Las Vegas Gun Show

Posted on April 7, 2014 by borysSNORC

Well, our last day in the Vegas and our last day in the US… what to do? what to do? The South Pointe Casino and Convention Centre is hosting a gun show, what could be more ‘Merican than that?!? I mean, we can’t take anything home, and even if there was stuff I wanted to buy there’s no way I can fit anything else in our over stuffed luggage, but, what the hell. Seems like a good way to spend a few hours. 🙂

Was a bit weird wandering about and seeing so many firearms that are either, A) completely illegal to own in Australia, or B) legal in Australia but so much cheaper than what we have to pay, or C) being worn on someone’s person in a social context or D) a combination of the above! I know right! Doesn’t everyone need one of these for, err home defence or something.
Oh dear, made the mistake to point out to a friendly sales guy that ‘This, this, this, this and this, are all illegal in Australia due to their diminutive barrel length’… which wouldn’t have been a huge problem except that started a discussion about how Australia has strict gun laws and I mentioned that even if I wanted to buy something at the show. I’d have a process to jump through with the Qld Police Department and the Federal Customs that could potentially take months. Again not really a problem, except a woman standing nearby joined in the conversation with the pithy observation: ‘See that’s what could fuckin’ happen here if Obama has his way and they take away all our guns’. Now, I probably should have said ‘Too right, you gotta watch out for that’ and beat a hasty retreat… only I stupidly responded with ‘Well, the government is not trying to remove all firearms from the population, just restrict certain firearms that are capable of mass shootings, and introduce better background checks, for things like mental health issues, so that shootings – like this one that happened just this week in Texas, stop occurring.’ Next thing you know there are three people standing around telling me that the ‘gummint ain’t got no right to go telling me what type of guns I can have, or how many guns I can have.’ Not even a little bit unexpected. I might have inadvertently started the conversation, but I made a tactical extraction and left them there getting all worked up in a 2nd Amendment circle jerk as they vociferously and aggressively agreed with each other on the matter. ‘MERICA! FUCK YEAH!Grrr… $20 each.
Safes for sale is encouraging, most states have no enforceable storage requirements for firearms. Little further on, and a guy is asking me if I’m interested in a little Sig P238 that I picked up, (Fark, is a frogs arse watertight? Of course I am!). So, I am playing with this cute little Sig and thinking, it is so not useful for any comps, it is not a target shooting handgun at all, it’s primary purpose is to be as concealable as possible for self defence, but it feels just my size and I likes it! He then starts to say that, “That purdy little gun is perfect for a purdy little gal like you, ‘nd I can probably knock a few bucks off the sticker for y’all.” At which point, I dejected explain, again, that I am flying home to Australia tonight, and even if I could get it in the country, I don’t think that the barrrel length is legal, it’s too short. This time the response was, “Oh, that’s right, y’all have them damn strict gun laws Down Under don’tcha. So tells me, has it cut down the murders, ya think?”, and then ensued a discussion about homicide rates, general gun related crime and gun related suicide… all stats in Australia of course, point to, less guns = less deaths. He was quite impressed and said that ” ‘sponsible gun ownership is something ‘Merricans need ta get a grip ownnne.” Well, that was the last thing I expected to hear at a gun show in Nevada! Why do concealed carry purses have to be so ugly? And as a side note, I am now somewhat alarmed at how many of these sorts of ugly purses I have seen during our travels!

I’ve seen these little Double Taps in handguns magazines and on the interwebs, and thought it was an interesting concept. Very neat and compact form, designed to be as flat and concealable as possible. Of course because they are not legal or available in Australia, I had never seen one or handled one before and as soon as I picked it up I thought, ‘Urgh… feels like crap in your hand.’ Not because the make feels cheap and nasty or anything – it seems really well made and obviously precision manufactured, but it is not in any way shape or form ergonomically designed. Even the guy selling them admitted they were a little gimmicky and the only people buying them were women wanting to put them in their purse without the bulk, or because they like the unusual design. Apparently they shoot well, but they’re never going to sell well because they feel like crap to handle… even in my little hand, they’d feel worse for men.
So, with all these cool toys in the room… ahem: “I went to the Las Vegas Gun Show and all I got was this lousy ‘Merican flag card case.” Sigh…

