Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend 2011: Day 0

I'm back in the same place I was for the 2009 Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend: In the coffee shop of the Orleans Hotel and Casino where they have free Wi-Fi!

Some notes and observations so far:

• I still like using the shuttle to get from McCarran to the Orleans. I used Grey Lines service, and it's $12.00 round trip. The catch is that the buses stop at something like ten other hotels first. So it's about an hour ride. If you have the time like I did, it's worth it. But if you don't, or if you're traveling with a group of three or more to share the cost. taxis will probably be a better choice. Last I heard the cost of a taxi was about $25.00 each way. Oh, and if you get to curbside and see only a taxi line, go back through the baggage claim to the shuttle area.
• There were quite a few burlesque people who arrived here on Wednesday. There was a group who gathered at the Mardi Gras Bar in the Orleans main casino to socialize at night.
• I still love using Twitter to keep informed of all of the goings on. If you follow my Twitter feed, you'll notice some of the posts will have the hashtag "BHoF11," which seems to be the main hashtag indicating that the tweet deals with this year's BHoF Weekend. A lot of the information about unofficial events can be found in the streams, as well as official events. Good stuff! Especially when there may not be a lot of official event information available.
• Speaking of schedules, there is an official one posted by BHoF. It's located on the burlesquehall.com site, which I'm having problems accessing right now. It's under the "Weekend 2011" menu item. A copy of the schedule would be good to have on a digital device or as a printout to know what's happening, when, and where for planning purposes. I've noticed that the schedule has changed recently. Now, there doesn't seem to be a bowling event on Thursday night, which was on the schedule as of last week or so. There may be continuing changes, so keep aware of announcements made during the Weekend.
  
• You may have heard that some of the people who were formerly associated with BHoF have split off and started a competing event, which is now called the "Dixie Evans Burlesque Show," which will be taking place on June 3-4 at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Downtown Las Vegas. In fact, there is a well-written Wall Street Journal article about the situation. Personally, I'm hoping that the schism can be healed quickly, because I think having all of the performers together at one event would serve fans the best. But it's working its way through the legal system, so we'll see how it all turns out.

Just a programming note. Posts will be delayed a bit because of the BHoF Weekend. The weekly round-up of shows and events will still be posted, but later on Thursday.