The Bits at EMA 2007: Day One

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The Bits at EMA 2007: Day One - On the Road

There's an old saying... something or other about the best laid plans of mice and men. I mention it here, because it seems that every time I plan to post an update to The Bits from the road, something always gets in the way. At EMA's Home Media Expo in Las Vegas last week, that something was bad WiFi service and a decided lack of sleep.

It started the day before we left for the show. In the effort to get a Monday post up for you guys last week, I ended up sleeping only about four hours on Sunday night - not exactly what you want in the tank before driving some 250 miles. Still, things started out well. After a visit to the local Enterprise to pick up our car rental... and a quick upgrade after the first car I was given turned out to be something only a step above a lawn mower... I departed Orange County and headed up to balmy Los Angeles, to pick up Jahnke. By Jahnke, of course, I mean Adam Jahnke... lately of Electric Theatre fame. But for some unknown reason, he's just Jahnke to Todd and myself.

Anyway, this wasn't Jahnke's first road trip to Vegas for the convention. Back in his Troma days, he often attended the Expo (then the Video Software Dealers Association show) in a professional capacity (though he might laugh at that description applied to his Troma days), so Jahnke was raring to go. A short time later, with his meager travel baggage safely stowed in the back of our badass Dodge Magnum pimp mobile, we'd pointed our noses East, zipped down the 101 freeway to the 10, quickly hooked up with the Northbound 15 and we were off to Sin City.

Now, if you've never driven the 15 to Vegas, you don't know this particular meaning of danger. The 15 seems to be the major trucking route between L.A. and Vegas, so it's always packed with 18-wheel big rigs full of freight. It's also heavily traveled by impatient SoCal sinners, either anxious to debase themselves or already seriously fallen from grace... which means that sleepy, speedy and drunken driving abounds. And as the 15 winds through the Mohave desert, it's also blistering hot. But hey... we had air conditioning, we had a couple of iPods full of music. We were happy campers. At least until we got to Baker.

Now, along the way, I'd been telling Jahnke how cool the Bun Boy was. And he was all, "What the hell's the Bun Buy?" The Bun Boy, dear readers, is this great dive of a greasy spoon on the road to Vegas. Located about halfway there as the crow flies on the 15, and easily identified by the World's Largest Thermometer standing tall in its parking lot, Bun Boy is THE place to stop for coffee, a burger... whatever junk food the heart may desire. Or at least it WAS the place. One of the best things about the Bun Boy was that it was this great original dive... established in 1926, fully a decade before the more famous Bob's Big Boy appeared on the fast food scene. There was even a Bun Boy Hotel next door. Except that now, as we pulled into the parking lot, I was crushed to realize that Bun Boy was no more. It is now, in fact, an actual Big Boy. Bob's bought 'em out! Never having experienced the glory that WAS the Bun Boy, Jahnke was naturally more disturbed by the fact that, in the time it took to walk from our car to the newly christened Big Boy's front door, the readout on the World's Largest Thermometer rose from 111 to 112 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hot folks, and no kidding about it. There isn't even a joke to be made when you're in 112-degree heat. Your eyeballs start to sweat.

Anyway, we passed up on the food at the Big Boy in favor of a quick trip to the washroom and a brief stop at the travel counter to grab a bunch of fliers advertising interesting stuff to do in Vegas: Visit the Atomic Testing Museum!, See the Hoover Dam by Helicopter!, Shoot a Real Live AK47 (just $40 for 40 Rounds)! Then, as we were pulling out of the Big Boy parking lot, something interesting caught our eye... the Alien Fresh Jerky stand down the road a bit. Now, it should be noted that many denizens of the Southwest seem to seriously love 'em their UFO sighting/crash/abduction lore. And we'll attest firsthand that the Alien Fresh Jerky store is, without question, the best place in Baker to have all your alien-related needs met. You can get all kinds of jerky... beef, turkey, buffalo, ostrich, venison, gator, presumably extraterrestrial... as well as a wide assortment of Area 51 hats, mugs, T-shirts, drivers licenses, etc. We were certainly intrigued by the dazzling array of alien swag, and the space-suited green guy sitting in the parked car outside, but we ultimately opted to purchase only a couple bottles of water (though Jahnke thought seriously about the Teriyaki something or other). Once back on the road, our Bun Boy disappointment was quickly forgotten. We cruised through Jean, zoomed past Stateline... and there, at long last, was Las Vegas itself, glistening in the late afternoon sun.

