I arrived at the Four Seasons at Mandalay Bay about an hour after Wife Camper had checked in. I sat in the lobby, and waited for her to come down and collect me. We greeted each other, surely with a certain level of awkwardness (surely for some sort of odd comedic value), and a gent came striding towards me.
The pandemic continues, and continues to have an impact on 2econd Friday. We were booked to stay at Nomad, but their re-opening date was pushed back, so we had to book somewhere else. We brought back Signature at MGM Grand to our list of possible (having previously removed it, when we extended the list to beyond The Strip), as it seemed like a place which could hopefully help us avoid the virus. “Hey, eedgits, if you want to avoid the virus, why don’t you just stay at home?” “Because, we’re pretending that we’re contractually obliged to continue 2econd Friday.”
Josephine (aka The Voice of Google from the 2econd Friday promotional video) returned as a Special Guest, but insisted that she dressed up as The Voice of Google. We even hand-crafted a ‘G’ onto her face-mask, but when she put it on, the fanning out effect meant it merely looked like a face-mask that had been found in “the trash”, or something.
2econd Friday is still rather fearful of the virus. “Yeah, that’s surely why it continues to put itself in situations which could put its members at risk”, says an imaginary person passing comment. Yes, it’s a fair point. There were to be three Special Guests, this month, but to reduce risk to all concerned, it was a case of when three become one, as the Spice Girls may have said, in some sort of situation with Ginger, Baby, and David Beckham.
2econd Friday returned to a hotel situation, after spending two months at home, hiding from the virus. We were a bit nervous about returning to said hotel situation, it must be said. Well, it doesn’t have to be said, but I’ll say it. We parked the car, got the lift up to the casino level, and boom, there they were. Hordes of people without face-masks. We found it somewhat overwhelming. All the staff were in masks, but only a small percentage of customers. Cripes, let’s hide.
2econd Friday was proud to be a first-tier sponsor at the recent Future of the Future conference. It was surely an exciting day.
The opening session was “Walk Now – A Route for Tomorrow, Today.” “Walk Now” is a song by Orbital, from their fantastic Brown Album.
There were Special Guests aplenty, at this unique 2econd Friday. Exactly how unique, remains to be seen, based on whether The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas opens its doors in time for the second Friday of May. Big news: 2econd Friday has changed format. Read on.
“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.”
2econd Friday was going to be somewhere else, this month, but Kim’s nice thinking about petrification made us change from that other destination, to Luxor. And it seems almost as if it was destined to be somewhere that opened in 1993.
For only the second time in 2econd Friday history, we were “off-site” for the activity. And for the second time, this found us at Core Contemporary.
It was the opening reception of the “My Two Cents” exhibition. Hooray, Zoe had a piece in the exhibition. One of the attendees at the reception was 2econd Friday Special Guest. It was none other than Richard Hooker. He went off to get on his glad-rags, and we met back up with him at Binion’s Steakhouse.