It
was the best CommVEx ever; it was the worst CommVEx ever.
But
before I get to that, a brief preface. This report will focus on the
backstage and off stage aspects of the event, and the human
interaction. For those interested in classic computers, the
demonstrations presented, and the more technical aspects of the
event, you can visit the 2011
Las Vegas Commodore Expo page.
You can read about the beginnings of this event and previous shows
by clicking on the various Las Vegas Expo links at
the bottom of this page. For
additional photos of previous events, go to the 2010
page and click on the links at the bottom for the desired year.
On
July 22, 2011, I set off for Las Vegas for the 7th annual Commodore
Las Vegas Expo. The weather has been unusually cool in the Fresno
area this summer, but Las Vegas temperatures were predicted to be
above 100. No worries - we spend most of our time indoors anyway.
After
the usual trip south to Bakersfield on CA 99 and east on CA 58, with a lunch stop
in Tehachapi, I arrived at the hotel a little after 4. There is a 20
million dollar renovation going on at our usual location, the Plaza,
so we were across the street at the Las Vegas Club
Hotel.
After
getting checked in at the inefficient registration desk, and resolving a
parking misunderstanding, I met up with Vegas Expo founder and
director Robert Bernardo, and his right hand man Larry Anderson (I
am his left hand man). They had already brought in the
equipment that is provided by the local Commodore club, and were
well on the way to getting things set up.
The
usual group of four or five early birds were there, some setting up
equipment for demonstrations, or products for sale, and some just
getting an early start playing with their favorite toys, vintage
Commodore and Amiga computers.
Even
before finding Robert and Larry, I had said hello in the halls to
Greg Alekel and a couple of other guys from Portland, who were in
the room by the time we got there. We were soon joined by Yul Haasmann,
a Las Vegas resident who has been a regular at CommVEx from the
start. Once we got things mostly ready for the show the next day, we
left Larry to guard the room while Robert, Yul and I went to dinner
at the Golden Gate Casino, where I had an above average club
sandwich. Yul had moved to Las Vegas from Maine, so we discussed the
shock of such a major climate change.
Yul
also demonstrated his gambling method, which is to put into a slot
machine no more than a one dollar bill. If he wins, he cashes out
and walks away; if he loses, he walks away, having lost only a
dollar. (By the way, every Vegas resident I've talked to who gambles
has a secret method, not for winning big, but to avoid losing
big.)
Although
the hard-core Commodore enthusiasts tend to hang around the meeting
room fairly late, I was hoping to get to bed at a reasonable hour to
rest up from my 8-hour, 400-mile journey. Sadly, this was not to be.
The Club hotel is located on Fremont
Street, which has become an
open air entertainment venue. This includes a screen that is
stretched above the
street for a full city block, on which movies or any other images
can be projected. Down on the sidewalk there are a couple of outdoor
stages, and one of them had a very loud rock band playing every
night. The music did not stop till 2 a.m., and I was unable to
sleep. This experience was repeated Saturday and Sunday night,
although the noise ended at 1 a.m. Sunday. Even so, I went three
days without enough sleep, and was only able to sneak in a very
brief nap a couple of times during the day.
I
had booked the hotel through hotels.com, and I was happy with the
price, the ease of booking, and even the hotel itself in general.
However, when I received an Email asking me to rate my experience, I
let it be known that because of the loud music, this was my first and last time to stay at this
particular hotel. So that explains "the worst." (See
update #1 below)
The
next morning Robert had the room opened at 8 a.m., and I arrived
around 9 to help finish setting up. During this time I had the
pleasure of meeting for the first time Lenard Roach, who is the
editor of our club newsletter (Fresno Commodore User
Group). It
might seem strange that I attend virtually every meeting and had not
met the newsletter editor, but it's easily explained by the fact
that he lives in Kansas City KS. He attended CommVEx a couple of years ago
when I was absent, so I was glad to finally meet him. Lenard has
also produced a book compiling some of his best writings about the
Commodore, Run/Stop
- Restore, available at Amazon.
We
had a good talk about writing, and he also showed me his updated
version of a checkbook program that I believe he wrote about 15 or
20 years ago. It needed a few tweaks, especially the Y2K issue,
since the original program only accepted a two digit year, and when
it saw 00, it just stopped working. I asked if he had to make a lot
of changes; however, it was not the number of changes, but the need
to carefully review every line of code for any date references that
needed to be changed.
