This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
What Happens in Vegas
From the Slope of Hope: I'm not a very good hedonist, I guess.
Here I am in Las Vegas, and to my way of thinking, everything I hate about the human race is conveniently compressed into one tidy package.
And I ask myself: what's my problem? Why do I let places like this get to me so much? I mean, after all, why should I care what other people do with their time and their lives? What business is it of mine?
Well, it's none of my business, of course. The whole human race could wallow around in whatever it wants, and as long as it doesn't adversely affect me or the people about whom I care, it really shouldn't matter. And, on the whole, this is the state of affairs, because I have designed my life in a tidy little bubble and need not trouble myself with such thoughts.
It still chews at me, though, why I get so irked by hoardes of people engaging in as many bacchanalian propensities as they can muster. Drinking. Drugs. Sex. Slack-jawed gaping of The Things That Are So Bright and The Things That Are So Big. It just isn't my cup of tea.
My little girl, whose competition brings me here, expressed it wisely beyond her years when, unprompted, she said to me: "Dad, I notice that everything in this town is fake." And that, I finally realized, was what had my panties in such a wad.
The blonde hair is fake. The big boobs are fake. The wretched, fawning smiles are fake. The attitudes are fake. The posturing, preening, and posing are all put-ons designed by the ho-bags and douche-wads stumbling up and down the streets to hopefully bed whatever quarry about which they fantasize.
So is it because I'm repelled out of some sense of moral repugnance? Nope. I think we're pretty much responsible for our own souls. I don't really care what these nitwits do.
How about disappointment? Well, I think we're starting to get close. And it isn't because I'm personally associated with these folks. I don't directly care about any of these people, but I guess since I identify myself as part of this group as a fellow human, it's disheartening to see it race to the bottom by the most basic cravings. Aren't we capable of more than this? Do we really need to make these distractions and destructions the high point of our existence?
In other words, is heading to a place like this the best thing to which people may look forward? I see nothing around me but (a) ads for sex; (b) ads for drinking; (c) and, in the greatest abundance of all, ads for personal injury lawyers (the most popular one of which has the unlikely surname of - - and I'm not making this up - - Golightly).
Now, look, I realize that the human race doesn't consist of a bunch of poets and artists. We're not all going to be sitting around engaging in witty bon mots and cerebral repartee. Bell curves are everywhere, and most people, ipso facto, are average. I'm not naive enough to believe that humanity can elevate itself to its highest potential.
I also recognize that this place is a house of mirrors, and authenticity is still present in the world. But what puzzles me is how persistently people are drawn to this circus.
"Oh, Tim, you're such a stick-in-the-mud! They're just having fun!" Yeah, yeah, I know. And you're not convincing me. And as this cancerous convergence of self-indulgence and glitter (understood broadly as "Western Culture") metastasizes in China, Russia, India, and everywhere else it can be developed, more and more of our fellow humans are going to squander at least a portion of their lives exchanging their dollars for the hope of some kind of temporary escape.
The best I can do is stay as far away as possible and draw whatever edifying lessons I can from my repulsion to what troubles me. We can learn of ourselves by what we love, what we hate, and what causes us to react.
Party on, Wayne!
- advertisements -
"It's Chinatown, Jake."
and I thought that the definition of narcissism was spelled OBAMA, what do I know Wikipedia says it's spelled KNIGHT
Don't throw that term around loosely.
Yer way off.
---
Good thoughts, Tim.
You are not alone, by any stretch...
You're forgetting the insufferable Glenn Lerner attorney ads for personal injury. He went to Stanford and played football. You can't go 15 minutes in this town without being reminded about it. Chad Golightly? Guys a lightweight compared to Glenn Lerner
http://vegasxau.blogspot.com
Yes, you and your daughter nailed it. That pyramid(Luxor) as well as the Egyptian statues are fake, you know that's not real Statue of Liberty either, neither is the Excalibur a real castle. I also doubt that the Eiffel tower is real. You are very keen observer Tim.
It's not the real Caesar's Palace?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8jBk4S8bbk
It’s easy to adopt the live and let live attitude towards gambling and everything that surrounds it until its dark side infiltrates your life unexpectedly. Go to a Gamanon or Gambler’s anonymous meeting sometime if you want to see and hear horror stories of sons, daughters, husbands, and wives who have been unwittingly devastated financially and emotionally by members of their family with a gambling addiction (You’ll have to go to a meeting because you’ll never hear the MSM report on this problem in the depth it deserves).
I’ve regretfully witnessed some of these ugly situations first hand. The most frustrating thing about it is to know that while the problem is escalating geometrically, governments at all levels continue to champion gambling as a growth industry and a fantastic source of public revenue.I read somewhere that 6-7% of our GDP is gambling related. Think about that for a second or two. Is it any surprise that one of the fastest growing groups of addicted gamblers are young adults in their late teens and early twenties gambling online who honestly believe that it’s a real job; a professional career choice.
