We were going to title this one “Beer and Bloating in Las Vegas,” but we don’t like to mislead. I’m not bloated. I only had two beers. I’m tired, but that’s from staying up late mostly just walking around. “Anticlimax and Moderate Fatigue in Las Vegas” just doesn’t echo Thompson quite as well.
It was a tame evening in southern Nevada, with a lot of walking around the Strip and a nice dinner and a little gambling (the losses were swift and decisive enough to chase me away before they actually did much damage). The NIT Bracket Challenge roulette tiebreaker would’ve been 18. I put the table minimum on 32. I also finally learned how to play craps. I would still like someone to walk me through it the next time I play.
Honestly, the biggest takeaway from the evening is how reliant Las Vegas might be on Los Angeles. My brother’s college roommate Andy’s been staying with me the last couple nights, since he has a wedding here this weekend and the NIT draws all kinds. Andy’s from Los Angeles, and despite not really fitting the caricature of a Las Vegas-loving man, he knows the Strip in detail. His explanation is that this is because Angelenos coming to Vegas is common practice, like New Englanders heading down to Boston, and that he is no exception. I believe him. If you’re a tourism destination, it probably helps to have the second-biggest city in the country a short drive away (and a shorter flight, if you’re into that).
One aspect of this revelation is that it’s a good reminder of how separated the west is from most of the U.S. It’s a long way out here, and there’s a lot of dead land out here, and when we talk in regions at the highest level—the official Census level, for instance—we end up just putting half the country into one bucket. The travel habits are different out here. Different cities are used to people from different cities.
Another aspect of this revelation is that it explains why so many TV shows and movies treat going to Las Vegas as a commonplace, habitual thing. It’s a good plot device, but it’s also very normal for people who live in Southern California, a population which includes a lot of TV and movie folks.
So…yeah. Not a lot today, guys. Maybe something wild happens tonight, but I think Sunday and Monday were our most dramatic days in Las Vegas, and they weren’t particularly dramatic as much as they were just overwhelming. I did walk over to the Strip yesterday afternoon, in addition to going there at night, but it was cloudy and spitting rain. It was refreshing. You don’t traditionally come to Las Vegas for that kind of refreshment. I will say: The Bellagio Fountains are more impressive than I realized, and even with those guys handing out those cards for call girls, the city isn’t as full of nudity on the surface level as you could be led to believe. In some ways, Las Vegas is just a city. It’s a different city, sure, but it’s mostly just a city until you catch the magic, glorious and/or dark and twisted. No magic this time. (Not outside of Orleans Arena, that is…)
