Global Gaming Expo 2009 (Day 1)

Drove to Victor Rocha's house Sunday night, where I had three bowls of Pat Rocha's delicious meatball soup. Had a leisurely morning Monday, then drove to Las Vegas 12:30-4:30 pm.

After settling into our room, we headed to the Bellagio for a dinner hosted by slot machine manufacturer Cadillac Jack. We joined several California gaming tribes and the company's CEO and a VP at the Sensi restaurant. Adam Beach was there because he and Cadillac Jack are producing a Ghost Beat slot machine. I guess Adam is now a gaming busines partner.

Adam gave us some tidbits of news:

He's appearing in nine episodes of Big Love as an Indian casino manager. His character has an affair with Bill Henrickson's first wife. He and actress Jeanne Tripplehorn had a kissing scene that he said was hot. For a moment he almost lost track of when and where the scene ended.

He occasionally speaks up when Big Love's scripts include mistakes or stereotypes. He called it a matter of principle. He doesn't have big discussions with the writers; he airs his concerns and the writers say yes or no.

One example he gave was a sweat lodge scene. Adam said it should've been dark and difficult to see the participants, not light and airy.

Adam occasionally reads my Newspaper Rock postings--when they're imported into Facebook, I believe. He said he was glad to see me speak out against Native stereotypes.

He's still working on his OVNTV website--Native content on the Internet. He said his goal is to change the way corporate America operates. An ambitious goal! I think he meant that Hollywood won't tell contemporary Indian stories, so Natives need to bypass the powers-that-be and tell their own stories. Using websites such as his as a medium of distribution and promotion.

To show people what he’d like to see on the site, Adam plans to travel across Indian country next year with a video camera. The idea is to create a personal journal of all the great things to protect their sovereignty, build their communities, preserve their cultures, etc. He may start with the Pechanga tribe by filming the story of its Great Oak.

After that we headed back to the room and went to bed relatively early (for me). Alas, we had no chance to see the Leonid meteor shower happening that night.

Below:  Victor Rocha and Adam Beach.