Cirque du Soleil – Ka

Posted on April 4, 2014 by borysSNORC

Can’t believe I finally got to see Ka! Well, come to think of it, I can’t believe I am back in Las Vegas barely 9 months since I was here last, but I go to Ka! (Which is the proper exciting bit, of course). Last year, when I was in Alaska with Aunty Mary, there was a tragic accident at Ka – one of the performers fell to her death during a performance, causing an immediate enquiry and a temporary cessation to all scheduled performances for the following three or four weeks – which was when we had tickets to go see it. Of course I was disappointed not to be seeing the show, but I remember spending a lot of time thinking about that woman and her family, and how her death must have effected the cast of the show as well. I never thought I’d be back here with another opportunity to see it…
The show opens with a narration of a plot – bit of a first for a Cirque show in my experience, they are usually light on plot or based on more esoteric themes rather than narrative. This is the story of twin brother and sister, who get separated and embark on a journey of self discovery, doing battle with Ka to find destruction or enlightenment… or something along those lines.
The real business of Ka is the spectacle; while it is unlike any other Cirque production with it’s story line, it definitely follows the Cirque modus operandi when it comes to providing a truly memorable visually arresting production. The experience starts with the purpose built theatre, the large dragon greeting you near the bar, through to the theatre space itself, which provides an impressive space that envelops the audience.
There are many great characters in the production displaying the full array of creative, gymnastic, and acrobatic talents that we associate with Cirque productions. Somehow they have even made baton twirling appear exciting and stimulating.
I also particularly loved the ‘clowns’ or the comic relief element that is in most Ka shows and usually brings everyone back down after a particularly impressive act. In this show they appeared as creatures, like a turtle, a crab, a starfish and a centipede. In keeping with most other Cirque shows, the ‘clowns’ do not speak and work predominantly in mime which allows them to communicate exceptionally well across language barriers.
But one of the real starts of this show, the importance of which shouldn’t be underestimated, is the unique Ka Theatre. The stage itself is without a floor and instead operates with two large, elevating platforms and five smaller lifts which move the workspace and the characters around. There is a ship platform which flails violently out over the audience, another platform covered in gravel for quiet scenes which then tips up and allows a fast paced climbing/acrobatic scene. The stage itself is a technical marvel and may well be one of the most sophisticated stage designs ever seen. Without it and the large purpose built apparatus, Ka just would not work.

At the end of the show we were almost rendered speechless – the show is soo good. Many people dislike the unusual (for Cirque) plot and feel it detracts from what they came for, which more often than not is to see the impossibly talented performers doing unbelievably difficult things – so Ka tends to pull mixed reviews. I think you need to know what you are getting into before you line up… Ka is a Cirque show, full of physically demanding and breathtakingly difficult and yet beautiful acts, but it is also a production brimming with theatrical drama and brash spectacle. Well worth seeing, imho. And Mr K (who was not really warming up to the Cirque) absolutely loved it – enough to ponder the possibility of going to see it again before we left! Now there is a recommendation for you1

Grand Canyon Helicopters!

Posted on April 4, 2014 by borysSNORC

They say a picture is worth a thousand words… so, consider this a 15,000 word essay on how just how grand, the Grand Canyon actually is.

Lake Mead.

Hoover Dam.

Hot air ballooning over Kapadokya in Turkey, cruising Glacier Bay in Alaska and watching the sunrise over Point Lookout at Straddie – if these things aren’t on your bucket list, they should be. And while you are at it, add taking a helicopter flight into the Grand Canyon! One of the most amazing things I have ever done.

