Good bye Vegas

well Ive been away for about a month now, the glitter is slowly starting to wash off with every shower. Ive been transferred again, i now reside in Salt Lake City. This blog will now be stopped, but a new will rise in its place, the format the same, experiences reviews and the like, just a different city. I can definitely say this though, i am truly enjoying this city. SLC is a real city not the mash up of suburbs and resorts that make up Vegas. i am finally living in a real downtown urban setting and i love it. this past weekend was Halloween and we didn't have to drive once. Brian my new roommate and i walked from bar to bar meeting people knocking back a few drinks and generally having a great time. So stay tuned ill be putting up reviews and random musings from my new city, with what i feel will be more frequency than i ever was in Vegas.

The Happiest Place On Earth

We Leave the Freakin Frog around 11:30 or so, a little disappointed about the bar. I mean its Saturday night were basically across the street from UNLV it should be bumping right

"So what do you wanna do man?"

Says Brian, my new roll buddy since his ugly ugly breakup last week.

"You know I wouldn't mind YaYo Taco, and its right down the street."

He says, but that's not exactly what I'm looking for. We intentionally began the night in search of a fun college bar. Get off the strip and hang out some where different, so we headed to The Freakin Frog which should have been our one and only stop. I guess YaYo Taco was the next best choice near us and a college bar, but the idea of having to stand next to douche bags and listen to vapid little girls all night got me a little depressed. I was still looking for something with a little culture. Then it hits me.

"How far is the Double Down from here?"

Just what i was looking for. It reminds me of Lola's a dirty little dive bar in the Montrose area of

downtown Houston, though i hardly remember what the place really looked like, i was plastered most of the time. We get in the car and take the short ten minute drive through the busy off strip streets. As we drive down the road next to the small run down building we see a huge crowd gathered at front. This night is apparently special, its Roller Con 09 at the Double Down. We drive around a little and find a parking spot then walk up to the crowd milling around the front desperate to find the bar. All around us is the strangest assortment of women: beautiful, ugly, skinny, tall, fat, curvy, butch, dainty. you name it, it was represented. The really interesting thing was the ceremony that was going on, a derby marriage. This is when two derby players take solemn vows to watch each others back on the skating floor and off. The only way i can accurately represent the style that night was if the 80's had a two way with a lingerie store and sporting appeal store while a German wedding dress boutique filmed the whole thing for its obscure members only porn website. Now mix in the fact that it was in Vegas and now the officiator, who's raspy dying voice over the mic was like nails down a chalkboard, is in an oversize white Elvis jumpsuit.

The inside of the bar is definitely the work of Rob Zombies interior designer, like the shitty cantina right out side the gates of hell. A small square shaped bar is pushed to one side and about 5 old slot machines that were probably purchased at an El Cortez clearance sale are lined up against a wall, the rest of the space is reserved for a few scattered about tables and one booth. there is a small area towards the front reserved as the stage and one pool table which seems to be used as seating more often than for recreation.

On the stage a band from LA called the Black Jetts (i think) was rocking out quite well I'd say. and again here we see the strangeness of this night, the lead singer of the band i shit you not was well over fifty and rocking out i like don't think i ever could. After a few beers at the bar and some music and we make our way back out the bar as the crowd begins to thin out. its time to go back home.

Random Thoughts by Brian

"You got to let Vegas happen man"

"A good smile is almost as big of a deal to me as a good ass... almost'

To Burger King cashier:

"Yeah let me get the Original Chicken Sandwich and the anal retentive Whopper!"

first impression

The colors look like they are swirling all around me, falling slowly and covering me in yellows reds blues purples, every color you can think of and some i haven't the ability to describe, some that evoke memories of long ago and some that are like strangers i have never met. the shapes of the colors undulate like a living being merging and then separating, forming new colors as they meet in a violent clash only to move away from each other again and reveal their own perfect beauty. While i cant help but stare my nose draws me away spring fills my olfactory cavities and my legs begin to move seemingly with out any thought. they lead through the cavernous lobby of the Bellagio and away from the mesmerizing celling of the check in counter. I walk from a crowded lobby filled with tourists gawking as i have just been the beauty above us in to what seems like a scene from "Alice in Wonder Land" giant frogs and insects are frozen place among flowers of every description that rival the glass structure of the lobby behind me matching color for color while intoxicating me with sweet smells. Smells that could in a real place, in a natural setting quickly turn in to the suffocating fragrance that only life gives off when it dies. But not here, here invisible hands tend these gardens day in and day out never a leaf out of place or a petal on the ground will you see. here the temperature is constant and a slight breeze that seems to come from nowhere keeps this Eden fresh. jets of water shoot from out of the ground in long perfect unbroken arches to disappear again in to the foliage all around. I turn around again walk back out through the lobby then out through front doors back in to chaos of the Las Vegas Strip and look out across the pool of water where in a few minutes a testament to human perscion will play out as huge towers of water will rise hundreds of feet in to the air in time with the music of Frank Sinatra patron saint of this town. I light the cigarette i have been holding on to since first walking in as i glance at the group of women walking in to the hotel holding yard long margaritas and Mhai Thais that could possibly kill a child with alcohol poisoning. One long drag then back down the path that leads to the strip, i still have to meet my new friends.

