VEGAS BABY

Viva Las Vegas!

you know travelling the states... everywhere i seem to go i just hear songs in my head... it's funny - i guess the US is so big and so much has been written whatever about it (and Australia is so overwhelmed with US culture)... for example i just kept hearing that village people song in San Francisco, "San Francisco" - then I kept hearing that KLASSIC" 70s disco hit (download it now if you don't know) "From New York to L.A" (god that song is hilarious and funny and brilliant) - that was in L.A and yes ok of course i've heard a bit of Viva Las Vegas here - in my head, oh i've also run missy Elliot singing "i make you hot as Las Vegas weather"... from her song work it.

k.

So Vegas began in the 20s or 30s?? some gangster came out here and built the first casino etc as it is so far away from everything that there were no police. the opening night was very rainy and no planes could land however and it was a bit of a disaster (no one showed up)... but i guess it took off.

And here i am in vegas.
it is hilarous. OMG it is so much fun.

i was kinda not sure what i'd find - but i was keen to get here..
Xavier this really cool guy i met and hung out with a bit in San Fran was telling me how some Americans are completely embarrased by the cheese and sparkle factor Vegas has... and i knew that was what i was going to get - but you know what?? I was keen to see it anyway!

alright - so Savannah (my aussie friend who i stayed with in San fran) did this house swap (she needed a place to stay in L.A) with this Gay guy off www.craigslist.com who turned out to be really nice and i met him one day and mentioned that i was going to vegas on the weekend - and he said he'd be totally up for that - so of course i said come along! The Twins who i used to dance with in the Lion King dance in the Prince show here so they have an apartment (paid for by 'The Rio' ! haha it's a casino) so they gave me the keys to that - which was great. so Russel and I drove 4 hours from L.A north east into the nevada desert to Vegas and crashed out at the twins cool pad! so that was really neat and nice.... Russel drives a convertible porsche too so that was even better :)

OMG the people in america, people. there are a lot of them. heaps! I am amazed by the volume... yesterday was Saturday - THE shopping day for vegas and i guess people that wanna visit - fly ins and people driving from L.A. etc. So this place was pretty big yesterday.

Las Vegas Boulevard (or 'the strip') is the main street with all the casinos on it... now i mean if anyone has been to Crown in Melbounre - OMG the Casinos here are (the big ones) at least double the size of crown and there would be about 5 to 10 big ones - then there are smaller ones - then small ones - then random ones that just appear on the streets around Vegas.
The main drag is a street with 5 lanes of traffic going slowly in each direction and that street goes for probably 3 miles (a mile is 1.6km) with Casinos on it.. then it just goes off into the sunset in each direction.

Each Major Casino - Wynn, The Rio, Bellagio, Paris, Mandalay Bay, Ceasers Palace, Venice (or whatever that one is called), MGM Grand, Sahara, Luxor, JUST TO NAME A FEW has it's own shopping arcade, restaurant promenade and theatres. Some Casinos have more than one huge theatre and show - like Ceasars has Celine and a cirque show. Everyone is here performing, Prince, Toni Braxton, Elton john is coming, Christina Aguliera did a one off show last night (tour), phantom of the opera, mama mia, there are 4 cirque de soleil shows - I saw "O" the one set on a huge lake! kinda thing last night. It was pretty astounding - but you know if you've seen a cirque show or two that wow factor - you kinda just accept as what you'd expect! That said O was pretty breathtaking... just incredible... a huge stage that descends and ascends throughout the show from a dry stage (or part thereof) to become not a pool - but definitely a lake...enormous, boats saililng... acrobats coming out of the water on ropes... diving... fire...a totally mechanised set... it was so beautiful.

As far as Casinos go they are just fuck off affairs... you do a lot of walking in Vegas. Ceasers where i went yeasterday to jump in their beautiful spa had three huge towers connected by the ground floor casino section. Far out! how much gambling can people do!! I kinda feel that the vibe of this place is to recreate famous places around the world so americans can feel they've been there and not leave the country. New York NY Casino is a skyline of NY complete with statue of liberty totally NY themed, Paris the same, the italian one - VENEITAN (that's it) is like Venice and italy - Alladdin another of the HUGE ones - has it's arcades like an arabian desert town, streets, buildings even the faux vaulted ceiling which looks like a desert sky with clouds! its so funny. you can drink on the street so people walk casually around even in the morning with beers and margaritas in long plastic drinking containers. As far as crassness goes however - the only casino i had a problem with was the Luxor which is a black pyramid and at night as this bright spotlight beaming from it's peak into the vegas sky... so odd but i kinda found this a bit wrong even almost disrespectful! hmmm we don't even know what the pyramids are really for or did and here they are making them in vegas... needless to say i have only been in a few casinos - so many - but i certainly didn't want to set foot in that one. Also there are theories about the 'power' a pyramid shape can illict over people - maybe search google "louvre pyramid energy theories" if that interests you...?

Hit the gay scene a few times.. which was fun! just dancing and too many drinks one night. Met and chatted to some friendly guys. American guys here are more laid back than LA (bit click-y there). Clubs are pretty trash - drag was terrible - one club was good although i think there was another major one that was supposed to be great. Great to see so many black people, asians, hispanics (mexicans) and white people getting along. I mean america is VERY mixed. California has more Hispanics than whites and they say in the years to come there will be more Mexicans in the US than white people...

Cars is what i'm seeing people - so many cars. so many cars and so many kinds of cars. i've seen a few stretch hummers (which if you don't know what a hummer is - it's a fuck off FWD) limos, everything... you name it! not many electric cars in vegas tho! Russel saw a cadillac last night that was jacked up 6 feet off the wheel base - literally.

Georgraphically vegas is kinda really beautiful... it's set in a valley in the Nevada desert so far in the distance you can see the mountains that make up the valley. The whole thing is flat. With very stark contrasting colours - of the sky and the mountains. Streets are huge and long (you need a car) 5 lane streets throughout the whole city... every 3 blocks you go there are these huge car pak wal-mart style shpping centres with fuel a star bucks a mini casino (a window less - non descript building called Tanya's Casino or whatever) restaurtants - lots of asian, take aways - lots of mexican themed - and massage parlours everywhere. yeah it's sleazy. You can play pokies in the 7 eleven! you can play pokies in the supermarket (they have them set up!) there. Hilarious.

There is a lot of entertainment, a lot of money, lots of shopping and lots and lots of people and cars in this town.... wish i had seen the new beatles show LOVE and even the Celine show now (i've heard it's amazing and they're advertising it's the last year for her show) :( Interestingly enough the guy that created the Celine show is the guy from Cirque de soleil so i'm sure they are doing well from this Oasis in the desert.

I think I'm definitley coming back here... hehehe...