Las Vegas & Penn & Teller

Posted on April 3, 2014 by borysSNORC

Whoa, what a long day in transit! Portsmouth to Boston, to Chicago, to Vegas… took about 13 hours, door to door. But we arrived safely and Mr K sweet talked the check in clerk at the Bellagio and got us a room upgrade to a high floor with a view of the strip and the famous Bellagio fountains, which is really quite spectacular. So after a few hours settling in and enjoying the enormous shower, we dressed up and decided to head over to the Rio to see Penn & Teller – because Vegas is all about the tickets, and we have tickets! 😀On heading out the Bellagio north entrance you can see the Rio on the other side of Frank Sinatra drive, and after being cooped up in planes all day we thought we’d walk there – it looked predominantly flat, it was cool without being cold and we really needed to stretch a bit. OMG. Big mistake. You can see it, and it LOOKS like there are sufficient pedestrian access areas around the freeway, but not so much. We walked for a couple of kilometres and seemed to be getting further away from our destination, not closer, and then there turned out to be a couple of non-traversable escarpments and culverts in the way too. So, we eventually had to give up and flag a cab to get us to the show. Lesson learned, if it’s not on the strip, don’t even bother trying to walk!

But we got to the show in plenty of time, and had great seats, Row D front and centre. I’m not a huge Penn & Teller fan, I haven’t seen them before and I haven’t watched a lot of their TV shows. You can probably sum up what I know about Penn & Teller from a recent pro-vaccination campaign that’s been going around, and from an old episode of the West Wing where they do a trick burning an American Flag wrapped up in the Bill of Rights in the White House for Zoe’s birthday…

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NymRecFWgAs

So I had no idea exactly what to expect of the show, except that it is likely to be part politics, part atheism, and a little illusion and misdirection throw in on the side – and that is largely right. What I wasn’t expecting was for them to start pulling apart and explaining how other illusionists are doing their tricks, debunking how mentalists and mind readers do their thing – they’re calling Bullshit on nearly all of their colleagues, which I thought was quite funny considering they are doing the exact same sorts of things, but with a political and religious conscience.
Anyway, they did do the American flag burning trick, which was very cool, but they did it twice and second time around showed you how it was done… all the while poking fun at China and their lack of rights. They did the old sawing the girl in half trick, showing you how all the other magicians pull that trick off, but then they pushed it a bit further leading you to speculate, ‘well, if that is how the others do it, how did you just do that?’ Teller did some very accomplished sleight of hand tricks where he appeared to be turning droplets of water into coins, and then coins into goldfish which was very cleverly done, and the big finale at the end was a ‘magic bullet’ trick.

They got two firearms savvy guys up on stage (a Texas Deputy Sheriff and a US Marine) on either side of a wide yellow ribbon, and gave them each a .357 revolver to check over and determine if it was a real gun – apparently yes, no tricky guns. Had them confirm that two panels of suspended glass were in fact real glass. They gave them each a bullet to write on – their names on the projectile and a picture or something else on the bullet casing, and then they loaded these two revolvers and set them into a stand while P&T got dressed in protective eyewear, a kevlar vest and helmets. Then they stood at opposite ends of a bare stage and with laser sights on the revolvers, and telling they audience to plug their ears, they appeared to shoot directly at one another. The panels had bullet holes in them and Penn & Teller were each standing there with bullets between their teeth. They called their experts back onto the stage and had them confirm that the bullets and casings both looked and smelled like they had just been fired, and that Penn had indeed caught Teller’s bullet between his teeth and vice versa. At no time did either Penn or Teller appear to cross or interact at all over the divide of the big yellow ribbon, making it appear that there is no way they could have swapped the bullets. It was quite impressive. We’ve been wondering how it was done… it’s going to need some more thought, this one. 🙂

Mainly in Maine

Posted on April 2, 2014 by borysSNORC

Today we were driving around Maine chaing pretty lighthouses and lobsters – it’s just the done thing up here apparently. Finally the weather turned to be a bit more what we were expecting when we booked for this time of year – nearly 10C and sunny. I can’t get over the snow on the ground everywhere, it hasn’t snowed here for weeks, but there are areas that are shaded that don’t get warm enough to thaw it.
I was very amused to see a Park Ranger adjusting the fire danger sign at a visitors centre off the higway out of Portsmouth… I was looking around at all the snow on the ground, and we are rugged up in jackets and scarves, and it’s the first day we’ve seen the sun in over a week, and here he was setting the fire danger to ‘High’. Seemed absurd, but I guess they know how to read their conditions.

