So I’m always eager to read boxing history. If something’s able to inspire this much passion, it’s got to be interesting.
Arne Lang’s Prize-Fighting: An American History does a great job of capturing the drama of the “sweet science.” If anything, the title is too modest, as Lang starts his story in England, carefully explaining the roots of the American fight scene. Through meticulous research, he’s been able to bring to life 18th and 19th century venues, promoters, and fighters.
Lang then brings the sport in the 20th century, recounting fighters who are now obscure to the broader public, like Battling Nelson, the Durable Dane, and those who are still remembered, such as Jack Johnson. He includes chapters on promoters and boxing writers, and separate chapters on the roles of Jews, blacks, and Hispanics in the boxing game, thus widening his history from merely chronically who won which fight to describing the bigger social and economic forces that shaped boxing.
The book really hits its stride when Lang gets to Las Vegas, which is no coincidence: he’s been a fixture on the scene there for a while, and knows firsthand most of the important players. The reader gets to witness the birth of the “parking lot extravaganzas” and see how boxing has evolved. Thanks to his unique vantage point, Lang is able to provide an excellent account of how Las Vegas has changed boxing–and vice versa.
This is an excellent telling of boxing’s long history, and a must-read for the boxing fan.
After what seems like months, I see that I’ve got another Business Press article available online:
Once, casinos threw huge parties to remind the community that they were a year older. Large cakes in the shape of the hotel were common, with showgirls gamely framing the desert in well-circulated publicity photographs. Casinos bought advertisements that trumpeted their age, frequently offering specials $5.55 prime rib on our fifth birthday to further drive home the message.
Today, casino managers are positively bashful when it comes to the age of their properties. They would no more throw a party with a giant cake replica of their casino than they would set all their machines to free-play. I'm not sure exactly when this change happened, but I'm certain that it did.
The question is why. Most likely, it's because of the accelerated product cycle in Las Vegas today: A five-year old resort is considered middle-aged, and a 20-year old one is practically a doddering codger if we're subscribing to the anthropomorphic fallacy and assigning human qualities to inanimate hunks of steel, concrete and glass. In that atmosphere, you don't want to draw attention to your age.
David G. Schwartz : Bellagio seems a bit bashful about turning 10.
It’s an elaboration of a blog post I made a few weeks ago–what a shocker. The deeper question is: how does the “agelessness” of Las Vegas casinos relate to broader American conceptions of growing old?
Today’s Sun has an interesting piece about how different corporate cultures work on the Strip:
As it turns out, the industry’s giants, MGM Mirage and Harrah’s Entertainment, have evolved into different animals at the top of their respective food chains.
Customers will be familiar with some of these differences.
While most MGM Mirage resorts are located on the Strip, Harrah’s has a national chain of mid-market casinos linked by the Total Rewards loyalty card.
A few months ago, MGM Mirage executives told investors they haven’t fully capitalized on technology-based marketing and the company’s loyalty card program. By contrast, Harrah’s in 2000 launched Total Rewards and has continued to improve its technological marvel.
Some differences go undetected by the majority of customers.
MGM Mirage executives are proud that their Strip resorts compete fiercely with one another for business. The fight for customers is especially stiff among similarly situated properties, such as, say, the neighboring Mirage and Treasure Island. Once an MGM customer is ensconced at a company casino, management also does its best to keep its guest’s dollars at the property.
Encouraging in-house competition keeps management on its toes and boosts results, executives say.
Yet Harrah’s says it has a different approach. Most of the company’s profit comes from customers who are members of the Total Rewards program, which allows gamblers to choose where they redeem their rewards card credits. A Chicago area gambler, for example, could redeem her credits by dining at the Flamingo and staying at Caesars Palace.
Hmmm. The first thing I thought was, “If someone is staying at Caesars, why on earth would they want to eat at the Flamingo?” But I guess it’s just a hypothetical, like “If a Wynn guest wants to skip the Country Club Grill, take a cab and hit the Sahara buffet after playing 18 holes.”
But seriously, there is a fundamental issue here that I will leave to the economists to dissect: central planning versus market economics. Harrah’s is using a classic argument for central planning–experts will be able to better coordinate resources and get better results. Of course, we know how well command economies worked in the Soviet bloc.
MGM Mirage, on the other hand, seems to encouraging a market approach among its casinos: each of them competes for players by offering the best possible package to them. This is the approach that gave us the Las Vegas Strip: before you had such a small ownership pool, you just had individual casinos trying to out-do each other.
While the command system may be more “rational,” in the long run it’s not as efficient, because individual property managers don’t have any incentive to exceed expectations. Why should managers at the Flamingo ask for millions of dollars for upgrades, when they know Caesars will get all the high-end customers. Those on the bottom have absolutely no reason to try to spruce up their places, since they’ll be getting everyone else’s crumbs no matter what they do. By the same token, those at the top don’t have to face internal competition–if players are committed to spending their comps on a Vegas vacation, they don’t have much of a choice about where to go.
