LAS VEGAS GRADUATION-113 DEGREES.

I've been absent this blog since June 5th when I flew out of Newark, N.J. to Las Vegas for my grandson, Mason's, graduation. My webmail would not recognize me from my daughter-in-law's computer, so I could not blog from Las Vegas.


Mom helped him get his cap on straight.


Mason is quiet and resists all the fuss.


Especially when Dad tried to plant a smooch on him.


Las Vegas graduations are different than most. All the area High Schools have graduation in the same conference center building, so we get our pictures at home-INSIDE!  Inside because it is 113 degrees outside on this graduation day. No graduations are  held outside because the weather can literally be deadly. I was sooooo grateful.


The kids load into seats on the floor in the huge auditorium.


Row by row they file by on stage to receive their diplomas and then take their seats. Mason is part of the band so he sits with the band members. He got two band awards. This band was given a rare honor of playing for the Macy's Day Parade and also playing at Carnegie Hall. In short, they are good.


Graduations for all the high schools are held on one day. As soon as one school is finished, the next one begins staging. The Average person and average camera cannot pick out their student from seats in the bleachers as about 800 students are involved, so a camera gets each kid on a four-way big screen at eye level above the event on the floor.


Afterwards, we went to a local restaurant for lunch. Brother Stuart loaned Mason his sunglasses.


Sans gown and cap, this is his Blues Brother's look. Yeah!

One of his Senior assignments was to write his life story with pictures. Mason is very artistic and his reminiscences were written from the heart.  Proud grandma shed a tear after reading it. He'll be attending University of Nevada Reno.

SOUTHWEST, A GOOD CORPORATE CITIZEN

I knew there was a reason I like to use Southwest Airlines when I fly. In fact, I always attempt to put my money where I sense corporate responsibility. Many companies, especially small companies encourage their employees to do community service, often giving them company time to do it.  But how does a huge corporation that does business in so many communities involve itself with people projects?
Several months ago, the Student Conservation Association, which coordinates young adult volunteers on conservation projects across the country, approached Southwest about a collaboration tied to Southwest’s 40th anniversary. Southwest was enthusiastic about the idea and both groups met and came up with  “Conservation in Action Tour: 40 Projects for 40 Years.”
On the ground, that translates as  a circuitous nationwide trip in a painted Southwest RV, moving from city to city  to work on conservation projects.
Prior to each stop, Southwest organizes a group of its employees to participate in the day’s project and the Student Conservation Association mobilizes its own volunteers. They were spotted in Las Vegas last week at McCarran Airport.
The Las Vegas conservation project was scheduled for the Springs Preserve, a 180-acre center-of-town cultural center dedicated to the desert ecosystem. Organizers at the preserve and the SCA planned a morning of tree planting, mulching, weeding and general garden cleanup. But the night before the event, Mother Nature intervened with a flash flood.  The clean-up became a recovery project that included replacing some downed trees.
The 60 volunteers worked through the heat to get the place back in order in one day, a project that probably would’ve taken the area Springs Preserve volunteers many days to complete.
“They didn’t even want to take water breaks,” claimed Tyler Lau, an SCA project leader for the Tour 40 team.
A  midsummer outdoor project in the sizzling heat of Las Vegas probably had as much appeal as skunk grease, but  the  volunteers pitched right in. They have done invasive plant removals, habitat restorations and wetland and riverbed cleanups, but fixing up a desert garden after a storm was something new.
Southwest spokeswoman Michelle Agnew said the Tour 40 project was something new for the airline, but giving back to communities is something it has done for years. Last week, VEGAS INC chronicled the importance of corporate philanthropy, but imagine how tough that is for an airline that flies into 72 cities?
The company initiated a program called Tickets for Time in which for every 40 hours a Southwest employee volunteers for a nonprofit organization, the benefiting organization is eligible for a complimentary roundtrip flight for fund-raising or transportation needs. Southwest employees logged 45,000 hours of volunteer work in 2009, according to the company website.
On last week’s visit, the SCA crew got a day off from RV living to spend a free night at Bally’s on the Strip.
“I never thought  I’d ever spend a night in Las Vegas,” Lau says.
I’ve  blogged a number of times about bad corporate citizens so it gives me great pleasure to illuminate what happens when tourism, business and conservation work together for the benefit of all.