It was also
fun to again see Jeff Krantz and his son Connor, Las Vegas residents
and regulars. I first met them in 2006 when Connor was seven, so
he's now 12, and we've sort of watched him grow up, at least one day
a year. He and Jeff are both enthusiastic Commodore users, and
usually try to win a new item of hardware that they don't already
have. Connor is also our official ticket puller each year, and even
at the jaded age of 12, has not lost his eagerness to help out with
this task.
This barely
scratches the surface of reporting on the various people I enjoyed
talking with, but any attempt to list everyone will fall short due
to the difficulty of digging out memories from my sleep-deprived
mind. So I'll just say that with 22 people in attendance, I'd
happily
have dinner with all or any of them any time.
Once the
show got under way, it was the usual mix of demonstrations, looking
at stuff, informal discussions, and door prize and raffle drawings. Entrance in the door
prize drawing is automatic with the entry fee, and although I say I
don't need or want anything, I won a few prizes. For the door
prizes, one choice was a sheet of customized stamps picturing Jeri
Ellsworth, a well-known hardware developer in the Commodore world,
and I figured stamps are equally good no matter whose picture they
show.
I
no longer own a Commodore computer, so despite being a member of a
user group, I am what one fellow club member described as "a
user in name only." Still, I enjoy seeing what new developments
are taking place for this supposedly obsolete machine, and I
especially enjoy meeting and talking with the wide variety of people
who gather for this event. Thinking maybe I should have a
Commodore, I also entered the raffle for one of the
"big" prizes, an SX64
Commodore, which was an early
"portable," or more accurately, a "luggable." I
also tried for this prize last year, and met defeat with a mixture
of disappointment and relief both times. (See
update 2 below)
The next day
I took a different approach to the raffle, putting my ticket in for
an IBM PC that one of our attendees had donated, and this time I
won. Of course, I don't have a place to put a second PC, but surely
it will come in handy somehow. (See
update 3 below)
At the end
of Saturday's activities, a large group of us went to dinner at the
Main Street Station, which has become our traditional Saturday
buffet dinner location. This is a typical casino buffet, with
various food choices (Mexican, Asian, American), and a large and
very tempting dessert section. This is usually my downfall, and I
had a piece of carrot cake plus some ice cream.
Although
Sunday's program is similar to Saturday's, there is a looseness and
maybe a bit of goofiness that creeps in and makes it even more fun
(how else can you explain this
picture?).
By Sunday afternoon everyone has had too much Vegas and not enough
sleep; everyone has become a little more comfortable with everyone
else, and it takes on the atmosphere of a bunch of friends
discussing a common interest, rather than a formal show.
Sunday
night's dinner involved eight of us going to the California Hotel
dining room, a sit down restaurant, where I had a fantastic fried
chicken dinner (although their salad bar is about the lamest such
facility I've ever seen, with very limited selection). The
conversation ranged far and wide, including a discussion of
"handedness" (left vs. right). Issues covered included
whether you can brush your teeth with either hand (some said no,
some said yes, one said "I'm ambidextrous"), and the
long-standing custom of cutting meat with the right hand, then
switching the fork from left to right to take a bite (works better
for lefties).
We also
talked about gambling and the odds of winning and losing, including
one man's attempts to convince his young grandson that putting
quarters in a claw machine is just gambling for kids, with odds of
winning no better than a casino. (See
update 5 below)
When we left
the restaurant we somehow got separated into two groups, and I have
not yet found out what the first group did. The rest of us were
heading toward Fremont street, planning to catch up with the others,
but got distracted by a presentation of 80s rock hits featuring
about ten attractive young people in tight outfits singing and
dancing. Although it was way too loud, I recognized most of the
songs and enjoyed several of them. After that
it was off to my hotel room, to read until the music stopped and I
could get to sleep.
So - why the
best? Meeting Lenard for the first time, watching Connor grow, the
non-Commodore dinner conversation (nothing wrong with the Commodore
part either), finding out what people I met at earlier shows are up
to today, and not losing more than $21 in the slot machines.
The next day
(Monday), I got started for home about 9:30, but took nine
hours including a lunch stop in Barstow and a traffic jam in Bakersfield.
Robert and the Andersons had to return equipment to the Las Vegas
club, so didn't leave for a few more hours. Their destination was
Stockton, which they reached about 10:45 p.m.
There's
always a bit of concern planning the coming year's event...will we
get enough people to cover the costs? Some money comes from sales of
Commodore hardware and software during the year, but the biggest
source of financing is admission and the raffle. Fortunately this
year's event income was enough to cover remaining costs, and provide
around half of next year's funding, so CommVEx 2012, number eight,
will be back next July, and back at the Plaza, where perhaps I'll be
able to get some sleep at night. (See
update 4 below)
--Dick
Estel, July 2011
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