The thing about going to Las Vegas is the show. It’s very flashy. It’s very showy. It’s a massive glittering facade. Once you’ve passed the point of being overwhelmed by the shear magnitude of it all… how you perceive the place largely depends on your interests and cash flow.

Right after Philcon I headed to Las Vegas for a week for a convention. The convention was all work related – and significantly larger that most science fiction conventions I attend. There were somewhere in the range of eleven thousand people at this convention. Much like any other convention, there are good aspects and bad aspects. There are great panels and there are clunkers. There was a massive party along the way too.

I attended this convention alone. Nobody from my office was there. I knew less than a handful of people at the con and failed to connect with an old friend that lives in the area. Thing is, under those circumstances Vegas can be quite a different place.

I didn’t have any time to book shows or do most of the “tourist” stuff. I was also lucky enough to have traveled to Vegas with my wife earlier this year. We did a couple of shows and a lot more of the “tourist” stuff when we were there together. Being there alone, without those things going on, gave me some time to just sit and watch. There is certainly a lot to see while you’re there. Most of what I saw was people being overwhelmed by the scale of the place. They were all in for the show.

I’m not saying that there aren’t still things for me to see or do in Las Vegas, but sitting and just watching gave me the chance to be more objective about it. It’s huge and showy but it’s a vast facade. It’s a massive, glittering object in the middle of nowhere. It was definitely a more depressing view. When you sit and watch you notice things. I saw more than one person there that was busy purging alcohol from their system. This happens when you drink too much – but this was a Tuesday afternoon. I saw a lot more of the people working and keeping the facade running. I saw at least 2 ankle monitors for folks working at various places. It had the surreal aspects of the old movie version of the Time Machine. The happy people didn’t notice who was getting eaten.

I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to get back to Vegas again, but I do know that I’ll be looking at things a lot differently the next time I go.