MISSING BIRDS

Posted 6/21/2011 9:00 AM PDT

One of the nice things about living on the road in parks is that birds are a constant. Treed areas, bushes, grass attracts them. Yesterday, Laurie and I walked the dogs in the early cool of the day and came upon a small park and the cheerful tune of birds. I’d forgotten how much I miss that in this harsh climate. I read the local paper and people love their town, but I find it a great place for a short visit only at this time of year.  The pool is wonderful, but it doesn’t make up for the inability to enjoy the wide open spaces and wildlife. Unless you count scorpions and lizards as wildlife.

This peacock lives in Yuma, AZ. It gets pretty hot there, too.

This beauty lives near a lake in Massachusetts. Seven year old grandson Austin described to me a bird he saw that looked like a turkey but with blue and green and pink feathers.

Even a common gull is an elegant bird. This one lives on Marthas Vineyard.

Springtime in Hershey, PA.

A Texas owl on a fence post.

Louisiana Pelicans.

Burrowing owls from Davis, CA.

And a little songbird from Vineyard Haven.
Made me feel cooler just cruising through some bird photos.

KA, CIRQUE DU SOLEIL

Last night, we went to see the Cirque Du Soleil-KA show, one of several Cirque shows playing Vegas. I attended the original about twenty years ago and the differences are immaterial. The original was much like a fancy, musical circus with high fliers and acrobats. One particular acrobat act was stunning and unforgettable with one man balancing on the head of another moving with muscular precision in slow motion through all of their gravity defying positions.

KA is more of a story line with gracefully acrobatic fliers, and fast moving, dance choreography for the war scenes accompanied by thunderous music. The costuming was very original. The full theater aspects of the show, meaning acrobats running about the theater at every level, above and around you are unique to my experience and very exciting.

Several scenes, like a tragic opera, were so beautiful, and emotion rending, that even without words, the "play" is understandable. The special scenes, sinking a boat, the underwater rescue, the acrobats in the wheel and a war played out on a slippery perpendicular stage kept you glued to the action. The perpendicular stage is like nothing I've heard of or seen before. Just watching the machinery in motion was amazing.
Now, I want to see them all.

My son suggested we use valet parking to see the shows and we loved pulling up into valet parking with the old Bronco with a bike hanging off the back among all the El Dorados, Saturns, Mercedes, Rolls and other fancy cars. The looks we get when the valet brings us our vehicle are a riot. At MGM they have a lava heat to keep you warm while waiting for your vehicle.

LUXOR,EXCALABUR, LAS VEGAS

Visible from the freeway is the famous Las Vegas Strip, the new Las Vegas, across town from the old glitz and roar of main street type, side-by-side casinos where you walked out the door of one and into the next. The doors never closed on Fremont St., and you went there to pay your dues. The booze flowed, food was practically free and you played the slots, craps, roulette, keeno, cards, or dice. It was exciting and memorable. You were there for one thing and one thing only, to gamble in the only state in the U.S. that allowed you to do so legally.

The new strip is ponderous, huge, magnificent, with many themed casinos that take your breath away.  and accommodate a lot more people. MGM Grand, Luxor and Excalabur were once the first of these giants.A real chariot race with live horses was one of the shows, the main attraction,  at Luxor.
Now, they are surrounded by thirty story, and forty and  higher, luxury hotels and casinos with twenty-five story high flashing billboards. They offer so many things to do, why gamble? You can't walk from one to the other easily, so you tram, or drive, or mono-rail, or get a room and stay.

The Luxor Pyramid had just opened for business when my husband and I stayed there. The rooms are reached by a funicular since elevators only rise straight up and down. The huge Sphinx, the marvelous accoutrements of historic Egypt gave it  magic and mystery. By our second visit, several years later, the river Nile ran through the lobby with small boats moving through the living reeds. It was beautiful and realistic. I kept looking for the baby Moses.

 The Excalabur, too, with its charm of historic England with King Arthur's knights so bold. The famous show at Excalabur actually had knights on horseback galloping at each other with their lances, a full blown jousting match for the benefit of us all, and, a ladies silk scarf. The rabble, (us, the audience) were served a dinner on a board where you had to ask for salt. You ate with your hands and chewed your meat off the bone. Crude and fun.

 There isn't much left of the Excalabur's exiting past but a few stained glass windows, a phony aluminum piece of armor and some heraldic flags.
The Luxor was built to last, so the remnants of its former glory remain, the huge cement statuary, hieroglyphics, and Egyptian tiles in the walls remain, but the once lovely river is gone. The inside no longer resembles anything related to Egypt. 
I confess I was saddened and disappointed by the changes,  but grateful that I got to see it in its hey-dey. The new casinos are all about sophisticated luxury.  The themes are being phased out. But, the Luxor would take a lot of dynamite to remove, so hopefully it will be around for a long time to come.