Tim Knight, you're pretty dense, it seems to be me. You don't seem to have any insight into yourself. You sound like one of those bible waving Republicans who screamed against gay marriage and love to suck cock behind close door.
Look buddy, the stuff you attributes to Vegas is exactly what you find in DC if not worse; at least they are honest about it in Vegas. I can philosophize and contemplate the basic questions of existence as well in Vegas as anywhere else. If anything, the atypical environment of Vegas tends to stimulate basic questioning more than any other cities where it seems normal on the surface, but under it's just as decrepit and degenerate.
So take you b.s. moralizing and hide it in a closet, and leave people be with the freedom to do whatever they want to. They can be a douche bag if they want to and you can be hypocritical closeted cocksucker if you want to.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...except for the herpes, they're going with you.
"The blonde hair is fake. The big boobs are fake. The wretched, fawning smiles are fake. The attitudes are fake. The posturing, preening, and posing are all put-ons designed by the ho-bags and douche-wads stumbling up and down the streets to hopefully bed whatever quarry about which they fantasize."
I thought you said you where in Vegas, not L.A?
Vegas is an escape. It's entertaiment. That is all. When economies slump, people spend money to escape reality. When the money dries up (which it won't), Vegas will still be there selling us entertainment. Entertainment is a very dynamic industry. You'll see Vegas get cheaper, like it used to be (Hotel rates will drop along with table minimums and show admissions) and they'll keep the ball rolling. They may not develop as much real estate, but that town ain't going to die. Vegas is fun. And for folks like me who live in LA, it's a quick and easy weekend escape. We take their water, then fly right back to their city and subsidise their water purchases with our dollars. it's very symbiotic and not likely to change for quite some time.
It must be terrible to have an IQ of 100. Shudder.
It is awfull i finaly got myself up to 101 by taking Viagra and pumping iron 3 hours a day, except for Thursday when I donate sperm, to a watermellon, at the food bank, Yeeesh!
Sarcasm without eyebrows is so hard.
SAT 800, GMAFB. Sat in yer Moms basement and developed the critical skills of a brick. Are you Fat,Greek or Chinese?
You don't have to go to Las Vegas to see any of this shit. Gambling, binge drinking, drug abuse, whoredom, and general moral decline are everywhere now. Las Vegas is obsolete.
True. You can go to any neo-suburban center in America. Strip malls and souless chain stores are all the only places they can go outside their tiny fenced in yards when they have to leave the McMansions for meat and coffee shakes to keep them going.
To paraphrase Jean Baudrillard:
Las Vegas exists to conceal the fact that the West is Las Vegas. Las Vegas is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe the rest (of America and western civiliization) is real.
Its greatest function is to divert and distract our attention to prevent us from realizing that Las Vegas is eveywhere.
Aren't we capable of more than this? Do we really need to make these distractions and destructions the high point of our existence?
Well, trading in financial markets and blogging about it is not really making the world a better place either right? But that is what you do for a living right?
I got a chuckle from the douche poster, but seriously man, your tone is about the snarkiest I have read in a while.
I love how traders like to put themselves on a higher level then gamblers or make the trading game different from what it really is. Granted I like to trade, but it is what it is too.
Lots of suffering in the World, alleviate some: http://www.worldvision.org
I can't do it all by myself!
Hmmm ...
I've been to Vegas a few times, I don't gamble though, life is enough of a gamble for me. Vegas is cheap, that's the word that fits the best. Everything in Vegas is as cheaply done as possible. Nobody pays attention b/c everyone is busy 'having a good time'. Nobody notices the concrete.
They ('They') have good shows in Vegas, leave out the Cirque du Soleil (garbage) and Liberace (dead). I never saw Elvis in Vegas (his spiritual home) but I did see Elvis (Costello @ Bellagio). It's easy to tune out the poor quality concrete for a few hours at a time.
The first time I was at the LV airport -- this was years ago -- I had to change planes for a flight to Phoenix. The main terminal was a shabby circular building with a worn out blue carpet. The entire place was a casino filled w/ slot machines. The noise was unimaginable: bells and whistles, horns, etc. top volume: BANG BANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!!! There was nowhere to go to get away, just huddle in the corner waiting for the damned flight. The interesting thing was nobody won anything. It was people paying lots of money to work in a boiler factory. I couldn't see how the airline employees could stand it.
Last time I was at the LV airport, no casino. Nothing was happening in Vegas it was dead, scared. It should be scared, it's a dying city. If God wanted to create a city simply to throw away it would be Las Vegas.
