AEE Round Up 2005
I’m back from Vegas after the Adult Expo with the usual cold and serious case of “Vegas Throat.” (Too much smoke, try air and too many late nights just kill the voice.) In the past I have done daily updates on the show, but this year things just seem to break down better with a random notes style. I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m all over the place. I’ll do my best to hit the high and lowlights. I will also be throwing in a bullet points just to really shorten some of the stuff.
Travel: I got a flight out of Ontario this year. It’s not as cool as flying out of Long Beach and I couldn’t use Jet Blue, but Southwest from Ontario wasn’t bad. It was an easy flight, but I had to hang out and wait for my bags for over an hour. Flying in a normal year is great, but considering the crappy weather everyone faced coming over and going home, I am really glad I flew. I missed the NCAA Championship game, but it wasn’t such a close one anyway. (Tough one too since those are my two favorite college programs. Congrats USC.) I lucked out on the rental car when Thrifty was out of the cheap compacts and bumped me up to a mid-size. Of course that happens the one year when I had no one to drive around, but I can’t complain.
Pleasant Surprise #1: I got a call the day before I left letting me know that the RRCC and RRFF trophies were ready to go. Originally they weren’t going to be in on time and I was going to have to head to Vegas without them. Thankfully they got it done early for me and I was able to pack them along with a few dozen new T-Shirts that arrived just before I left.
Registration: I was really lucky to have a media badge for the show this year (thank you Adella), but I also paid for a pass just like everyone else. Why? I wanted to see how the registration and badges were handled. Last year there were some serious problems. When I cruised over to the Sands Convention Center on Wednesday to get my press badge, there were all sorts of stations set up to get regular passes. I know that everyone can’t get in a day early, but if you can, pick up your badges on Wednesday. I didn’t have to wait in line at all and it was very easy. I didn’t notice as long a line this year as last so it looks like they have fixed those problems with a much better layout.
Unpleasant Surprise #1: On my first night in town I was looking forward to a trip to the Rio buffet only to arrive five minutes after it close. This would be a recurring theme on the trip as I would miss my preferred dining spot by less than 7 minutes on four different occasions. I made up for this first flop with a trip a great little Asian restaurant in the Rio that severed great S&S pork and big bottles of Kiren.
Day One: I wasn’t feeling great as I hit the floor on day one, but it was nice to avoid the registration process and get right to work. My only scheduled interviews for the whole show were at the Digital Playground booth and as usual, Adella had everyone right on time. I sailed through four interviews in their booth and got some good stuff. Robby D, who always insists he is a bad interview, proved himself wrong again. He’s a very funny guy and was a little upset that I let him know he was nominated as Best Director in the RRCC awards. Why was he upset? Because he didn’t want to know he was nominated if he wasn’t the winner. He then made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Since I had three RRCC trophies for Jules Jordan, he promised Digital Playground Girl blowjobs if I could cross Jules’ name from the trophy and give them to him. During the next three interviews with Devon, Teagan and Jesse Jane, we asked them if they would go along with the deal to get Robby some awards. Devon said that Robby “wasn’t worth it.” I’m not sure who should be more insulted, him or me. Both Teagan and Jesse agreed to do it, but I am sad to say that the awards went to Jules anyway. Why? Because they both failed to come through. So, great interviews with Jesse and Teagan, but no blowjobs. Teagan was happy with her RRCC trophy as Best Newbie, but sadly didn’t add an AVN Award to it. (How could they have picked anyone but her?)
After those interviews, I walked around the floor and said hello to everyone, but tried to set up interviews for later in the show. No one was ready to talk just yet, so I ended up heading over to the actual CES show for the final few hours of day one. Not a bad day even if I did get stiffed on two blowjobs.
Pleasant Surprise #2: I found out from Robby that Jamye Waxman was on the floor and ran into her briefly. I haven’t seen her since I was in New York in 2003 and it is always awesome to catch up with such a good friend. By the way J, you look amazing.
Adult DVD Talk Party: This was one of three parties I was planning to attend on Thursday night and I was looking forward to meeting up with everyone again. I made it over there a little after it started and was greeted by Bill and C. Jones. As most of you already know, I’m not at my best at parities. Unlike some other porn journalists, Rog is not the life of the party. I did my best to talk to people and not get too drunk. At least I didn’t stand in the corner and be anti-social like Mr. Director man did. Sun Chen was tending bar and doing a pretty good job from what I could tell. I was drinking beer, but I think she was adding more than just great eye candy to the party with her drink mixing skills. I got a chance to re-connect with a lot of old friends like Jim Gunn, Mark Wood and or course the King of internet porn reviewers, Den from www.cavr.com I also got a chance to meet Kami for the first time. She is a very funny girl who is a lot nicer than some people would expect given the chippiness we’ve experienced on line. Selena Silver was there, showing off her new blonde hair. It looks damn good. I got to meet a number of Mark Speigler’s girls and damn they looked good. I got to meet John from NJ Films which was cool. Erik Everhard dropped by and handed out some DVDs to all the people there. Jules Jordan even stopped by, though he was gone before I could say hello. I know that I am leaving out a whole bunch of people and please forgive me. I talked to so many people and had great conversations all night. Suffice it to say, if I talked to you at the party, I enjoyed it. (Except for the brooding dude in the corner, he was a butt.) There was a lot less action going on this year. No parties in the bathroom, lesbian sex in the tub or mini-gangbangs to speak off. Instead it was great conversation for all.
Pleasant Surprise #3: The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower is really beautiful, especially if you stay long enough to check out the water show in front of the Belaggio.
Unpleasant Surprise #3: It is not easy to get Chinese food on the strip late at night on a Thursday. It is also impossible to make the two late parties when you are passed out after walking for an hour trying to find said Chinese food. (Sorry Pure Play & DVSX, I really wanted to hit those parties.)
