This thing is being built across from the Las Vegas Hilton.

I see it on a nearly daily basis, and I have no idea what it is … but it is certainly making progress.

How’s that for detail?

I’m one of the few “Las Vegas Bloggers” (as much as I detest the term) who isn’t super-obsessive about construction projects here in town.

Out-of-town readers seem to appreciate it when I put the shots up, so I take shots and give updates if I happen to be near a construction site.

I am interested in them on some level, but I’m more interested in the “here and now” of the town rather than prognosticating the future of this or that project. I think it is a side-effect of living here. Sure, Encore is going to open in 5 months … but I’m going to be here for the 100 days until it opens. I’m trying to figure out what is going to happen tomorrow. I need to make sure that Steve Wynn doesn’t mistake me for “Jamie” sometime next week.

Until I can go into a place and eat, drink, or gamble … it doesn’t exist. It’s just a concept (see: Echelon Place). 18 months from now, a new casino or condo will open … that’s swell. But until it actually happens, it’s just more yapping about it, and more noise, and more eyesores.

I went to the “new” Aladdin on opening day, and was greeted with … a casino.

I scrambled to the Wynn mere hours after it opened, and was greeted with … a casino.

I went to Hooters on opening day and was greeted with … a casino.

I was one of the first people inside the new Red Rock Casino, and was greeted with … a casino.

I walked over to the Palazzo mere hours after it opened, and was greeted with … a casino.

Maybe I am just jaded or am not a bona-fide casino aficionado (I still don’t know what a “port crotch” is exactly) … but I always found it anti-climactic.

Sure, most of these places were nice. Really, really nice. I found something interesting in all of the places, and I had a good time … but how different can they be?

In all cases, the months or years of anticipation ended with something like this:

Me: “Wow. This is certainly an impressive property. I’m glad it’s finally here. It’s very nice.”

Companion: “Yeah, it is. Very nice. I like it.”

Me: “Now what?”

Companion: “I’m not sure.”

Me: “We can play some blackjack.”

Companion: “Okay, we can give it a try and see what it’s like.”

Me: “I’m pretty sure that they deal you two cards, and you try to get as close to 21 as possible.”

Companion: “You mean like at The Stratosphere?”

Me: “Yeah, something like that.”

Companion: “Wait, could we go look at the port crotch again?”

Okay, nobody has ever asked to stand and stare at the port crotch, but the rest of the conversation is more or less what happens after an hour of touring the joint.

They rarely unveil any new games that I haven’t seen before, and the restaurants are always as perfectly edible and are at least as good as the other restaurants that already exist.

There was never a feeling of “Thank god they built this place, because the gambling and food elsewhere is just unacceptable!”

I’m pretty sure Encore will be the same, as will City Center and Fontainebleau.

Granted, it may take me three hours instead of one hour to tour City Center, and I will probably go there frequently after it opens, but it will probably do the same thing for me in a year what the Mandalay Bay does for me now. Namely, provide for me a nice place to gamble, eat, and have a really cool pool to swim in.

I’m sure I will go inside a City Center room at some point, but I’ve never spent more than one waking hour in a Vegas hotel room even as a tourist, so rooms aren’t a huge deal to me. I’m not sure how many people come to Vegas to hang out in the room. Shower, check, toilet, check, bed, check, cockroaches, nope … I’m good.

Casino openings are more of interest to the press (including 30% accurate bloggers) to pick apart, over-analyze, and dissect in painful detail. It makes us feel relevant.

“Are the sink handles real brass or painted steel? We contacted a spokesman to find out …” just shoot me in the frigging head already.

The details are inconsequential to me, I just care if the place is entertaining, what the attitude of the staff is like, and whether or not I enjoy the vibe.

I could not care less about the stain on the carpet or the leftover construction artifacts, I just want to know how scantily clad the waitresses are and how good the beverage service is.

This may explain my relative lack of interest in projects under construction.

It’s kind of a “been there, done that” kind of feeling, and I don’t get super-excited every time a new project is announced, or when it makes progress. I try to muster some enthusiasm because readers kind of like to know, but it’s hard to maintain that level when you walk among the projects, drive by them, or look out the window at them every single day.

Casino and condo construction is to me what Walmart construction is to the rest of the country … always occurring, but rarely exciting.

Anyway, this is why I can’t always identify a project, or don’t frequently update a project’s progress.

I’d like to be able to ascribe my lack of observation to a greater intellectual purpose or some inside privyness that I am forbidden to reveal under a non-disclosure agreement with all the major players here in town, but I’m afraid that it’s just plain, run-of-the-mill … apathy.

So where was I?

Oh yeah, something made progress.