Egoism
Individualism
Sovereignty
Splendor

(These ideas are explicated in this sloppy manifesto)

 
BetterVegas: Super System goes to the movies

From John L. Smith's column in today's Las Vegas Review Journal:

A film based on the life of poker legend Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson is the first subject Las Vegas-based Insomnia Entertainment will tackle, company President Trent Othick says.

Las Vegas and Hollywood long have shared a glitzy kinship, and now new Golden Nugget owners Tom Breitling and Tim Poster along with Station Casinos President Lorenzo Fertitta have teamed up with up-and-coming industry executive Othick to create Insomnia.

It's no coincidence that Othick & Co. have chosen a poker hall-of-famer right out of the chute.

"As far as poker goes," Othick says, "it's absolutely becoming huge in the media now and especially in Hollywood. We think Doyle Brunson is the cream of the crop of those stories."

Shooting is set to start late next spring.

posted by Greg Swann at 8:13 AM

 
Selling...



We're in the midst of revising our business plan. I'm remarketing my business into a very tightly defined area of Central Phoenix--because I expect there to be a substantial appreciation in the already very substantial real estate values in those neighborhoods. We're changing everything in consequence, and we're laying aim at some ancient sacred cows of real estate marketing. Earl Nightingale said that to succeed in any business, you should figure out what everyone else is doing--and then do something different. In the business card example above (if you click on it, it will open as a PDF file), you can see some of the radical differences we're implementing.

My friend Richard Riccelli has been geyserlike in the production of great ideas for this, but much of what we're doing comes from me, from my rich or poor understanding of the sales and marketing process. I come to this late in life. My first career was in print production--which means I can hold my own hand in putting together all the printed advertising real estate requires. Learning the law of real estate was easy for me, as was learning the raw mechanics of the business--including learning how not to get sucked into the no-income vortex that flushes 85% of new agents in the first year--and 93% by the second year. But learning "what makes the frog jump," as Robert A. Heinlein said, that's a chancier proposition.

I don't mean hard-selling, pressure-selling. I think it is contemptible to try to persuade someone to do something he doesn't want to do--or to fail to talk him out of doing something he ought not do. But I get paid for effecting transactions, and I have to identify and remove the obstacles that inhibit people from doing what they do want to do. That sounds like double-think, but the fact is I always know when someone is "home," when the house fits the buyer at every level of consciousness. There's a lot more to selling than that--the first close is setting the appointment, after all--but until we get to that point, there is no possibility that a transaction will take place. I've done it in as little as two hours and three houses and as much as five months and hundreds of houses. But it's when we get "home" that the real sales job begins: Addressing the objections, rational and otherwise, quelling the avarice that makes some buyers want to try to screw the seller--even introducing concerns to too-euphoric buyers. (Ordinarily my attitude is, when you hit a home run, drop the bat and run the bases. I've seen a lot of bad salespeople kill deals because they couldn't shut up. But I am inducing people to make life-altering financial decisions, and I can't let them do that blindly, even if they are delighted to be blind. The law of Agency is respondiat superior, but the master cannot answer the question the servant has not raised.)

I don't know that I'm good at selling yet, but I know I'm getting better. Usus est magister optimus--practice is the best teacher. What we want--we being me, my wife Cathleen and my son Cameron--is to be the Realtors uppermost in the minds of the people in our target market. We're a long way from that now, but the plans we've made are devoted to drawing that kind of attention.

A lot of work. The logo isn't done yet. The web site isn't live. I have meetings upon meetings to attend. And I want all this to roll out now. But I answer to no one and my time is my own. My destiny is mine to control. And my earning potential is unlimited. If you ask me what I do, I'll tell you I'm a Realtor--I'll tell you that I help nice people like you achieve their financial and lifestyle objectives through the American Dream of home ownership. My license from the State of Arizona says I'm a Real Estate Sales Agent. But the true fact is I'm a salesman. My job is to get the frog to jump--to where he needs and wants to be.
posted by Greg Swann at 9:54 PM

 
Blues for The Blues...

It's theft of the woithluss
And poetry that doesn't scan
It's repeated theft of the musically woithluss
And poetry that disobey its scan
It's idealization of the zero
A richly comical ghetto scam

After three days of The Blues, I'm on the verge of despair. I never think about things until I do, and, even though I grew up enmired in this crappy music, I've never thought about The Blues until now. Yikes! What sludge! It's the same stuff ripped off over and over again, usually with the same frilly bits to destroy whatever honesty it might have aspired to. And clearly, Rock 'n' Roll has done nothing but subtract from this tiny sum of art. Skip James, at least, could perform a simple song simply. To listen to one creepy rock act after another ruin that simplicity with cacophony--horrifying. What an artistic vacuum we live in, that this, seemingly, is the best our culture can do...
posted by Greg Swann at 11:30 AM

 
BetterVegas: Worrying into tighter slots: "How loose should you be?”