I knew that, eventually, reading Hayek would give me some kind of insight into casinos. Go ahead and read “The Use of Knowledge in Society” if you want to see what inspired me.
We’ve all heard the doom and gloom about casino stocks. I’m not sure I get all the fuss. Either they’ll be going up or they’ll be going down. It’s a 50/50 prop, right? So we shouldn’t be surprised when they decline in value for a while. Small comfort, I’m sure, to those who’ve substantially invested in them, but that’s why it’s an investment and not a savings account.
So I was a little taken aback by part of this statement, quoted in the LVRJ, which made me wonder if we’re asking too much of our sibyls:
Meanwhile, Nicholas Danna IV of Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. started MGM Mirage coverage with a "hold" rating and $11 price target. The analyst cautioned that MGM's dependence on Las Vegas, with more than 80 percent of its revenue coming within close proximity of the Strip, puts the casino operator in a tough spot "during a period of increasing supply and declining demand."
Danna also warned that MGM's $9.2 billion CityCenter project, set to open in Las Vegas late next year, is somewhat of a question mark as its returns are uncertain and the complex may hinder some of the company's existing Las Vegas properties.
ReviewJournal.com – Business – Casino stocks fall on rising anxiety.
I’m talking about the second paragraph, of course: the first is quite sensible. Let’s deconstruct this for a second: City Center’s prospects are a “question mark” because “its returns are uncertain.”
Isn’t uncertainty the nature of the future? Is there anything in the future that isn’t uncertain? Besides death and taxes of course. Five years ago–hey, three years ago–a ton of people were saying that Las Vegas real estate was going to keep appreciating with no end in sight. Obviously, their confidence masked a deeper uncertainty.
I think the problem is a semantic one–it’s just the way the sentiments were expressed. The analyst has some sound questions and clearly has a solid grasp of the fundamentals here. If you don’t wonder whether new supply will grow the market or just cannibalize the existing customer base, you’re being far too optimistic. But it’s impossible to say for sure, looking in from the outside. And whenever people want to know exactly what’s going to happen in the future, they are bound to get disappointed.
As a member of the Las Vegas/gambling biz commentariat, I’m frequently asked to speculate about the future. Usually I say that I don’t know since the past is not a reliable predictor. But maybe I’ll just start making Delphic pronouncements that will come to pass no matter what happens: “Great fortunes will be made and lost in Las Vegas over the next few quarters.”
If you’re not up to speed, here’s the story: we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Back in 1991/92 (for that matter in 1998), lots of people predicted apocalypse when new casino supply hit the market. I used 91/92 because the economy was similarly balky then. It turned out that the bears were, in the big picture, wrong, because gaming stocks and the casino business continued to grow and prosper. But history suggests that, in the short run, the bears are sure to be right at some point. The question is, when?
There’s still time to register for the Winter Getaway, so I figured I let you know a little more about it. Here’s an excerpt from a Frommer’s article that gives you the flavor of the event:
When one of Peter Murphy’s poems got “slaughtered” at a famous writer’s conference a few year’s back, he vowed to create an event where beginners could learn while keeping their egos intact. His “Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway,” now in its eighth year, offers a dozen workshops, including poetry writing for beginners, memoir, songwriting, and story telling, all taught by writers hand picked by Murphy for their compassionate approach. This isn’t the place to nitpick over manuscripts. Rather, the emphasis is on fueling your imagination and starting something new. Classes meet for an hour or so each morning, after which students disperse to complete an assignment. Lunch is followed by more classes in which the new works are discussed and (gently!) critiqued. Late afternoons are devoted to quiet writing time or a stroll along the winter beach.
The location is the informally funky Grand Hotel in Cape May, New Jersey, a lively coastal town 45 miles south of Atlantic City that’s stuffed with Victorian homes and antiques shops.
Revelations: A Writer’s Conference Can Be the Perfect Place to Vacation Inexpensively
If you’re eligible, you can get professional development credit for attending–this is mostly important for teachers, but hey, it never hurts to ask if it can help you, too.
What’s so great about the Getaway? Well, it’s a low-key place to work on your writing, for one, and you can never have enough of that. Getting to spend a weekend in otherwise-deserted Cape May with your laptop would, by itself, be worth the price of admission. When you add in the workshops, it’s a great deal.
I’m leading a workshop on creative non-fiction. It’s my third year at the Getaway, and I can’t say enough about what a great opportunity it is for writers of all abilities. If, since you’re reading my blog, you’re curious about what goes on in my workshop, I’ll tell you.
