22 FEB - 25 FEB 2011
It's the phoenix of the Mojave desert, an almost mythical place that hides on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, a city that when mentioned in the back bars of Los Angeles almost always drew the same sort of response, 'Oh man Vegas, yeah that place is wild'. Coming from the chipmunks that inhabited LA, whose bar service policy meant that a call of last rounds rung out at 1:30am, Jet and I kind of figured that these 'surfer dudes' were a little soft and that judgment should be reserved for those that well and truly knew their game. We ofcourse were such men.
In an almost cliched move we departed downtown Hollywood on a Greyhound bus bound for fountains of glory somewhere east of where we currently where off in the desert. It could have been a scene out of any B-grade movie where the two main protagonists split from the faery land of LA for a little indulgence and recreation in the city of sin, or indeed it could have been the start of a black comedy where a life lesson was just awaiting to be handed to us. Rolling down the I15 for a few hours I remember marvelling at the many Yucca brevifolia's (yeah, I looked that up - i.e., Joshua trees) and thinking back to the amazing black and white shots that adorned the 1987 U2 album cover of the same name. For some reason however I had a Jackson Browne song repeating itself on my internal jukebox, 'Looking out on the road rushing under my wheels, looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields'...somehow I think that the song Running on empty might have been more appropriate for leaving town than for our arrival!
On the road to Vegas - California - USA
On the road to Vegas - California - USA
The fabled Joshua Tree - on the road to Vegas - California - USA
Somewhere just over the California/Nevada border our first sight as to what we were to encounter in Vegas hit us squarely between the eyes as the lights of the town of Primm lit up the desert floor. It was actually kind of surreal, we rolled over a rise and made a little left hander that dropped to the valley floor and all of a sudden there Primm was, just like some kind of alien landing site that would not have looked out of place in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This ofcourse was just the appetiser, an hour or two town the road the all you can eat buffet of all things debaucherous was just biding its time, waiting effortlessly for the mere mortals that were being drawn in like moths to a flame.
Driving into Vegas was everything that you'd expect it to be, bright lights, big city, neon overkill, daylight in the middle of the night, a place where the average man more often than not digs the ditches of someone elses luck. As the Greyhound provided us a highspeed tour of town via the highway that runs parallel to the strip we sighted all those familiar names that are synonymous with Vegas,The MGM, The Bellagio, Ceasar's Palace, The Mandalay, The Mirage and ofcourse the Stratosphere ay it's northern end. We had arrived and within a few hours we allowed ourselves a little Vegas leeway and let ourselves loose on the town. Trouble was just a stones throw away!
Hitting the strip we ventured into the Excalibur to allow our bearings to get adjusted and then made our way across the way to the New York, New York, now it was on - let the games begin - and so we commenced in earnest. I attacked my old favourite, the roulette wheel, by 'playing on the outside' as I had done in my first year of uni, and in giving away my age here I am a little embarrassed to say that it was back in the glory days 1994. Some 18 years removed and now nearly three degrees to the good from commencing that first degree decades ago I still obviously haven't learnt a hell of a lot about the rules and dynamics of roulette. Come to think of it, my strategy for roulette hadn't changed in that time either.Back in the day I use to wait for a run of small numbers and then bet the second and third dozen in an attempt to collect at 3 to 1, making a profit of 50% on each bet. That was the ingenious betting strategy that I depended on back then, way back in the day when I use to chase a bit of money (the cruel undoing of any gambler). That was until such time that I forced myself to stop as I could feel the long fingers of an addiction starting to pull me in, and really, who would want to have an addiction that was obliged by such a crappy casino as Star City in Sydney? It really was crap and I'm talking back in the day when it existed on wharf 6 as only a temporary casino, it's more permanent premises is far more depressing. How anyone could hide out in those digs for hours upon hours is beyond my comprehension. That snippet of my 'previous life' asid there was actually a fruitful start to our Vegas pickings as my initial $20 investment was turned into $120 within a few kind spins. Enough drinking money to support us for a few hours, actually quite a few considering the drinking opportunities that Vegas provided, inclusive of the free drinks when you're actually 'in the game' and a myriad of drinking opportunities when you're sitting on the sidelines thinking of getting back in the game.
Our first night continued in this type of fashion for quite a few hours as we attacked several more casinos whilst wondering up the strip. From New York, New York, to MGM, to Bally's to a few others whose names I don't recall as my recollection of the early hours of that evening/morning seem oddly hazy.We chased a quick buck and an equivalent drink under the fluorescent glow of casino lights and the endless chimeing of poker machines that offered the opportunity of obtaining millions of dollars for a paultry investment of what most people couldn't really afford to throw away. The potential to tap into to endless streams of gold were literally at our finger tips and at the distinct mercy of our bank balances. In the haze that became our first evening and then our first morning we didn't quite notice the time tick away until a check of the rocket clock already had us rounding out 4am and heading for 5am. Moving at the speed of two old age pensioners that had just spent the last 3hrs at an all you can eat seafood buffet, we traversed the strip and hailed one of those mobile yellow angels, making it back to our base at nearly 6am. As we arrived the skies of Vegas were already turning from black to lighter shades of blue in scenes that would not have been out of place in Coppola's Lost in Translation. Where is Scarlett Johansson when you need her, huh!?
