A Little Less Conversation

Every time I arrive at the city in the desert, I am excited and happy because of anticipated sensory overload.

Bright lights, sights, sounds, hot women, drinking and of course gambling.

Wagering big or small, its always a rush as you watch real redistribution of income.

The best part is that there is always something new to see. Up until recently, there was ongoing construction, old casino and hotels demo'd and new ones built to take its place.

I arrived a day ahead of everyone in my group which allowed me to cover a lot of ground and gamble.

I checked out the progress at CityCenter, the largest private construction project in the states. During the course of 4 years of my trips, I've seen it start soon after the implosion of the old Boardwalk Casino, to laying the steel skeleton frame, then to the first sight of the concrete elevator core to finally skinning the building with glass windows.

Definitely check out the show on the Discovery Channel called "Build it Bigger," they have a episode on the last few months of construction in CityCenter. If you like to see how large construction projects are manage or the stages, process and actual construction of large buildings then this is a show to watch. The entire project is set to open in stages during December 2009. I look forward to actually going inside and staying there in future trips.

I also made my rounds at the new trends that casinos are implementing. Which are the casino party pits, a strip or dance club vibe mix with tables games. I think it's a great idea, with gambling and casino becoming prevalent across the country its a way for the casinos in the city in the desert to still be somewhat unique.


So below is just a collection of events on Day 1.

Summerfest

For 11 days out of the year, Milwaukee host Summerfest which is the biggest music festival in the world according to the Guinness world record. So for 11 days on 11 stages you get roughly 700 bands performing. I am not talking about local or regional bands, you get them as well but also a lot of mainstream acts, past and present.

So when I was ask if I wanted to come, curious, I said yes and I am glad I did.

The day we chose to go was July 2nd, but the festival runs from late June to early July.

When we arrived, I was surprise by the size of the venue. Which is at the Henry Mailer Festival Park running alongside the lake in Milwaukee. From the map below you can see the size of the park and the location of the stages.



There were a lot of people in attendance but unlike other concerts or festival I've been to I never felt it was crowded, again due to the sheer size of the park. The price I paid for a ticket was $15 but is discounted or free depending on promotions.

There is a premium surcharge of roughly ~$50 if you choose to see the headline act on the big stage, which has a seating capacity of 23,000. The headline act for the night I went to was No Doubt. I like some of their songs but not for that amount. It worked out great though because it allowed me to listen and watch lesser known acts.

Besides that they also have a lot of food option bringing out some of local area restaurants. Nothing special here that you can't get in any major cities. But of course if you are up in Milwaukee you have to load up on some beer brats and sauerkrauts. Also, being that it is a Miller town, this is pretty much the beer of choice.

Special attractions are like any usual carnival minus the rides. But they do have one called the Skyglider which takes you up on something similar to a ski lift. This saved a lot of time for us because it goes almost end-to-end in the park, which helped us navigate over the crowd.

So for tonight, after deciding to skip out on the headline earlier I venture to see who were performing on the other 10 stages. They definitely have some thing for some one. For the 9pm prime show you have acts such as Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Femi Kuti, Wild Sweet Orange, Red Bull DJ series and of course the BMX Stunt Team.


But really it came down to Matisyahu or Shiny Toy Guns for the evening show. Just our luck, they happen to be on the opposite end of the park. I chose to go see STG with one of my friends while the other went to see Matisyahu.



With all that value I definitely recommend going to at least for a day.

The following clips are from SXSW performance but Summerfest performance was similar.



This was the first time I've seen and heard Shiny Toy Guns and I was impressed. They definitely put on a great show.

You can classify their style as electronica, synthpop and rock. But it all works together.

The song below "Le Disko" should be more familiar. A fun song to listen to.



The band has two lead singer, Chad Petree on the guitar and Sisley Treasure on bass or keyboard on occasions. Mikey Martin on drums and Jeremy Dawson on bass and keyboard.

Chad and Sisley alternate singing in the songs and the two different approach brings a balance of the male and female perspective. It is even more evident when you see them live.

Sisley has very good stage presence and entertaining to watch. She dances a lot and shows a range of emotion through her movement. Which is great storytelling for the song.

It amazes me that she is the same girl that was competing in the show "Search for the next Pussycat Doll." She had previous experience being in a band called "Cooler Kids" and so she came in the show being known as the rock chick. That pretty much typecast her and got her bounce from the show. I am glad she got knock out of the competition and not allowed to be molded in the pop factory.

When the original female singer Carah Faye Charnow left (kicked out from the band?), Sisley replaced her. Carah did the female vocals on the first albums "We Are Pilots" while Sisley did the vocals on the second album "Season of Poison." They both sound good in different ways, so I believed a lot of fans have moved on. Sisley can definitely hold her own.

This song is my favorite from their performance.

Crown and Coke

"Cocktails"

"Drinks"

The cocktail waitress shouts out as she walks by.

"Crown and Coke"

I shout back while looking at her direction. She writes down the drink order and takes some more before disappearing back to the bar well.

And so it starts, again.

