TCAHR - Better Living Through Memetics Issue 17 The Vegas Journals (Part Two -- In The Belly of The Gilded Beast) 02/04/01 ------------------------------------------------------------ 1-9-01 3:09pm Vegas is a frustrated city. The ritzy downtown casinos butt up against the poor section of town. I've seen two near altercations since I've been here. One was as simple as two groups trying to walk down the same narrow sidewalk in different drections. Lucky me, I was nearly involved in that one. People hock their wares in front of casinos in stupid costumes and the change people push their carts full of nickles and quarters in extreme anger and hostility. Every block has free magizines that give off a low down and dirty feeling with titles such as "Young Asians Nude", "Blondes for Sex" (#1)- well, you get the picture. One copy in a puddle I crossed had nothing but phone numbers for live sex talk. Vegas, however, is nowhere near as dangerous as Chicago. I know I have to be careful with that kind of thinking. The face that my clothes have marked me as an oddball and people stay out of my way makes me cocky. A bullet will kill you anywhere. So far I've visited the Gold Spike and Fitzgerald's. The Gold Spike is interestingly cheap. 50-cent cocktails is a good deal anywhere. Fitzgerald's has a section like a video parlor named the nickle zone. It's like electronic crack with nickles. I lost five bucks there earlier this morning. I went walking around Fremont street again this afternoon and noticed that people were walking around with plastic cups they took from the casinos. I figured I spent 5 bucks there so I wanted a cup!(#2) I went back to Fitzgerald's and plunked down five bucks for change. I lost about half on the electronic Addams Family slot machine. This search for a cup was getting expensive! I decided to keep playing though. Good move. I got 50 nickles back. I decided to stop right there! I cashed in my nickles and found I had $4.60. I figured once you make almost all your cash back in one play it's time to go. However, I pocketed the $4 and put the 60 cents back into the machine. No luck this time. I decided to go back to my room with my new cup! Now I've decided to rest my weary feet. Tonight I'm hitting Fremont for sure, and then possibly the Strip. 1-9-01 9:13pm Got back to my hotel room about 8:15. I did the Fremont Experience thing. Drank the touristy Black Russian Daquri (or was it white?) out of the hokey plastic oversized "glass".(#3) Looked at the street dome of lights twice and said ooh! and ahh!(#4) I figure I did that whole Downtown thing. I began to walk back to my room, but stopping when I saw a bunch of kids putting up speakers because I finally saw a ray of hope. A street party-rave? Nope, a bunch of people from Canada preaching and singing. There was a woman from Utah at the pay phone trying to get money wired from home. We began to talk and she was hinting hard about needing money including asking where I was staying. I easily could have brought her over here and banged her. I just gave her about 6 or 7 dollars and let her be on her way. I then had an extremely boring talk with an older Puerto Rican who saw the Puerto Rican flag on my pea coat. Sigh. I planned all these adventures and instead turned down a chance of sex and a multitude of drugs from Chris(#5). Some beatnik I turned out to be! By the by, if I ever had to film a murder scene in a movie, it would be at the Fremont Experience. Especially during the Country Western part. With all the booming and explosive sounds blasting the street, one shiv attack or gunshot would be easily covered. Of course, you could do a whole "Blade"-type thing during the techno- ambient set. Just a thought, really! 1-10-01 5:01pm I am more than convinced there are only four kinds of people in Las Vegas. The beggars - people out for a buck hiding their true selves behind smiles and polite conversation. The assholes - mostly people who couldn't get a job counting cards or serving drinks; hence no commissions and no tips. Tourists - cockroaches like myself keeping this pit of a city alive. Finally, real Las Vegasans, good kind decent people. Would you like to guess which group is smaller? My first experience this morning was watching the police round-up the homeless and put them in wagons. Only in the Fremont Experience however! I then found out that most of them were willing to go in exchange for a warm cell and a meal. I proceeded to the Paradise(#6) and proceeded to destroy myself at the buffet. I only took one plate; imagine how much food I put on it! I walked back to the hotel and encountered a man selling books of his poetry. I asked him where I could find an open-mic coffee shop here which brought the question "Where are you from?" from his lips. He then began a long rant on how Las Vegas sucks and is filled with greed. He then asked me to buy his book again. Sigh! Another beggar!