We found the Nubble Light House which was much smaller than I was expecting. Most of the lighthouses I have seen back home are enormous but this was just a cute little lighthouse sticking out on a point.

The sea was something to watch, the colour of the water was spectacular and the surf was really violent. I don’t think you can really capture how aggressively the waves were beating the coastline, and if this is what it looks like on a beautiful calm day, I can imagine it gets pretty scary up here during storm season.Mr K observed that people must really bloody love their seafood to risk going out in all that to get it. Nubble Beach itself was a littel calmer, and had lots of empty car parks, so we figure it is probably a very popular spot during the warmer months.

Again with the frozen ponds, though I am beginning to wonder if all these ‘ponds’ we are seeing are natural water courses or whether they are spaces where water has run off from melting snow and then refrozen before it’s had a chance to drain away properly!

Went past this quaint little art studio making wind chimes… they were moving a lot in the wind and looked really pretty, but I’m not so sure they are still wind chime if they sound either silent or clunky and terrible when they move are they? They reminded me of that movie ‘Twister’ where they visit the Aunt who makes all the wind ornaments for her garden (which is neither here nor there, but there you have it).

We were winding our way up to Cape Elizabeth which is a particualrly picturesque spot just south of Portland and we are told has amazing views and a lobster shack with lovely seafood. The Cape was really pretty, but again the sea looks cold and hostile. I just could not imagine being out there in that water. :/
We found the Cape Elizabeth Lobster Shack easily enough, it is literally the only business out here on the point. They have an huge outdoor eating area with about 30 picnic benches that were decidedly empty on a day like today. You could tell by their ordering system that they are used to dealing with huge volumes of customers, so it must be a very popular spot. The speciaility of the house is fried clams apparently, so we had to try some of those.
As per usual, one meal like this is way too much food for one person and the fried clams were as good as they are reputed to be. 🙂
After lunch we had to head back to Portsmouth to take care of the dreaded packing… our Qantas flights gave us two pieces of luggage each to a total of some ridiculous amount of kilos that we can check. But on our internal flights with American Airlines we have only one piece each to a maximum of 23 kilos. Which really sucks. It totally puts a dampner on the whole shopping bit, we knew we were going to have this enormous allowance once we get to Vegas, but everything up to that point was “no, we can’t fit it in our luggage”. So lots of lovely things we could have taken home for the neices and nephews stayed where they were on the shelves – which is good for the wallet I guess (See? I am a silver linings sort of gal, after all!) But it did mean I was having to get very creative with our packing to make sure neither bag was over weight and we weren’t carrying too much on in cabin luggage! Packing can be a nightmare, but I have the Packing Gene and no doubt I will have the Tetris theme music stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Once the packing was mostly sorted we went for another tootle around looking for one last lobster restaurant… back over the Piscataqua River into Maine we went. The bridge crossing over to Kittery is very cool, but hard to take photos of it as you are driving along.
In the end we found ourselves at a place called ‘The Oarhouse‘ (The ‘H’ is silent according to our waiter… though I think he means absent). It was a beautiful little restaurant and we just about had the place to ourselves, though in a few weeks time when the weather has warmed up, it is reservations weeks in advance to get into the place apparently.The menu was very impressive, and I ordered the scallops wrapped in apple wood smoked bacon, which were wonderfully fresh and delicious.And then, on John’s recommendation ordered the baked stuffed lobster… which came out looking like this – Just how hungry did you think I was John?!? OMG, that lobster was so big, I named him Frank and felt sure that Frank would defeat me. But it turned out, as with all the lobster goodness, it’s 80% presentation, 10% stuffing and about 10% meat! So did my best with Frank and admit, that nearly all the stuffing remained on the plate with a pile of empty shells. So good. Would definitely recommend this place for dinner if anyone is up this way.

And so ends our journey in New England… tomorrow off to Las Vegas where the weather should be a balmy 20-22C. Yay! 😀