According to Las Vegas the TV show, Bill Bennett is not just an irrational slot-machine optimist who lies about his losses. It turns out he's a whoring blackmailer of a senator. Who says the mainstream media are biased?

The Reno Gazette-Journal is more balanced. Today's article on slot machine holds does two things: It tells you for certain that you can't win, and still it somehow manages to keep you coming back. The main point about the competition between free market casinos in Nevada and Tribal casinos in California is what is of interest to me, of course:

Few things get a casino boss’ skin crawling the way talk of loose slots can.

The odds on their own slot machines are a secret they’ll guard with their life.

But many are willing to guess, at how their machines compare with competing tribal casinos in California.

With gamblers reporting “time on device,” or the amount of time they can gamble with a given amount of money, as their top concern, how Northern Nevada odds stack up to tribal properties is crucial in competing for bettors.

Casinos can manipulate the hold, or percentage they win, on reeled slots to increase or decrease the odds for bettors, a practice commonly referred to as loosening or tightening the machines.

Experts differ on how Northern Nevada compares with Thunder Valley Casino, which opened in June outside of Sacramento. But most agree that because the California casino lacks significant competition, it could get away with much tighter machines.

“My guess is that Thunder Valley wouldn’t be as generous,” said Dennis Conrad, president of Raving Consulting Co. in Reno, which advises both tribal properties and Nevada casinos. “If I was thinking from a slot director’s shoes, that is what I would do.

“But that is the ultimate question — how loose should you be?”

posted by Greg Swann at 12:16 PM

 
BetterVegas: Flamingo plants one leg firmly in the twenty-first century

From today's Las Vegas Review-Journal:

High-speed check-in and check-out kiosks, technology developed by the airline industry, is helping customers at the 3,642-room Flamingo.

Lorenzo Creighton, president of the Flamingo, said the two initial kiosks in the Park Place Entertainment Corp. property on the Strip represent a marriage of high technology and hospitality.

They each processed 90 guest registrations on Sept. 16, their first full day of operation, although Creighton said he expects that soon 150 people per day will register at each kiosk.

Park Place has been operating similar high-technology kiosks at the Grand Casino in Gulfport, Miss., for about a month, he said.

"It's a real rapid check-in and check-out procedure, and it's very user-friendly. Guests can register, get their room keys cut, get directions to elevators and make dinner reservations," Creighton said.

In addition, guests can print room statements at the kiosks when they check out. If guests choose to check out from their rooms, they can print an itemized bill at the kiosk.

Ultimately, it will be possible to program the kiosks in different languages to allow checking in and out for non-English speaking guests, Creighton said.

Just a toe in the water, but a baby-step in the right direction. Cock your ear for the laments about Personal Service and The Way Things Used To Be In The Old Vegas. You'll have plenty of time to ruminate upon them, as you wait in line to check in. I've never stayed at the Flamingo, but CheapoVegas.com--which I judge to be reliable because it is not infected with the pandemic Puff Vegas virus--puts things succinctly:

Check-in can be a nightmare on Friday afternoons or any other time where loads of people are showing up.

File that one under Life-In-Vegas. Small hotels can manage check-in fairly well. Big hotels are a disaster. Some, like the Stratosphere, arrange their check-in line like the airlines, like Disneyland, as a first-in-first-out queue, which is a faster disaster. Too many others organize things like the ticket lines down at the railroad depot--which should be a clue to anyone sniffing around for one: Take your spot on one of multiple lines and hope like hell that no one in front of you is interminably checking six families into eleven rooms. In Cantonese. With an invalid American Express card.

The check-in line is the first of myriad opportunities Las Vegas will have to fail to deliver the product at retail. It is an outsized testament to the appeal of the town that people are willing to put up with "service"--personal but awful--that they would never tolerate at home. The ultimate irony is that many, many of those people fly to Vegas on Southwest Airlines, where the service is sweet and familiar and very personal--but incredibly fast. Southwest customers will recognize the new check-in terminals from the picture in the R-J. And the Southwest customers will recognize each other, in the lobby of the Flamingo, as they avail themselves of a check-in service that may be impersonal, but at least is reasonably quick.
posted by Greg Swann at 8:33 AM

 
Silencing "The Blues"

From today's Chicago Sun-Times:

"Ultimately, these music documentaries would benefit from a lot less yakking and name-dropping and a lot more performances -- complete performances where possible, not excerpts. Let the artists speak for themselves through their words and music -- how's that for a concept?"

posted by Greg Swann at 3:29 PM

 
BetterVegas: Needle Vegas schizophrenics, win fifty bucks

I've mentioned the epidemic schizophrenia of Las Vegas, but I haven't detailed it. In part, it is the endemic inferiority complex exhibited by all the major cities of the Southwest. The cities that are growing, not decaying. The cities that attract new residents instead of repelling them. The cities where homes actually increase in value, year by year; in the case of Las Vegas, appreciation averages over ten percent a year. The cities where people want to live, want to have kids, want to have a future. Decadence is a social condition where the corrupt and decrepit dare to sneer, and the hale and healthy are suffered to cower in response, and that is surely case when the Southwest measures itself against the festering corpses Back East.

But Sin City's schizophrenia is more local, and it owes directly to that appellation. The people who actually live in Las Vegas--don't forget, not everyone flies out on the Red-Eye--deeply resent the Golden Goose on The Strip and all its Golden Eggs. The tourists always assume that locals have some dirty little secret reason for their escape to Babylon. Out-of-town friends and relatives treat them like uncompensated tour guides--and lenders of first resort when the dice run cold. The locals feel that the rest of the world treats Las Vegas as its trash can for bad behavior--and how can we quarrel with them when they're right?

But, but, but!!-- Yes, of course, Sin City's role as a Pretend-Bangkok is what makes the city what it is. Without the Wide-Open Gambling law of 1931, Las Vegas would be like Cheyenne--population 55,000--big for the surrounding area, but nothing compared to even a small city. If we want to get psychological, we can equate the schizophrenia and resentment of the Las Vegans to the carny mentality, a world of insiders and outsiders, of sage carnys and pitiable suckers--except that in Las Vegas the carnys stay put and it is the suckers who move on. The social division is not as pronounced as it is at the carnival, but it's always there. No one is ever really a guest in Las Vegas. The best a tourist can hope for is to be a George, a reliable tipper, a tractable fish. Who could feel anything by contempt for such a creature? And what becomes of people whose lives are immersed in contempt?

But that's the bargain the locals have made, and if they don't like it, they can move. In fact, Las Vegas is the fastest-growing city in the U.S., and this trend shows no sign of abating. It may be that the invading hordes will eventually undo all that makes Las Vegas what it is, but they haven't so far.

And that leads us to this: The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has been running a national ad campaign entitled Vegas Stories. You probably know it by its more familiar tagline: "What happens here, stays here." This is the essence of perfect marketing: It sells the unique benefit of Las Vegas, as a tourist destination, to precisely the right customer. Whoever is behind this idea deserves a seven-figure bonus.

So, of course, some Sin City schizophrenics hate it. Amazingly, they claim the ads make it harder to recruit employees to move to Las Vegas. Presumably the candidates have no idea what goes on in Vegas until they happen onto a TV commercial.

This is really, really stupid. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. The Las Vegas Review-Journal, the daily bible of the sins of Sin City, is running a Vegas Stories contest:

The commercials have been controversial: Is it possible Las Vegas has gone too far in promoting its sexy, sassy image? Some businessmen think so. Others fall into the lighten up camp.

Whatever you think of the ads, you have to admit they get your attention.

In fact, there must be all sorts of variations that can be done on the "What happens here, stays here" theme and plenty of other scenarios that are just waiting to be depicted.

Then, the thought occurred to us: Who better to write humorous parodies of these "Vegas Stories" ads than our fellow Las Vegans?

So here's the deal: Send us a description of your own "What happens here ..." commercial. Tell us where it takes place, what's happening in it and whatever dialogue your characters will speak. Then close with the tagline: "Las Vegas: What happens here, stays here."

This is supposed to be for Vegas local, but I say screw 'em if they can't take an out-of-town joke. The easiest way to enter is by email. If you copy me, I'll post your entry here.

The fine print:

Include your name, address and daytime phone number on your script, and be sure we have it by 5 p.m. Oct. 8.

We'll publish the funniest, most outrageous and most interesting ads in an upcoming Living section. And there's a $50 prize for the one we consider the best.

Like the man said, fifty bucks is fifty bucks. And win or lose, putting the needle to Sin City's schizos is too much fun to pass up.
posted by Greg Swann at 10:36 AM

 
BetterVegas: NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg asks:

"If everybody from New York City is going across a (nearby) border [to go to Tribal or Atalantic City casinos], why not keep the money here?"

Which is an excellent question.

posted by Greg Swann at 9:02 AM

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