(#7) Anyway, then I encountered the "assholes" in the form of CAT(#8) drivers who are more than happy to share their misery with you. I learned quickly not to ask them a fucking thing. I rode the bus to the Las Vegas art museum in the hopes of seeing the Dali exhibit. The museum was closed! I travelled about 10 miles from Downtown for nothing! I then went for a ill-thought-out walk. I dreading getting on the bus so much, I was looking for a taxi. Eventually, my feet began to hurt so much that I got on a bus to the Strip anyway. At the Strip my pisstivity dissolved into admiration and wonder. I clicked away like a tourist as people kept handing me business flyers and magizines for "dances" in my hotel room. I eventually made my way back to my motel. First I tried calling home, then went to buy postcards. As I brought my postcards, I heard and saw a beautiful blonde in a sharp black suit screaming on the phone to someone to wire her money. "I'VE GOT NO MONEY! YOU HEAR ME? I CAN'T GO HOME IF I CAN'T BY A TICKET!" This town is getting to me; my first thought was that she'll be sucking dick before midnight. I've got to get out of here. I was greeted by the hotel maid with a loud "It's about time you got home!" Heh, my sentiments exactly! 1-10-01 6:42pm Went out to finish my roll of film on the Fremont Experience. While looking for food encountered two fights near me. I'm rethinking going to the club tonight. If the Vegas attitude sucks, the Vegas Goth attitude is bound to make me kill someone! Anyway, I'm shacked up with a bottle of Red Dog. Perhaps I'll go out depending on how I feel after these 32oz. God bless! "The Simpsons" just came on! 1-10-01 8:06pm It's going to rain. Hard. Luckly, it seems sometimes the weather makes the decision for you. Besides I've got a nice buzz going. Tomorrow nothing stops me from visiting the Elvis-A-Rama! Muah-ha-ha! As for tonight, television. History of Jazz or Temptation Island. History of Jazz or Temptation Island. History of Jazz or Temptation Island. Sigh; the choices so infinite! Whatever shall I see? 1-11-01 2:32am I broke down and caught a taxi to Angles, a small gay bar which hosts the local Goth night. The crowd was small and I eventually introduced myself to (name deleted), (name deleted), and (name deleted)(#9). The Goth scene here is dead and clickish (dead I saw; clickish I heard). We hung out at Angels after introductions for about 15 mins, then we hung out at a 7-11 to talk to someone, then a record store, then a Denny's. Talk was sparse and difficult. We didn't get warmed up till about 45 to an hour there. I, however, was quite happy to have the company and they did give me a ride home. Quite cool people.(#10) An aside; Mike laughed when I mentioned how Las Vegas has a strip club downtown and the art museum is miles away from the hub of action. Why did I write that? I wanted to remember the joke for later! I'm down to my last twenty, so Elvis-A-Rama is out! Still have to pick up some cheapo souveneirs. 1-11-01 2:51pm I stayed up till 6am, the coffee was kicking me into high gear. I woke up today about 12:30pm and decided that souvieniers for my family would be more appropiate than food.(#11) I figured I could stand not to eat for a few days! I had a few $2 or $3 bucks left so I brought 2 loaves of bread to get me through to Chicago! Last night, I wrote up my postcards to send off before I leave Las Vegas. Can't wait to rewrite and type up this stuff! 1-11-01 9:21pm Seems that along with the stomach dis-ease I've had since I've been here, I've now developed a painful and wet cough. I've bunkered down for the whole day and am now in the process of watching "Mystery", the episode is "Murder Rooms--The Dark Origins of Sherlock Holmes." Not a bad program to be locked in and sick to have as entertainment. Leave it up to my damnable luck to pick such a rainy, cold week to visit Vegas! I've realized that I don't know if I enjoyed Vegas as a tourist; I certainly enjoyed it as an observer. My mind is filled with ideas of poems and books. I like traveling. I would love to travel about writing about the places I've seen and people spoken to. The raw notes taken during this trip will be the basis of excellent work. The promise of the material is easily seen. This city is a strange city where the cloak of fun is easily rended apart. The arts are hidden from the common man, police toss the poor and homeless out of the tourist traps, the streets of downtown are filled by the deperates as junkies fill the seats in the casinos. ATMs are found in the casinos for "convienence". The average person finds nothing to do here as tourists are appeased. Every person I've talked to hates this city; this is not an exageration, every one. Everything here is made to appeal and amuse the tourist while the Las Vegas native is caught in the wheels, cogs, and doodads of "The Vegas" machine. Las Vegas and "Vegas" are a yin-yang which fits together uneasily. This is a sad place and I've been ready to go home from the first day I arrived. 