This year's Home Media Expo was held at The Venetian hotel, so that's where we soon found ourselves. After parking (and the nice thing about parking in Vegas is that it's free almost everywhere, and every hotel has a massive ramp attached to it) we slogged through the casino and finally arrived at the registration area. And you can never arrive at a convention without bumping into people you know before even setting your bags down, in this case a pair of senior 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment executives and our old friend Ed Peters, who works for an industry PR firm. Greetings were exchanged, check-in was thankfully speedy and friendly, and Jahnke and I were soon on our way to our hotel room.

I should note here that EMA was kind enough to offer the members of our joint Home Theater Forum/Digital Bits/TV Shows on DVD group a discounted rate on rooms to attend the convention. In our case, getting to our room entailed two elevator trips and a Bataan Death March of about a mile down numerous twisting hallways, though once there it was very nice indeed. After quickly dropping off our things and cleaning up, Jahnke and I quickly headed off the meeting room in the convention center, where most of our group's schedule would take place over the next two days: Titian 2305 (pronounced Tee-shan, as I learned from one unfortunate and so unnamed group member who'd had the misfortune to ask someone for directions to the 'Titty-ian' room).

After several unsuccessful attempts to find our way there or call ANYONE by cell phone (reception for which, we quickly learned, was all but unavailable in the convention center), we stumbled upon several members of our group in the hallway, who thankfully pointed us in the right direction. Once there, we found Ron Epstein, Adam Gregorich, Gregg Loewen (of LionAV) and nearly a dozen other Home Theater Forum members on hand, helping to set up the room. We should take a moment here to thank all of those who provided A/V equipment, or who arrived early and/or worked tirelessly to help set up our meeting space, including everyone at EMA, SV Sound, BENQ, Value Electronics, Axiom Audio, THX, Blue Jean Cables and Carada. When their efforts were complete, Titian 2305 was tricked out with the best widescreen front projection and surround sound audio system you're likely to find anywhere on the road, fully equipped to show the best of both the Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD formats. The folks at EMA even provided a broadband connection to allow HD-DVD player connectivity, which Microsoft's Kevin Collins was busy setting up.

I've known Ron Epstein and many of his HTF crew for almost ten years now. We go all the way back to the early days of DVD, as both The Digital Bits and The Home Theater Forum were established online during the first year of the DVD format back in 1997. And let me tell you, you'd have to go a long way to find a finer and nicer bunch of guys in the online enthusiast community. The Home Theater Forum has been the unofficial official discussion forum for The Digital Bits for a long time now, if for no other reason than this. So it was terrific to see them all in person again, and to meet many new members as well. It's funny how many people you interact with and get to know over the Net when you do the kind of work we do at The Bits for as long as we have.

Anyway, Ron and several others had picked up tickets to see the latest Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage across the street... The Beatles: Love. And the rest were all slipping away in twos and threes for a quick dinner while the set-up continued. Meanwhile, Jahnke and I learned that our friends from Warner Home Video were due in at 8 PM to test some of the demo material they'd brought to show our group the following morning. So Jahnke and I slipped off to this interesting restaurant in the Venetian's Canal Shops area for a quick dinner before their arrival. We couldn't tell you what the place was called to save our lives, but the beer and fish tacos were excellent.

Jahnke and I were the first to return to the Titian room, just as Steve Nickerson, Ronnee Sass and Janet Keller from Warner arrived to test the interactive HDi features on Blood Diamond and 300 (the HD-DVD versions) on the room's equipment. Again, having worked on The Bits for so long now, we've gotten to know a lot of the people who work in DVD at the Hollywood studios pretty well over the years. So it was nice to have the chance to chat with the Warner crew for a while as everything was checked out. Our conversation wandered from talk of the EMA show itself, to the ongoing format war, great upcoming titles that Warner is prepping for release over the next few months, all our upcoming Comic-Con plans, etc. As it happens, we're working closely with Warner on our DVD Sneak Peek panel at Comic-Con in San Diego on Thursday (7/26), where we'll be showing exclusive clips from the soon-to-be-announced Blade Runner: Ultimate Edition (more on that later this week). So this was a nice moment of calm before the storm as it were. Jahnke and I also chatted briefly with Andrew Melomet, a long-time Bits reader and HTF member who also happens to be a huge history buff (he's going to be joining our staff as a regular columnist soon, so watch for interesting history-related stories from him in the months ahead).