Somehow the early hours of that morning quickly became the afternoon hours of a new day. With shades drawn and the room remaining completely dark we only regathered our wits somewhere near 5pm when the Vegas sun was dipping back over the otherside of the Sierra Nevada. Not that Vegas had much to offer during the day, or so I convinced myself. This O assume was the point in time when Jet and I tipped over the line into what can only be considered as vampire behaviour. We left behind the lives of the common diurnal being and entered the lair of the nocturnal, a behaviour that would haunt us for several days on end and one that we would carry with us to foreign lands.
Driving into Vegas was everything that you'd expect it to be, bright lights, big city, neon overkill, daylight in the middle of the night, a place where the average man more often than not digs the ditches of someone elses luck. As the Greyhound provided us a highspeed tour of town via the highway that runs parallel to the strip we sighted all those familiar names that are synonymous with Vegas,The MGM, The Bellagio, Ceasar's Palace, The Mandalay, The Mirage and ofcourse the Stratosphere ay it's northern end. We had arrived and within a few hours we allowed ourselves a little Vegas leeway and let ourselves loose on the town. Trouble was just a stones throw away!
New York, New York casino - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
MGM casino - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
The Excalibur - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
Hitting the strip we ventured into the Excalibur to allow our bearings to get adjusted and then made our way across the way to the New York, New York, now it was on - let the games begin - and so we commenced in earnest. I attacked my old favourite, the roulette wheel, by 'playing on the outside' as I had done in my first year of uni, and in giving away my age here I am a little embarrassed to say that it was back in the glory days 1994. Some 18 years removed and now nearly three degrees to the good from commencing that first degree decades ago I still obviously haven't learnt a hell of a lot about the rules and dynamics of roulette. Come to think of it, my strategy for roulette hadn't changed in that time either.Back in the day I use to wait for a run of small numbers and then bet the second and third dozen in an attempt to collect at 3 to 1, making a profit of 50% on each bet. That was the ingenious betting strategy that I depended on back then, way back in the day when I use to chase a bit of money (the cruel undoing of any gambler). That was until such time that I forced myself to stop as I could feel the long fingers of an addiction starting to pull me in, and really, who would want to have an addiction that was obliged by such a crappy casino as Star City in Sydney? It really was crap and I'm talking back in the day when it existed on wharf 6 as only a temporary casino, it's more permanent premises is far more depressing. How anyone could hide out in those digs for hours upon hours is beyond my comprehension. That snippet of my 'previous life' asid there was actually a fruitful start to our Vegas pickings as my initial $20 investment was turned into $120 within a few kind spins. Enough drinking money to support us for a few hours, actually quite a few considering the drinking opportunities that Vegas provided, inclusive of the free drinks when you're actually 'in the game' and a myriad of drinking opportunities when you're sitting on the sidelines thinking of getting back in the game.
'The Strip' - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
Frichot on the strip - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
Our first night continued in this type of fashion for quite a few hours as we attacked several more casinos whilst wondering up the strip. From New York, New York, to MGM, to Bally's to a few others whose names I don't recall as my recollection of the early hours of that evening/morning seem oddly hazy.We chased a quick buck and an equivalent drink under the fluorescent glow of casino lights and the endless chimeing of poker machines that offered the opportunity of obtaining millions of dollars for a paultry investment of what most people couldn't really afford to throw away. The potential to tap into to endless streams of gold were literally at our finger tips and at the distinct mercy of our bank balances. In the haze that became our first evening and then our first morning we didn't quite notice the time tick away until a check of the rocket clock already had us rounding out 4am and heading for 5am. Moving at the speed of two old age pensioners that had just spent the last 3hrs at an all you can eat seafood buffet, we traversed the strip and hailed one of those mobile yellow angels, making it back to our base at nearly 6am. As we arrived the skies of Vegas were already turning from black to lighter shades of blue in scenes that would not have been out of place in Coppola's Lost in Translation. Where is Scarlett Johansson when you need her, huh!?
How did my dancing shoes get in the mix? I DON"T dance!
Somehow the early hours of that morning quickly became the afternoon hours of a new day. With shades drawn and the room remaining completely dark we only regathered our wits somewhere near 5pm when the Vegas sun was dipping back over the otherside of the Sierra Nevada. Not that Vegas had much to offer during the day, or so I convinced myself. This O assume was the point in time when Jet and I tipped over the line into what can only be considered as vampire behaviour. We left behind the lives of the common diurnal being and entered the lair of the nocturnal, a behaviour that would haunt us for several days on end and one that we would carry with us to foreign lands.