LV was (is) lousy real estate development, it's terrible, the worst of the worst. Nobody bothered to figure out how to make a real city. It's a company town, like a paper mill town in Pennsylvania or a coal town in West Virginia. There are hotels and casinos, real estate bullshit and 'services'. Mortgage fraud, then out and out real estate fraud, now mortgage servicer fraud and foreclosure fraud have hollowed out the residential real estate business. When the casinos fold -- when folks run out of money -- Vegas is finished. It will run out of money and suckers before it runs out of water (which is also running out).
America is running out of money because we blew it all, we blew it all on automobiles and suburbia, which is a fake version of English country estates.
Before it was a gambling town, Vegas was the company town for the Hoover Dam folks. After the dam was finished nobody knew what to do with the town until some Hollywood gamblers showed up looking to escape from the long arm of California law. Back in the day (before my time) there was big-tme casino gambling in Southern California, a lot of it. The mafia moved all the gambling to Vegas. Before it was Bellagio it was Cosa Nostra and Meyer Lansky, Jimmy Hoffa in the concrete. Then it was Howard Hughes then Steve Wynn. Hughes was 'larger than life': he built the P-38 for crying out loud, he was the test pilot. Wynn is just a petty thief. If Lansky was alive today he would pat Wynn on the top of the head, Wynn would piss in his pants.
Vegas is fake but so is every other place in America. NYC used to be real, it was the only real place in America. This was before the gigantic 'theme' restaurants, the upscale store chains, the traffic and the Wall Street robbers took over. The squeegee men and the boombox dudes and the roller-skating trannys and the punks were annoying but they were real ... and 'scary' New York didn't have anything 'upscale'. The mean, potholed streets of Manny-hanny were too rough for the luxury cars which would last about five minutes before stolen then burned out in Brooklyn. Very little traffic except in Midtown at rush hour. Finance didn't count for much back then, it was in the background, quietly financing industries' losses and maintaining a low profile.
New Orleans got faked up real good after Katrina: too much reality -- floods, murdercops and Blackwater -- was a bit too much too soon. Of course, this was a 'dry run' for what is coming to a town near you. In the meantime, some FEMA and bribes for all. Bribes + paint = New New Orleans!
Coming to a town near you: it will be real enough when you start seeing belt-fed weapons here and there, on vehicles and inside. Then you will have other things to worry about than Vegas.
Damn, Steve, that was some really good writing. Thanks for that!
ditto, me too! ("that was some good writing, Steve.")
but what everyone's forgettin', is WHAT A HELL-HOLE the REAL WEST was... settlers and pioneers DYING in the desert, of attacks by outlaws & Indians, dying in deadly gold mines or silver mines; men being kidnapped for sailors, "Shanghaid" out of San Fran or NW ports; being injured or dying making the trans-con railways, even today being injured in farm & ag industries (etc. etc. etc.)
compared to all the above "REAL, OLD WEST" occupations, Vegas may be "fake" - but, on averages, a whole lot less dangerous!
Made me laugh.
LV being fake does not make the old west real.
The recount of it is so unreal. The adventurers tale.
The fun: even when pointed at fakedness, US citizens need to dress their version of reality with fakeness.
The fabled past.
Nothing can be real with US citizens?
Yeah, the REAL old west was some kinda adventure all right. That was when the men were men and the women were men, too!
Yeah, the REAL old west was some kinda adventure all right. That was when the men were men and the women were men, too!
Vegas has never been the same since they closed my favorite show - Nudes on Ice! (Kinda like the Ice Capades but better!)
The golf is good as was Daltry singing Tommy at The Hard Rock. Took my 20 year old daughter and we had a blast, she knew that it was Sodom + Gomorah but we had fun anyway! Only stayed one night and she isn't scarred for life. Still straight 4 point average at college.
Dog
The best thing you can do if you're in Vegas is to leave it. You don't have to go far - go out into the beautiful desert scenery and take a hike. Go rock collecting. Listen to the silence of the desert.
Had to up arrow you just because I love your handle, bro.
There is a lot to do in Vegas off-strip. Tourists all go to the strip for the sin city scene. Its like a big theme park. The douchebags you live with in your hometown are the douchebags on vacation in Vegas. Same people. Just in a high concentration.
But just like anywhere, the tourist hangouts are not where the residents spend their time. Vegas has great weather, good food, lots of outdoors to explore, but you won't find the best of Vegas anywhere within 10 feet of a tourist. Tourists are, almost by definition, depressing to be around, with a few exceptions.
New Yorkers don't all hang out in Times Square, either. Nor does Disneyland represent all of southern CA. All of the commentaries on Vegas all seem to come from someone who came for the weekend and hit the titty bar.
Get away from the sheeple, venture out, and you might enjoy yourself in Vegas:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/travel/06las-vegas.html?pagewanted=1
Agreed! Don't go there unless you absolutely have to - after having done your utmost to avoid it. Then get the hell out as soon as you can. That place is just too damned scary. Nothing there of value.
