After sleeping three hours Wednesday morning, three hours Wednesday evening, and one hour Thursday morning, I was up early and ready to go. Victor and I had breakfast in our room, then packed up and headed for the Convention Center.
I attended an Indian gaming panel that promised "issues and answers." Among the speakers were three I know personally: Mark Macarro, Ernie Stevens Jr., and Mark Van Norman. The panelists offered overviews of the subject but no hard-hitting Q&As, as I expected, so I left earlier. I took a circuitous route back to our booth and snapped some more pictures.
At our booth we met William Spain and Andrew Gellatly, the gaming writers from last night. We also met our good buddy Chad Gordon, a Native lawyer, and his new girlfriend Amy. Because Victor was eager to get home, we packed up the booth early.
Heading home
On the way out we met Dr. Kate Spilde, Indian gaming researcher, and had a long chat. We were a bit surprised to see Steve Kroft and a 60 Minutes crew pass by. Apparently they were at G2E to do an exposé on slot-machine addiction.
We picked up Victor's car from the Las Vegas Hilton, where he had parked it, and headed out. We had one interesting stop in Baker, California, in the middle of the Mojave Desert. A store selling "Alien Fresh Jerky" had dummy aliens on display on their roof and in a car.
We listened to Howard Stern all the way back. Victor did almost as well on Stern's SuperFan Quiz as the participants. At Victor's house, his wife Pat made us chicken soup and I played with their kitty Maya. Then I headed home.
For more on the subject, see The Facts About Indian Gaming.
Below: IGT incorporates the hottest entertainment trends into its slot machines.
6 comments:
Why does everything have to be about Indians with you? Can't you just have some fun? Without looking for stereotypes in everything? The world is not out to get you. And, if there's something in the media you're so dissatisfied with, I've got a great idea: Write a better story!
And please stop knocking on 40-year-old comics like 'Rima'. I liked that one. You completely missed the point of it; she's supposed to be white and that's why she catches the other characters so off-guard!
"And, if there's something in the media you're so dissatisfied with, I've got a great idea: Write a better story!"
Haven't heard of "Peace Party" yet, have you?
Yes, I have heard of "Peace Party". But, this author does not appear to have any other projects running...am I wrong? Because he seems very obsessed with the topics he has written about on this blog. I am interested to know if he's working on anything else besides his pet project because no offense to the author, but his blog behavior does not seem very healthy.
Anonymous:
"Why does everything have to be about Indians with you? Can't you just have some fun? Without looking for stereotypes in everything? The world is not out to get you."
Yeah, uh, he critiques stereotypes of Indians in the media. That's kind of the point of the blog. And good for you liking 'Rima' - apparently that means it's off-limits for discussion that isn't 100% positive.
Here's an idea: if everything in every Native community all over the Americas is fine and dandy in your opinion or you don't care about our struggles and successes, just don't read the blog. No one's forcing you to be concerned about the content or the writer.
Problem solved!
"....his blog behavior does not seem very healthy."
Ah yes, the unlicensed an anonymous blog-comment "amateur shrink".
No, you missed the point of Rima, Anonymous. "White Indians" have been a comic-book cliché since the 1950s, at least. The presumption is that whites are better at being Native than Natives because whites are better at everything.
I'm always working on several creative projects: comic books, short stories, novels, screenplays, etc. But if you think I can't be a writer and a critic at the same time, you're sadly mistaken. Indeed, the two disciplines reinforce each other.
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