For what really felt like a fluid transition from one day into the next we started off at the Excalibur for an early evening show called the Tournament of Kings. An evening that the casino's online advertising desribes as 'Invading armies! Dancing maidens! Jousting! Fireworks! And eating with your fingers!', 'A show that is guaranteed to satisfy your appetite for adventure'. With such convincing statements and obviously with a bucket full of unfulfilled dreams of jousting, drawn swords and damsels in distress, Frichot made the call that this is where we should commence our first Vegas encore. Interestingly the show was actually quite good and not full of the high density of cheese that I had originally anticipated. I assume in that sense that all shows on the strip are competing for 'your' hard earned dollars and a disappointing show would only mean a greatly shortened life span without the benefits of monetary compensation or the accompanying certainty of a constant gig. So after hearty rounds of 'Kazaaaar's' (I don't know, Merlin made us say it), table slapping and a non-stop medieval mélange of mead, crowns, corsets and chivalry, we were back onto the strip once again, left to our own devices. And really, if you wanted to take a guess at the way it went down please review night one, then copy and paste somewhere in the following lines. It was back to gambling followed by alcohol followed by food followed by gambling and alcohol once more. Along the way Frichot went one on one at a table called the War Machine and scored himself $80 which in turn went to the greater good of alcohol consumption. As the hours passed us by and we meandered aimlessly up the strip it was only by the time that we reached the Circus Circus casino at the northern end that somehow 5am had crept up on us yet again. To the batcave my fine fellow [insert daylight hours and sleep NOW].
In the darkness of another Vegas day my sleep deficit played out without incident until approximately 4pm. Somewhere in that time Frichot had found the will to head out to a well known guitar shop and do some other bits and pieces before catching up with me back at the hotel close to 5pm. The schedule that we had lined up for this evening was going to be the Blue Man Group @ the Venetian at 7pm, followed by X Burlesque @ the Flamingo at 10pm. C'mon now, what's Vegas without the Blue Man crew and showgirls right!!?
The Tournament of Kings - The Excalibur casino - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
Frichot with 'The King' - The Tournament of Kings - The Excalibur casino - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
Outside the Luxor - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
All stars in their own right!
The Venetian - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
The Venetian - Las Vegas - Nevada - USA
I readily admit that I had been wanting to check out the Blue Man group for a few years and in terms of a theaterical performance, the satirical angle that they take on a 'typical' rock concert and general audience participation, it was a hell of a lot of fun. There was also a number of themes touched on in the show such as aspects of science and technology, info-kill, fractals, human sight, DNA, et al that made it one hell of an interesting scene man. Not much thinking required in all truth but sometimes that's where the fun begins, speaking of which, that's where the fun also begins at a burlesque show! Did you know that many of the show routines in a burlesque show involve females being almost naked? Did you know that all the performers in a burlesque show are female? Did you know that most of the sequences are more often than not mildly titillating, even erotic? If you answered 'no' to any of these questions then just like me you have lied through your teeth! Ahh showgirls, where would the world be without them? I think Jet and I probably did more thinking in X-burlesque than the Blue Man group as we mentally pinpointed the most attractive specimen and conceived wild ideas of how we'd work our angles and take them back to our lair. Kidnapping obviously was one of the options we considered although we weren't quite sure how we'd execute the event without a getaway car in waiting.
'Vegas baby, Vegas!'
The Blue Man Group @ The Venetian
The Blue Man Group @ The Venetian
X-Burlesque @ The Flamingo
Now continuing on from nights one and two, do you remember how these nights progressed? By the time our second Vegas encore had entered full swing I think the bright lights had kind of turned dimmed the shining lights in our brains. I did however remember a snippet out of the Blue Man group show that stated that the 'cone receptors' in our eyes commence a chain of biological processes that eventually end up with our brain formulating an image. The conversion of light in these sequences however is not continuous meaning that the receptors need time to reset everytime they capture a unique image. In the fraction of a second that the receptors reset there is essentially darkness or nothingness but the brain compensates here by creating a fluid flow of images that in turn creates the illusion of a seemless stream of images that play out like a live movie. My point? Somehow I believe that our brain functionality reset itself to an image taken as a snap\pshot earlier in our Vegas stay and our seemless progression from bar to bar on our third night was mutually exclusive from the lessons learnt the previous two evenings....or something.
Have you copy and pasted the events of night one and two? If not, then Ready, go! Margaritas down, beers down, the sunrise of a new day beating its way from the eastern seaboard into the cold windswept day on the Mojave. This time we had actually 'clocked it' and pushed all the way through so that when our 6:30am alarm sounded in anticipation of us sleeping (laugh out loud) and actually waking up from this form of rejuvenation, we were packed and ready to make our way to the bus station for a cross state run down to Tijuana.
Ah Vegas, I get it now. If at some advanced time someone asks me what I think then I'll back it up with the standard, 'Ah Vegas, that place is wild man'. I might also add that a few dollars to back you up would be kind of handy and that what ever happens there should really stay there! ;)
