Vegas Is More Than Just _____

Last week, Jie and I took a roadtrip to Vegas for ICASSP 2008 where we presented a poster on our work with the Sight-Reading Tutor. A funny place to hold a nerdfest, I know... Throughout the week, we would play our own version of "hot or not" -- which effectively translated to "ICASSP? or not" as it was amusingly easy to identify clumps of ICASSP attendees on the crowded Strip.

This marks my fourth time in Vegas. List of hotels I have stayed at: The Golden Nugget, MGM, Luxor, Excalibur, and The Stratosphere. Now, I get to add Caesar's Palace to that list (thanks, ICASSP!!).

I have great respect for Vegas and I think it's a shame that some people know it only for its sensual side. Of course, I won't deny its rampant promotion of adult entertainment and shameless plug for some not-so-virtuous values. But even as a kid, I was far more inspired by Vegas than Disneyland/Universal Studios/Sea World combined (why my parents took me to Vegas for the first time as a middle-schooler... I dunno).

My first ride through The Strip felt more like a parade into fantasy land -- everything is supersized, magnificent, showered with glitz and glory. Ordinary lodging spaces are transformed into whimsical pyramids and castles and palaces and ships, a three-ring circus, famous cities (New York, Venice, Rome, Paris). Ginormous statues line hotel entrances, roller coasters weave in and out of skyscrapers. You don't check in at some counter with some nice flower arrangement on the side -- you check in at the atrium of a PALACE where the registration counter seems to run like a quarter-mile long against a backdrop of grandiose paintings that stand two stories high. Everything -- design, architecture, lighting, decor, aura -- every inch of these monstrous structures is covered in perfect, amazing detail.

And the shows... They are always hyped, but probably never over-hyped. This time, we saw Cirque du Soleil's KA, an intricate weave of art, acrobatics, theatrics, and mechanics that achieves such perfection that it was literally unbelievable. It was 90 minutes of pure eye/ear-candy and they don't even give you the chance to blink.

I don't think I'm the type to enjoy what Vegas is stereotypically known for... but more than anything, Vegas appeals to the (visual) perfectionist in me. It might boast something as superficial and trivial as 'entertainment', but I've got great respect for anything that's of extreme, high-caliber, and Vegas definitely does entertainment like no other.