Eventually, though, Jahnke and I had to part company with our friends at Warner to head off to the airport. You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned Todd's name yet in our lengthy tale. That's because all during the events described above, Todd was enduring a packed and hellish airline flight from his home in Atlanta, GA to join us for all the Vegas-y EMA fun. He was expected to be wheels down at around 11 PM, if all went well, so Jahnke and I quickly retrieved the Magnum and hit the road. You'll recall how I mentioned a while back that parking is free almost everywhere in Vegas? Yeah... well, except for the short term parking at McCarrin Airport. There, they charge you to park and, for some unknown reason, they take only quarters... which neither Jahnke or I had on hand. So we parked and had to schlep around in a panic trying to find the ramp's promised (but for some reason hidden) change machine. Eventually, though, we managed to sort out the parking situation and make our way inside the terminal.

Attempting to fit in with all of the paid drivers milling about holding signs bearing names of the people they're there to meet (one of whom seems about to shoot himself, he seems so twitchy and frustrated), Jahnke and I hastily constructed a paper sign featuring the words 'El Doogan' and then settled in to watch the arrival monitors for news of Todd's flight. We waited... and waited... passing the time by speculating on the likely quality of the new Hans Klok (featuring Pamela Anderson) magic show at the Planet Hollywood Hotel, the signs for which are EVERYWHERE in the terminal and on billboards all over town. Before long, the $2 in quarters we'd managed to scrabble together for parking was eaten up with no sign of Todd. So I eventually had to leave Jahnke standing there with our sign, to run out and plug the meter again. Naturally, just as I've dropped another $2 in quarters into the meter, my cell phone rings. It's Todd: "Hey, where the hell are you guys? I'm standing here waiting for my bags." Somehow, Todd managed to give Jahnke the slip, probably walking right past him in the bustle of arriving passengers, and thus completely blew our makeshift sign gag. Fortunately, Jahnke and I did indeed find him by the baggage carousel, and two things quickly made themselves apparent. First, Todd was wearing a hoodie sweat shirt ill-matched to the 100 degree heat outside (even closing in on Midnight as it was). And second, though flight numbers (including Todd's) were stacking up on the carousel's monitor... no bags were emerging.

Our hope had been to quickly grab Todd and race back to Venetian in time to catch up with Ron and Gord Lacey (of TV Shows on DVD) for a quick beer before heading off to some badly-needed shut-eye. But as the minutes dragged on with no sign of Todd's bags, that plan quickly went out the window. After about another 30 minutes worth of Hans Klok jokes, Todd's bags finally arrived and we headed out to the car... only to get stuck in the parking ramp's elevator. I'm not kidding, we arrived at our floor and the doors to the elevator - which was sweltering by the way - did not open of their own accord, necessitating a serious MacGyver moment and much prying. And given the shitty cell phone service, it was only after arriving at the car that we received Ron and Gord's messages saying they were headed to bed and they'd catch up with us in the morning. Thank God we'd upgraded the car, because with all of Todd's bags, the back filled up quick (it should be noted here that Todd smiled his approval on first sight of the Magnum, immediately recognizing its pimp potential).

By the time we got back to the hotel, and made our second Bataan-esque march up to our room, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Phantom of the Opera himself had not only turned down our beds, but had personally invited us (via swanky card on our beds) to see his lavish stage show at the Venetian for $40 off. He'd even left chocolate on our pillows. That was all certainly hard to resist, but the notion of cold beer proved to have greater appeal. So we adjourned to one of the many cafes, bars and restaurants that encircled the casino floor for tall glasses of Sam Adams (all except for Jahnke who, for reasons which shall remain unexplained, refuses to drink a Boston lager), a hamburger for Todd (who hadn't yet eaten dinner) and a couple hours of people watching which, I can tell you, is an endlessly fascinating pursuit late at night in a city like Vegas. Casinos are rife with stale smell of cigarettes and liquor, not to mention the electric pall of crushed dreams, come 2 AM. As if the gamblers weren't interesting enough, we watched a hotel workman achieve a Zen-like state while using an orbital buffing machine to polish the casino floors. No kidding.

And on this reflective note, our first night in Vegas came to a close with the promise of blissful hotel sleep beckoning. Tuesday was set to be a BIG day for our combined HTF/Bits/TV Shows crew, so we were going to need all the rest we could get.

And we'll pick up the story there soon. Stay tuned...

on to Day Two

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