population 575,973 (metro area 1.6 million) (and growing)
nickname: Sin City, "The Entertainment Capital of the World" selling point: gambling, girls, glitz

Viva Las Vegas... you've got to give a town props for creating a meme that empowers itself. Viva Las Vegas: every time you think it, more life drains towards Vegas. Money, life, the flow manic & amped-up... Bellagio, New York New York, the MGM Grand, Aladdin... there are all these strange casino-entities parked along the Strip, entities feeding off the swarm of people below. Strange place, Vegas.

Coffee: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (4550 S Maryland, the University area) is about as good as you'll get; wireless; strip-mall locale with occasional live jazz.
Food: If you want to get off the Strip, try the mediterranean restaurant & hookah lounge (4147 Maryland)... Rainbow's End Natural Foods (1100 E Sahara) also has a pleasant little cafe.
Nature: I hear there's good climbing & hiking around Red Rocks... if you know, tell me.
Other Things to Do: Listen to lounge music, marvel at the simulacrum, catch a free show, use your imagination.
Nearby: There's a desert of housing surrounding Vegas... but next time I'm in the area, I want to go to this date farm.

field notes: las vegas / 19 april 2005

a professional poker player from amsterdam
took me out to dinner
pad thai five o'clock shadow
he had only slept a few hours
had excel spreadsheets, graphs, charting his gains and losses
former professional athlete, high jump, motivational speaker he
said i want to open myself like a flower and share my soul with people
but nobody cares
i had empathy for this because i think we all have that desire
"i want to connect with people but nobody wants it"
"i just want to help people" like a mantra so what do you say
i said, you're not alone, God is with you
i find myself saying that a lot
it doesn't quite do the trick & makes me sound rather religious but
what else is there to say     it's true     i don't know

field notes: las vegas / 21 august 2005

Then sometimes you get sent from heaven to hell, and contemplate the existence of the tiger on his podium in the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas, but instead of being disgusted at the spectacle it seems charming, especially if you are in a good mood from the day before, and even hell isn't that bad, because you're always you, wherever       So maybe the tiger is pleased enough being himself, here behind this glass with the glazed-eyed-tourists

dull from the Las Vegas onslaught of stimulus;

maybe the tiger lies placid & daydreams in the center of his universe. who knows. not me. i am not a tiger in las vegas.

 

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