If they demolish the building, I'm going to rescue the tiles and bring them home with me.

WINCHESTER GALLERY PAPER EXHIBIT

 Yesterday was our last day in Vegas and I visited a  local Community Center that has multiple programs for the community. One such program is providing a gallery for up-and-coming artists. The  tile sign outside of the building kind of spells it out for you. Beautiful sign.

 The exhibit was a paper exhibit and since that is my medium I wanted to see it. Andreana Donahue hand cut this huge paper piece that covers a large wall plus turns the corner onto another wall.

It seems impossibly huge to be hand cut. Its beautiful and snow white with a black paper contrast. Since our signal is low, I can't upload the flowers and iceberg she cut. But, watch for this artist to be big some day and I'll try and post the rest later.

Our plan was to head into Death Valley, but a cold front has changed our plans and we will be going to Yuma instead. Death Valley is still on the menu, however.

GOTTA HAVE A BIT OF BLING

Its fun taking time to explore a Las Vegas that many people don't see. But, the Fremont St. light show is seen by millions of people a year. If you want some bling in your life, this is the place to be. Earlier, we visited Fremont St. during the day and checked out the neon signs. Last night we did the same at night. And, we enjoyed the biggest projection screen in the world flashing five million LED bulbs per block for a six minute light show. They are shown on the hour from six p.m. to midnight. Each show is different. Have a look. (Hoping this video link works. If not the youtube link below it will.)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGEgIqsgYtk

 

And at night, not only the flash and dazzle of the lights, but the dancing girls are out.

On top of a bar.

And on a stage.

Here are a couple of images from the light show.

LAS VEGAS NEVADA NEON MUSEUM

The Neon Museum of Las Vegas is a massive project. We all collect "things" but...hey a 70 foot tall sign? Some far sighted persons from the Allied Arts Council realized that a colorful part of Las Vegas history was being destroyed as the city changed.

 Much work and money has gone into gathering signs, permissions, a "boneyard" in which to store them, restoration, and creating, for thee and me, a public outdoor gallery of neon signs. The City leased land at $1 a year for this massive park, boneyard and museum. The newly erected sign above has letters from four different casinos. Below that sign, sits a beautifully done park, which will open  later this year. It contains cement structures with brass placques  to hold various pieces of signage. What an idea. An outdoor museum, that lights up at night and is also beautiful by day.

My "Bucket List" will get me back here to see it when its open. Definitely worth a second visit to see the changes.
 The current boneyard tour, where unrestored signs lay in wait, is a phenomenal walk through history, and, if you've previously visited Vegas, a walk down memory lane as well. Photos are allowed for personal use only, but we were granted some stock photos to use.

You can see what a jumble the boneyard is. But, the letter H, as in Hacienda,  or maybe Horizon Club. Fancy and colorful then and will be again someday. (stock photo)

How does that compare to the letters in this casino? Boring graphics by comparison. But, that is the future. In fact, When Binnions changed their signage, from fancy neon lettering to a "newspaper" typeface, thousands of complaints came in about it.

 

Here you can see parts of the Stardust sparkles and Aladdins lamp, and Horse Shoe in the background. (stock photo)

The tour guide we had was terrific. He told us a lot of interesting history and little known stuff about the signs. This restored slipper, which has been erected on the street side of the boneyard is 14 feet tall under the arch and has 700 light bulbs. Its made of steel and sheet metal, weighs 2 tons and it sparkles by turning on and off the lights. Wow! Maybe you remember the Silver Slipper Casino?

The boneyard has a rescued building as well that will eventually be a visitors center. Its a very modern type of Googie architecture by Paul Revere Williams designed to resemble a conch shell. It will be completed later this year as well. Soaring thin poured concrete arches. Unique. I can't wait to see the finished results this fall. But, don't wait. See them now. The Neon Museum is a 501(c) 3 organization; it has a mob of volunteers who work very hard to get funding to restore this very expensive signage.
Have a peek at what they've already accomplished: (stock photos.)

Neon may no longer be as popular as it once was, but Vegas did it best. And, when the 170 signs they have stored are up and posed around town, on Cultural Way, Las Vegas Blvd. and Fremont Street and elsewhere, it will be a glittering and exciting part of a unique city. (These three signs are already part of the Public Gallery on Fremont St.) Las Vegas Blvd., by the way, is the only street designated as a National Historic Treasure.