Thursday, January 05, 2006
Sin city
I am in Las Vegas for the second time in my life, and if there isn't a third I could still die happy. It's an interesting concept, but I'm clearly missing something. Try Jan Morris on the subject.
Here's the view from my window at the Sahara Hotel, where every third object is a camel. I'm here for the Consumer Electronics Show, along with 140,000 or so of my closest friends. I just returned from the Bill Gates keynote address, which like so many Microsoft things was about half again as long as it needed to be.
Two questions, as it turned out, really interested me:
1) Why did I stand in a very long line to attend, when I could read everything I need to know in the papers?
2) What is the deal with the Xbox 360 demo with which it ended?
Turns out the two may be related, and it all has to do with virtual and real reality. Re question 1, it occurred to me midway through that there really is something special about physical presence, even in this digital world, and even at a Microsoft shindig, a company built almost entirely on 1s and 0s. That was the actual real, physical Bill Gates, along with the actual real, physical Justin Timberlake. (A long story, I assure you.)
Re question 2, they ended it with Gates and Microsoft President Steve Ballmer playing a boxing game on duelling Xboxes. Gates got to be Muhammed Ali, Ballmer was Joe Frazier. They slugged it out for a while, Gates and Ballmer in real reality dancing around on the stage with their game consoles, propelling Ali and Frazier on the big screen. Ali/Gates won in a knockout (Gates is the boss, after all). There was a repeated close-up shot of Ali's fist striking and distorting Frazier's face, droplets of blood and sweat realistically flying.
I find that while I don't have a position on boxing per se, the sight of two rich white men making two (admittedly digital) black men beat each other up for the purpose of selling more toys struck me as offensive.
Here's the view from my window at the Sahara Hotel, where every third object is a camel. I'm here for the Consumer Electronics Show, along with 140,000 or so of my closest friends. I just returned from the Bill Gates keynote address, which like so many Microsoft things was about half again as long as it needed to be.
Two questions, as it turned out, really interested me:
1) Why did I stand in a very long line to attend, when I could read everything I need to know in the papers?
2) What is the deal with the Xbox 360 demo with which it ended?
Turns out the two may be related, and it all has to do with virtual and real reality. Re question 1, it occurred to me midway through that there really is something special about physical presence, even in this digital world, and even at a Microsoft shindig, a company built almost entirely on 1s and 0s. That was the actual real, physical Bill Gates, along with the actual real, physical Justin Timberlake. (A long story, I assure you.)
Re question 2, they ended it with Gates and Microsoft President Steve Ballmer playing a boxing game on duelling Xboxes. Gates got to be Muhammed Ali, Ballmer was Joe Frazier. They slugged it out for a while, Gates and Ballmer in real reality dancing around on the stage with their game consoles, propelling Ali and Frazier on the big screen. Ali/Gates won in a knockout (Gates is the boss, after all). There was a repeated close-up shot of Ali's fist striking and distorting Frazier's face, droplets of blood and sweat realistically flying.
I find that while I don't have a position on boxing per se, the sight of two rich white men making two (admittedly digital) black men beat each other up for the purpose of selling more toys struck me as offensive.