1-12-01 1:05pm Woke up feeling worse than I felt asleep. I lugged myself and bags to the Greyhound station at about 11:25. While sitting here I've already overheard (it's not evedropping if everyone can hear it), one man (looks 35ish and midwestern) begging his mother for a moneygram so he could buy a ticket home. He said is wasn't his fault, there was (gasp!) casinos here and she knew how he was. I feel sorrier for him than I do the blonde from a few days ago. A pretty young blonde woman can always sell her body, an ugly old man is pretty much stuck. 4 and a half hours to go. 1-12-01 3:16pm A woman is being kicked out of the station. All the while she's yelling, "You took my money. You took my fucking money! I want my money, motherfuckers! You took my money away!" Little less than 2hrs 30mins. Man, I hope the bus is on time. 1-12-01 3:20pm An ambulance crew is here complete with strecher, stethoscope, etc. The strecher is blocking the way into the main office and the crew members, the manager, and other are all in the doorway of the office. I see an older woman (60s? 70s?) with badly dyed red-brown hair in a heavy black coat holding crutches. She's all hunched up as the crew attends to her. Everyone else around her seems incredibly unconcerned. Behind me a woman bitches out her husband. They're in their 50s easily and you can tell by the look on his face, they've been married too long. In front of me an asian couple with the most unbelievable hair colors ever (she's a redhead and he's a sandy blonde) just gave me a look as if I'm weird, like as if I was a redheaded or blonde Asian(#12), or something like that! The ambulance crew is gone, but the lil' old lady is still there, looking shaky unstable on her crutches. I can't stop thinking "Dali" and "stilts". 1-12-01 3:50pm The security guard and the guy next to me (well, a seat away) just got into a yelling match. The security guard asked for his ticket. The guy didn't hear. The security guard then yelled, the guy yelled back "I don't have to". Then the guard yelled "I'm the security guard. Shit!" "Don't cuss at me!" "No, I didn't!" "Yes, you did!" "Show me your ticket!" "Fuck you!" "You're not going to show me your ticket?" "No, fuck you!" The guard stomped off like a little kid as the guy left. The old drunk guy at the end of the row then tried to talk to me, but I couldn't hear him. Guys in long beards shouldn't mumble! Now I just nod when he nods and laugh when he laughs till he gets bored. My head and throat really hurt now. 1-12-01 4:30pmish You can't even leave this city in peace! Everybody got all nice and comfortable, then 3 guys run in yelling "Peace Officers". They then proceeded to ask everyone their destination, from where they left, and if they could check our bags. More interesting than watching the Asian couple fight for an hour. Lots of cursing and dirty tricks there. I'm convinced Vegas is the nexus of evil.(#13) ------------------------------------ NOTES (1) After, uh, further inspection those weren't exactly right. They are, however, close enough! (2) By there I mean Fitzgerald's. (3) It was one of those horrible plastic yard of ale glasses. I don't know why I brought it. I knew I looked like a goof when the WW2 vets were laughing at me! (4) Don't fall for my sarcastic tone. When all the casino light went off and the light canopy lit up and started its animation show, I was very, very impressed. (5) See "The Vegas Journals Pt. 1". (6) Actually this was the Paradise buffet at the Fremont Casino. (7) Yeah, I brought one. It gave me a lot of chuckles and laughter. Too bad the poems were meant to be dramatic. (8) That's the public transportation system in Vegas. (9) These names are censored due to my comments in number 10 of my notes. Even though I hate censoring myself, I don't want to drag no one's name through the mud on speculation. (10) Although, I did get the impression they were just doing their duty to promote the scene. I haven't gotten any return mail to my thank you's and offers of helping them if they every make it to Chicago. Strange since they were quite happy to give me their phone number when I intially wrote them that I was coming to Vegas and would like to check out the scene. Who knows what caused the change? Maybe I wasn't the Gothic messiah they hoped would fix their scene? (11) Here was my theory. If I used my last 20 bucks to eat, I would still have to go home and still be questioned by my overprotective family on me not eating or being able to survive in a city away from them. If, however, I brought them souveniers, they would assume I was so responsible that I was able to take care of myself and still afford gifts. I was correct in my hypotisis. (12) Not P.C.? Hey! They started it! (13) The rest of the journal is pretty lame. I got a fever on the bus and nearly threw up when chemicals started leaking in the back. I met few people of interests and had to deal with a nut on the bus. It's not worth typing. Let's consider this the end, shall we? ------------------------------------------------------------ tcahr@hotmail.com Copyright 2001