In our first session, we introduce ourselves and work on a few short exercises that are the literary equivalent of some warm-up cardio followed by some stretching. Then we start working on a single “big piece.” Some attendees are already well into their big piece–in fact, if they want, they email it to me before the Getaway and I have feedback waiting for them. Others get started at the Getaway. By the end of the weekend, they have anywhere from 5 to 10 pages of writing done, with a great idea of how it will continue.
People have worked on everything from memoir to insightful essays. Essentially, creative non-fiction is anything that’s not invented and is written with more attention to style and significance than a news article or blog entry (d’oh!).
If you’d like more information, email me or, for the real deal, check this page.
Hopefully I’ll be seeing some of you in January.
Just to give you an idea of what I’m working with, I wanted to post this letter from my Homeowners’ Association. It’s probably no better and no worse than most HOAs, but they went a little “nuts” with the “quotation marks” and capitalizing Common Nouns.
newsletter
My favorite is the desperate plea not to “FEED THE PIDEGONS!”
I’ve teased out the hierarchy of importance:
1. Somewhat important: “in quotes”
2. More important: “In Quotes, Capitalized”
3. Extremely important: “IN QUOTES, ALL CAPS”
Now, I’m afraid that I’ve been “infected” by the “quotes bug” and I’ll keep on “doing” this “ALL DAY.”
Try it, it’s “fun.”
But all I can think about is this Chris Farley bit.
That reminds of the Plaza trial. David McKee mentioned the Tamares attorney ‘channeling the feelings of the downtown Plaza, keening that, “I can’t be known as the old Plaza, I can’t be the cheap Plaza, I can’t be the bad Plaza.”‘
That’s pretty funny, but it would have been better if they’d have just played that clip.
Which raises the question: if you were to anthropomorphize the major casinos of Las Vegas, who would play who? Go ahead, play the game: pick prominent actors/personalities who could represent the casinos. I haven’t a clue myself, but I’d love to hear what other people think.
Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, eds. State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. 569 pp.
This collection of original essays is an attempt to duplicate–in concentrated form–the classic WPA 1930s state guides. The editors solicited pieces about each of the 50 states, and conclude with a conversation about Washington, DC.
The essays take many different approaches. Most are memoir types, with the author placing him or herself within the state–novelist S. E. Hinton’s short take on Oklahoma is a perfect example. Others are more innovative, like Jonathan Franzen’s New York piece, which is a mock interview with various official representatives of the state, Joe Sacco’s brief graphic novel exposition of Oregon, and Alison Bechdel’s more travelogue-y, but also personal, graphic take on Vermont.
After the essays, you’ll find 30 tables that rank the states in several categories. Just for fun, here are the ones that had Nevada in the top 5:
Population Increase 1950-2000 (1) 1,148.3%
Foreign-Born Population (4) 19.1%
Population Born Elsewhere in U.S. (1) 71.5%
Population Claiming No Religion (t-5) 20%
Violent Crime Rate (4) 741.6/100,000 residents
Divorce Rate (2) 6.6/1,000 residents
Suicide Rate (t-2) 18.9/100,000 residents
Highest Monthly Temperature (2) 104.5 degrees
All in all, State by State is a great read, with wildly different kinds of writing on very dissimilar states. It’s a literary version of a tray of appetizers–you won’t satisfy your hunger with any single item, but taken together you can get pretty full.
Chuckmonster over at ACTripping was kind enough to post an extended rant, followed by pictures that I took of Atlantic City. If I was allowed to do a stream-of-consciousness lecture with Powerpoint, it would look something like this. Check it out, from ACTripping:
Since Ive been in Las Vegas, Ive made it back to AC to visit family and friends about 4 times a year. Its given me a real vantage point on the place-while Im removed from it, I still have the local knowledge of an insider.
Chuckmonsters been generous to post some of my most recent photos and thoughts here. Basically, these photos capture a few hours of walking down the Boardwalk from Ventnor well, the Ventnor border to the Showboat, then hopping a jitney to Harrahs.
I took these in August, right before Trumps Chairman Tower opened. Going back to the Taj was strangely disquieting. I worked there for about three years so I was pretty used to the pink and purple look. Seeing it muted and modern was more of a shock than I thought it would be. Its another reminder that nothing lasts forever. Hey, Park Place Entertainment blew up my high school so they could have another surface lot, so I should be used to it.
Before you go further, youve got to work with me as I explain, then come to grips with, the universal Atlantic City inferiority complex. We are so used to everyone telling us that the place is a dump that we tend to circle the wagons and insist that its the greatest spot on earth, even when a fool can see that the city government is a joke and the place leaves a lot to be desired. When I first started doing what I do, I had the same knee-jerk reaction to any criticisms of Atlantic City, but Ive come to see that the critics often have a point.
Summer In The (Atlantic City) : Some Thoughts And Photos – AtlanticCityTripping.com.
If you can get through all 12 pages, you might get some insight on Atlantic City–or at least on my take on it.
Subscribe to this site's RSS feed.
My Latest on Two Way Hard Three