Introduction
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Another
January and another CES show in Las Vegas, Nevada, has come and
gone in the blink of an eye. Some 2,700 exhibitors pushed
their wares
in over 30 distinct categories. The exposition of the products and
services were carried in the main convention centre, hotel suites up
and down the strip, and in the Sands Expo Center that adjoins the
ever-so-impressive Venetian and Palazzo hotel complex.
After traipsing around the halls and suites for five consecutive days
and seeing technology from all and sundry, only two products stand out
from the homogeneous me-too crowd. Samsung's
31in
OLED TV with its brilliant colours and super-slim design - a
harbinger of displays to come, I'm sure - and
Alienware's
curved
screen that wowed crowds from day one. Indeed, the show was
so
vast
that it was only possible to see a small fraction of what was being
displayed.
Such is the sheer space available in the 1.2-million-square-foot Sands
Expo
Center and so popular is Las Vegas as a hosting city for
industry-leading events, it's of no surprise that more than one
exhibition takes place at any one time.
So what happens to all the redundant show area that's not being used in
the second week of January, when the weary tech companies have packed
up and made a beeline for the airport?
Fortunately for hacks that stay on a bit longer in Sin City, there's
always the AVN (Adult Video News) Adult Entertainment Expo to look
forward to. Starting on the day before CES finishes and carrying on
through to this weekend, the multi-faceted show brings together an
eclectic mix of distributors, producers, directors, and every Tom, Dick
and Harry associated with the business - in order to facilitate trade
and provide an under-one-roof networking environment.
But AVN is more than a trade-only show, though, as it also brings
together the studio-contracted strutting macho stars and wide-eyed,
heavy-bosomed starlets of the industry - letting their legions of fans
get up close and quite personal with their heroes and heroines.
Having had the (mis)fortune of finding myself inexplicably registered
and reporting on the show
last
year, there was nothing to do but do it again: it's a hard
life but someone's got to do it, right?
Benjamin Franklin once remarked that 'in this world nothing can be said
to be certain, except death and taxes'. You can add the blue business
to that iron-clad list of certainty, because as sure as night
follows day, the
industry's fans will flock to the show in droves. Indeed, the entrance
to the Expo, via the Venetian hotel, dramatically changes from
suit-wearing geeks to scantily-clothed starlets vying for your eyes'
attention with gaits that come from a top-heavy disposition in most
cases.
Once again, taking centre stage and arousing - well, perhaps that's the
wrong word in this context - the most press attention
was the irrepressible and hirsute god of the industry, Ron Jeremy. His
acolytes come from far and wide to lay eyes on a man who's the epitome
of the American Dream.
Lending his name and magnetism to PETA (People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals), old Jez isn't a bad sort. However,
there are far
more eye-catching visuals than Jez' moustache and belly to entertained
by.
Ahem! Yes, quite. Let's move on to the next page. All I can promise is
more imagery of scantily-glad girls.
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