She comes up behind me after a few minutes and lays the drink on the table. I give her the standard tip.

I take that first sip, too much coke and not enough crown. I down this one quickly and count my cards. I wave my hand across the cards, motioning to stand.

I am monitoring my chip stack. I catch a good run of cards early and my chip stack nearly doubles. We played through a six deck shoe.

The cocktail waitress comes back a little later.

"Cocktails"

"Another Crown"

I continue to play and take in the atmosphere. Besides me are a few of my friends, playing alongside and we have this table to ourself. In front of me are the "sexy blackjack" dealers.

They look like the attractive girl next door who happens to know how to deal cards. They are wearing short black dress and low cut shirt, just showing enough skin but keeping it classy. Tonight there are three of them for the late shift and rotating between the tables.

The music playing is the usual contemporary hits but soon a hip hop song came on, then a little show is being perform by the dealers. These are the types of moments I love hip hop.

I lay down a dealer's bet, for some dealer's karma.

The waitress comes back, places the new crown on the table and removes the empty glass. Feeling a little generous because of my growing stack, I give her a tip that maybe she will remember me by.

I take a fast sip and this one was on par, just the right amount of crown and coke.

We reach the end of the shoe, this is about the second time so far tonight. There's no automatic shuffle here. The dealer picks up the six deck of cards and begins to shuffle them manually. We continue to exchange friendly banters with the dealers, pushing the boundary.

Then there is collection of memory I am recalling at this moment, connected by times I have had with crown. Usually during vacation and always a good time.

"Cocktails"

As the waitress shouts out behind me. I turn around, make eye contact and just give her a quick nod. She comes around quickly and exchange drinks and I leave another good tip.

The drinks are getting beyond par, a lot of crown in this one as expected.

I love manual shuffle, besides the extended time taken do it, the cards are not uniformly distributed. They tend to come out in groups of high or low cards. We run through the rich part of the deck, high value cards are being seen more often. This shoe had the most blackjack during the session and the dealer would bust more often. Just so you know, blackjack pays 3 to 2 here.

During the course of this shoe, we do several pound with explosion to celebrate and make exchanges with the dealers as well. I expanded to toke the dealer every hand. Dealer karma is at its highest point.

"Thanks"

"I appreciate it"

Sweet voices.

I continue to play, we go through a fourth shoe. The waitress is coming back in rapid succession. Slowly, I am losing my ability to count my own cards. I am on autopilot after a few drinks, relying on my basic strategy reflexes and help from the female dealers.

"So what should I do with these cards? Honestly, I can't add or count anymore"

She laughs.

"I don't know, I don't want you to lose but you have a soft 16, I would take a card"

"Alright, I trust you"

Cards come out.

"hmmm, I am sorry"

I can't be mad at a face looking like that too long.

I check my chip stack, I am about even. A few hands later we change to the third dealer, the most attractive of the girls of the bunch but quiet. We slowly work her up.

Another shoe change and we start a new. During the course of this shoe, my stack starts to slowly dwindle but like all game of chance, volatility is to be expected. I jokingly take out my frustration on one my friends, he is deviating from basic strategy.

"Really? Dealer showing a 5"

"And you are hitting on 14?"

Looking towards him.

He takes the 9, bust. Dealer turns her card over, has a solid 15.

The 9 would of been the bust card. She gets the next card which was 5, gives her a 20. I lose having 19.

This type of scenario goes on throughout this shoe, some go in his favor and many times not for me.

"Let's trade him to the other table" I shout

Everyone laughs but they are all in agreement. I inquire with the pit boss about the trade. But then I hear.

"Cocktails"

I see her in the distances. I look over her direction again. She writes down on her pad and walks away.

We get through another shoe and for the first time tonight I am to reaching into my wallet to re-buy in. The waitress comes back in time and the usual exchange is made, old drink out, new drink in, tip given. The continue flow of crown will make me feel better and it does for my recent losing effort.

We eventually rotate through the female dealers one more time. I played through several more shoes, had some brief luck on some runs followed by extended times on the losing end. Dealer karma at this point was all but exhausted.

Late in the evening, the pit boss informs us that the end of the girls shift was nearing and we are given the equivalent of a two minute warning. I am disappointed but relieved at the same time that the session was to coming to an end. We play several more hands and a little later we reach the cut card in the shoe.

I decide to call it a evening and donate the rest of my stack to the dealers toke, which at this point is not very much. The rest of my friends color up and two of them actually had a positive session.

After a little break we make a trip to the cashier cage, everyone except for me cashes out. I enjoy my last crown for the evening.

We go back to the tables and say our goodbyes to the friendly dealers.

"Come back soon"

"I will and when is the next time that you are working?"

"We work for an agency, so we'll be at a different casino tomorrow but I will be at ..."

I digress.

It was a negative session tonight but I thoroughly had a good time. It was one of the rare times that I did not feel too bad about losing.

Obviously, the crown and coke helped a lot. But besides that and gambling, we entertained each other, traded jokes and stories, flirted with the attractive female dealers and was drinking like there's no tomorrow.

So good times and is that not what being on vacation is all about.