Between the holidays and the weather, I haven’t had too much road time lately. All that changed earlier this week as I made my way westward to the Glass Association of North America (GANA)’s Glass Week and Building Envelop Conference (BEC).
I spent a minute on the plane contemplating the chaos that is always Las Vegas and anticipating an even more frenetic pace as hundreds of thousands of loving couples made their way to Vegas for Valentine’s Day. The location of the GANA meeting—the Palms Hotel—has been featured on the 2005 reality show “Party at the Palms” as a pretty well known a place for the “in” crowd in Vegas.
As the cab approached the hotel and the marquee came into view, I cranked my neck to see who was headlining here over the weekend. My heart sunk when the sign came into focus. “This Weekend,” it shouted, “Puscifer!”
Puscifer?
Who or what is a Puscifer? I’m guessing by the devilish looks of the billboard that it rhymes with Lucifer. (Note reader: I was going to link to Puscifer’s site here so you could hear the “music” and figure out who, or what, it was but the content wouldn’t have made the family hour, if you know what I mean.)
Anyway, seeing Puscifer on the billboard was definitely a watershed moment for me because, up to this point, even if I didn’t listen to them, I’d always had a working knowledge of who the group was. Thus my lack of awareness of Puscifer –whether a he, she or a group of either or both—reminded me that I was probably way too old for this hotel. With a deep sigh I paid the cab drive and went in.
Then, two pleasant surprises. First, the Palms is actually a lovely hotel and it hasn’t made me feel too old for it at all. The rooms are nicely appointed and, more importantly, it’s not gargantuan. It’s still big, but it doesn’t overwhelm; you don’t have to put your jogging shoes on to get to get from the sleeping rooms to the meeting rooms. And the staff has been exceedingly helpful.
Second, (nice surprise for me, not so nice for Vegas): Rather than Valentine’s Day, it looks more like Thanksgiving or Christmas here. The downturn Max mentioned in his blog last month has not abated. Vegas, evidentally, continues to feel the effects of the economy as much as anywhere. Vegas is actually empty.
Of course, the important part of this week is not the hotel or the city, it’s the substance of the meetings as GANA is the substance and the conscience of the glass industry. To learn more about what’s going on please visit http://www.usgnn.com/. Be sure to stop by our video reports there as well and don't forget to visit Max Perilstein's blog. for up-to-the minute meeting flavor. I’ll be back with periodic, more substantive reports over the next few day.
In the meantime, I'm really getting into this place and so has our crew. Some of our editors even volunteered to work late tonight and stop by the Playboy Club so they could see the etchings of the bunnies on the glass railings up there. What a dedicated group.
I spent a minute on the plane contemplating the chaos that is always Las Vegas and anticipating an even more frenetic pace as hundreds of thousands of loving couples made their way to Vegas for Valentine’s Day. The location of the GANA meeting—the Palms Hotel—has been featured on the 2005 reality show “Party at the Palms” as a pretty well known a place for the “in” crowd in Vegas.
As the cab approached the hotel and the marquee came into view, I cranked my neck to see who was headlining here over the weekend. My heart sunk when the sign came into focus. “This Weekend,” it shouted, “Puscifer!”
Puscifer?
Who or what is a Puscifer? I’m guessing by the devilish looks of the billboard that it rhymes with Lucifer. (Note reader: I was going to link to Puscifer’s site here so you could hear the “music” and figure out who, or what, it was but the content wouldn’t have made the family hour, if you know what I mean.)
Anyway, seeing Puscifer on the billboard was definitely a watershed moment for me because, up to this point, even if I didn’t listen to them, I’d always had a working knowledge of who the group was. Thus my lack of awareness of Puscifer –whether a he, she or a group of either or both—reminded me that I was probably way too old for this hotel. With a deep sigh I paid the cab drive and went in.
Then, two pleasant surprises. First, the Palms is actually a lovely hotel and it hasn’t made me feel too old for it at all. The rooms are nicely appointed and, more importantly, it’s not gargantuan. It’s still big, but it doesn’t overwhelm; you don’t have to put your jogging shoes on to get to get from the sleeping rooms to the meeting rooms. And the staff has been exceedingly helpful.
Second, (nice surprise for me, not so nice for Vegas): Rather than Valentine’s Day, it looks more like Thanksgiving or Christmas here. The downturn Max mentioned in his blog last month has not abated. Vegas, evidentally, continues to feel the effects of the economy as much as anywhere. Vegas is actually empty.
Of course, the important part of this week is not the hotel or the city, it’s the substance of the meetings as GANA is the substance and the conscience of the glass industry. To learn more about what’s going on please visit http://www.usgnn.com/. Be sure to stop by our video reports there as well and don't forget to visit Max Perilstein's blog. for up-to-the minute meeting flavor. I’ll be back with periodic, more substantive reports over the next few day.
In the meantime, I'm really getting into this place and so has our crew. Some of our editors even volunteered to work late tonight and stop by the Playboy Club so they could see the etchings of the bunnies on the glass railings up there. What a dedicated group.
No comments:
Post a Comment