In his 2003 novel Pattern Recognition, William Gibson postulated that jet lag is the result of the late arrival of your soul as it catches up with your body. Since your soul can’t travel as fast as a jet, you have to wait for it to arrive, like lost luggage.
Our flight departed from Toronto, Canada, at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and we arrived without our souls in Warsaw at 1 p.m. the next day. Losing a night of your life in an aluminum tube that’s aslosh with jet fuel is an unpleasant aspect of modern travel. Unpleasant, yes, but miraculous nonetheless—the fact that you can fly across the Atlantic Ocean at all gets forgotten in the misery of travel in economy class.
Doug Schneider, Jason Thorpe, and Matt Bonaccio
The first day is a misery that must simply be endured. So Doug Schneider, Matt Bonaccio, and I arrived at the Radisson Blu Sobieski hotel, one of the sites for Audio Video Show 2024, and checked in while feeling not very grateful for the miracle of air travel.
Our plan for this day was to simply make it through to 9 p.m. so that we could normalize with—hopefully—a night of sleep on Warsaw time. So up to our rooms for a 30-minute nap and a shower, then off to dinner. After that short rest, I ripped down the street for a coffee. Caffeine combined with a short recharge worked a treat, and I made it through dinner and a walk from the hotel to the local (huge) mall. Matt had neither a nap nor coffee holding him up, and every time we sat down for more than five minutes, I could see his eyes start closing. I felt sorry for the guy but took some small pleasure in knowing that, at two years younger than his father, I could outlast him, even after downing a half-liter of Heineken with dinner.
A melatonin pill and a prescription-strength muscle relaxant at 9 p.m. ended the day like a hammer wrapped in a velvet Crown Royal bag. Ten hours of wonderful sleep later, I was up and ready to go. There wasn’t much to do today. Breakfast at the Radisson Blu Sobieski’s superb buffet, a walk about town, meet and greet a few industry folks in the lobby, and that was about it.
Too early
It’s 7 p.m. Central European Time now, and I just headed out to walk the halls. It’s a hive of activity there. Men are moving dollies piled high with boxes, and most rooms have gear in the early stages of decantation. The stairwells are filled with the ratchety sound of electric screwdrivers as workers open shipping crates.
Nobody’s really having fun, nor do they have time to chat. It seems like a stressful time. I thought I should grab a couple of photos, but it didn’t seem right—kinda like taking a photo of someone while they’re sitting on the toilet.
The exception here was Martijn Mensink of Dutch & Dutch, the manufacturer of active speakers that do all sorts of electronic room-optimization tricks. Two speakers and a laptop, that’s about all he needed here, and while he was still optimizing his exceptionally square hotel room, he seemed quite calm about it all. “Come back at 10 p.m. and have a listen,” he said.
Martijn Mensink in the Dutch & Dutch room
Our plan of attack for tomorrow, the first official day of the show, is to head over to the PGE Narodowy stadium, which—along with the Golden Tulip hotel—is also one of the three sites of Audio Video Show 2024. Last year we went to the stadium on Saturday, and it was absolutely packed to the point where we were combat-ineffective. Getting this site covered on a weekday seems like a very good idea.
There’s much to see at the show, so be sure to follow along for the next couple of days and check out our coverage.
Jason Thorpe
Senior Editor, SoundStage!
