As a consequence I missed my connection to Las Vegas but I did manage to spend sometime in the company of a real life Crystal Meth addict which was quite enlightening and on a par with my expectations of Vegas.
When I did get back to LA I checked my tickets to San Francisco and discovered I had an extra day in LA, so I was able to jump on the Greyhound bus and still get to see Las Vegas.
When I first arrived, the first place I went to first was Circus-Circus and i was struck instantly by the noise! An endless evolving loop of bleeps (loving techno music I should have been in my element but the chaotic nature of this sound unnerved me- you should check my last post to hear what it was like).
The second thing that struck me was that's if your not in the game then your redundant and serve no purpose! I played my small bets and once I reached the point that I didn't want to go any further pulled myself away and became an observer. It was at this point I stopped enjoying my self, all I saw from this point forward was the faces of Greed, desperation, consumption , occasional fleeting happiness ....some jealousy and a lot of despair! It wasn't really my idea of a good time and I had this claustrophobic feeling the struck me moments after I stepped off the bus and just became stronger as the night went on.
Looking back I realised one thing in Vegas...Its not your bad dudes on the street..not the mafia or the so called underclass that scare me in society. With those people at least they may give you some sort of chance, some sort of fair odds! And if the worst comes to the worst you can always run. What scares me more is the faceless corporations that have lost sight of the people and just see us as a way to farm money. In Vegas its the likes MGM (who own everything) and in rest of society it's the big banks and corporations. These are the guys who scare me...faceless, inhuman and unstoppable, with a desire to own you and feed from you. When I think about it it's these guys who are at the root of so much modern day misery! This really hit home as I walked the Strip at 4:30am and has stayed with me ever since.
Anyway... sorry to go off on such a downer, it was'nt all doom and gloom, I did enjoy one thing about Vegas and that was the Beatles tie-in at the Mirage Hotel ...maybe one day Vegas will be more about Entertainment and less about trying to fleece you of all your money...maybe if they got the balance then I might consider going back, for now I think I will just be content knowing that there are other place that do cater for these things...like my home city of Liverpool!
As a final point, just an observation but Vegas was quick to pay homage to Liverpools history with a the Beatles show but doesn't pay the same respects to it's own history- all the old Elvis and Rat-Pack Vegas has been knocked down to make space for the super-casinos...why because it doesn't bring in the revenue! This actually shocked me more than some of the £2000 bets I saw placed...any way that's enough about Vegas, hope you like the photos!