Oh yeah, Vegas, have some fond memories :)))!
I live in Vegas & moved here from NYC because the laws are more lax here. You can drink alcohol in the open. Gun laws are far less restrictive. There used to be fewer speed limits but that has changed. No state or local income tax. Prostitution in VEGAS is actually illegal. You have to go out of the county for that.
People who live here only go to the Strip for a nice dinner and/or show. Rent is cheap for a mod-big city. Weather is usually good. Gas price is better than Cali or Florida. Would rather live here that NYC.
LOL. I live deep in the BC bush where the people are fairly rare. I understand your problem well. It's my experience that where humans are not is where the most wonderful places on the planet are. So I can hike up the mountain for even more distance, the mountain is very beautiful.
At my place I can see no evidence of humans, i can just hear them when they are loud. It's very nice and I will not move closer as they are not my favorite species. There are Bears and Deer everywhere and they are quite wonderful.
"Vegas Whooo" Cheyenne Cinnamon"
When human society reduces itself from multidimensional dynamism to all the charm of a 2D fuck book one can reasonably discern that an ever greater portion of society has departed this so called age of reason for its very own dark age. Nothing humanly hedonistic in a walking/talking circle jerk fuck book, just dogs fucking, be it in the street or more upscale at Tryst, for a scooby snack at the Circus Circus that runs 24/7/365
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D5Sa2Yq-2g
I like sex and drinking. I don't drink to excess, but it is fun sometimes. I don't need someone to fall deeply in love with me to enjoy sex. I don't gamble because its stupid. I do try to live a life that is fun and interesting and I don't waste it infront of a computer or listening to some one elses view of the way I should live.
vegas is the city of medication to mask the pain of not having love.
Love, like happiness, are unproductive elements of human society according to supermacroeconomentrics
Red Rocks are real. The climbing is real. Even the people are actually real. If you think Vegas is screwed up you should see Macau. Everything is precisely twices as big and probably as screwed up. The Venetian in Macau is like the Dr. Evil to Las Vegas' mini me.
I guess the formula is so successful and well received universally that the owner decided he should just duplicate it. The Chinese are not that much different the Americans. Each country has lots of nice intellegent people and enough nutcases to fill a town like Vegas..or Macau..
Vegas used to be the playground of adults and is now filled with douchebags 18-24, far too few adults who REALLY know how to have fun and not lose their heads completely.
Dressing up in suits and gowns for a night out on the town to see good musicians and shows is now a gaggle of barely dressed kids from CA at pool parties thumping out trash rap and hip-hop being rude to everyone around them.
It's become a bad nightclub full of barfing punks with no class or manners.
Kind of like what has happened to television.
"Dressing up in suits and gowns--" means that you're okay. Oh, I see. Well, thank God I got that straight.
I'm glad Vegas exists. People need a place to gamble, drink, hire prostitutes, etc. Vegas puts it all in one location that I can avoid. Nice n clean.
Unforch, I'll be there (again) in May for the national hardware show. Might have to check out the nuclear test museum. Los Alamos has a nice one, too.
Been to Mohave, Hoover Dam, grand canyon, red canyon (I think)...favorite was Valley of Fire at sunset. Rent a car and drive....
You wear panties?
Sure. Dosn't everyone?
**Raises hand** Loincloth...
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. Jn 10:10
Vegas is going to burn, oh my!
Last time I was there in the 70's I slept in the camper while the family went in to party.
I got funny looks but no comments because I had no interest in the sleaze.
People tell me how it has gone down hill, whores with sores looking to trick, bums on the run looking for a hustle.
Right out in the daylight when before the scum was mostly in the dark, welcome the golden horde, ha.
It's only fake because we're hyopcrites: We'll buy porn, but don't want our baby sister to star in it; we'll go to strip clubs, but don't want our daughter working there; we'll treat women like sex objects, but fire them for acting like one. *shrugs* If everybody were honest, Vegas wouldn't exist.
Tim,
Please go back to the Slope of Hope to pontificate.
I'm sure all your fawning fans (if you have any left) will hail you at the moment you demand.
In the meantime remember that ZH is for grownups ... try to keep your comments relevant.
Cheers!
I guess it's a lot like Wall Street. Huh? tlnzz
Gimme triple odds, no, TEN TIMES odds...yeah, leverage me baby!!!. Press the 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. 100 C&E. 500 on 4 the Hard Way. 1,000 on Field. I got my mo-jo working...5,000 Horn Bet. Comin' out!
Look, the place isn't called "Sin City" for nothing. I go there once a year to have fun, gamble somewhat, eat good, drink up and see some shows. I have a pisser everytime.