Iran

i consider my self a news junkie, i always try to stay up with whats going on in the world. i consider my self to be extremely lucky to live in this era. we are on such a fine line in my opinion the whole world is on the brink, walking a tight rope between the light and the dark. i believe the Internet and specifically social networking and media sites are the fuel that is stoking the flames of freedom. "beware he who seeks to conceal the truth for in his heart he wishes to control you" or something like that. Information instant and from all over the world is what will keep us free. Whats happening in Iran right now, as amazing, and disturbing, and jaw dropping as it is, is coming to the world in a huge way. As i write this right now CNN is running an hour long segment about I-reporters, citizen journalists, who are risking their lives to bring the truth of whats happening in their country to rest of the world. I'm not sure nor do i care to speculate what will happen after these protests, whether Iran becomes a free nation or not, whether the Islamic fundamentalist state is toppled and a new secular government is formed or not. what is think is truly revolutionary not just for Iran but for the whole world is the access allowed by technology. my thoughts go to all those Iranians who are fighting for freedom as i write. I truly hope they all know that they have already succeeded.

10 year reunion

so, i just arrived home after 4 days back in Houston. great time, got to see family and friends and most importantly it was my 10 year high school reunion. i find that i am milestone type of person, things like prom, weddings, reunions, i find that just the idea of something being important makes me more excited about them. to be honest the turn out wasn't all that hot. probably 200 people showed up through out the night out of a graduating class of 600+ and the people i talked to most were those that i keep in touch with any way. Not as much of course that i no longer live in Houston. i did get a few surprises and yes there were those people who i have not seen i about ten years that thanks to the magic of social networking i will now be able to keep in touch with. you know the biggest thing i think i got out of it is that ten years did not seem like a long time for me. i really don't feel all that different. I wonder if perhaps those alumni that are married and have children feel the same way. i wonder if its different for everyone, that undeniable feeling of your adult life actually starting. Still don't feel that way, and the amount that i partied on Friday night can attest to that. That being said maybe Vegas isn't really the place to start an adult life, or perhaps its more of a tangible thing like buying a your first home. oh well, I'm just going to chalk it up to the idea my sole isn't really ready for that yet. I'm sure when it happens though i will know it.

the new information frontier

i desperately need a hobby, and the writing is not working very well. well not that it doesn't work i just cant seem to find the motivation or perhaps inspiration to write. so if any one has any good hobbies please let me know, I've thought about maybe comic books again but that could get expensive plus its more of a collection than a hobby really, a video game is not really what I'm looking for either i would like something that connects me either to myself or to others more not to a TV screen. I think the main reason is that i want to create something to put something new out into the world that has never been there before, something all my own. So i go back to writing, to that end i am trying to get in to the ease of writing by joining Twitter, i figure that perhaps i can increase my motivation 140 characters at a time. this new service is all over the place and growing at such a rate that i find it absolutely amazing, how such a simple idea, just 140 characters to tell those following you whats happening right then where you are and what your doing. Its grown into so much more, now business is on it, my restaurant Pei Wei is now on Twitter! That is actually why i joined, my boss wanted me to check it out. I find it to be an amazing tool there is a search feature where you can find what is popular, what topics are trending up among all users. This is not just for friends its about information for me. what is the new york times doing, what is the president or CNN up to, whats going on in my city. This is the new frontier that i see, one that deals in information and how we ingest it , and if what we are taking in is even true information, hence the beauty of the link it allows you write something down and back up each sentence you create with a whole wealth of information. in some ways this is the beauty of Twitter for me, i can get links to pictures video and articles from news institutions and people that i trust, i can learn about things that interest me and i don't have to search any more, the information is coming to me on a daily basis, this is the new frontier. how we receive our data. Not only will it connect me in an even stronger way to the information i want, it will also give me an endless amount of topics to write about. A weekly or perhaps daily stream of topics that i can immerse my self in to learn and to write about till the next topic. perhaps in this way i can find the one thing i can expound upon at length and perhaps truly create something of beauty.

drinking alone

I go out often by myself mostly to Vox a wine lounge around the corner. I have made friends with the staff and on slow night just have a couple of glasses and sit and talk with them just taking up time and satisfying the need for human interaction. I don’t really talk with the guests though, it curious, there are often attractive women there. Sometimes alone and I have struck up a casual conversation here and there but most of the times I just sit by myself and enjoy my wine and think. Not about anything at all just let the day wash over me. Little by little I start to unravel my self in a way.

My thoughts simply begin to race, coming at me fast and then disappearing before im truly able to grasp them. Most are about work what I need to do tomorrow, some are about money, when am I ever gong to be financially stable enough to feel free to do what I want, have I made the right career choice should I have finished school, I wonder what kind of panties the girl across the bar has on, what type of wine is she drinking, what does that say about her. Do I have toilet paper at home? All silly inane thoughts that don’t go any where barely staying in my minds eye for a second before its gets’ crowded out by the deluge of other thoughts all racing to take center stage. To become the most important thought in my mind, thoughts have a life of there own they are each individuals wants or fears pure and straight forward in the subconscious that exploded forth attempting to be the one that action is taken on. I think all these thought really just want that. To be validated for a choice to be made.
Vegas is a strange place, it’s the strip glamour, fame, sin, incredible wealth. All mixed together in the middle of the dessert lit by millions of light bulbs the rival the stars in the sky, neon’s and prostitute and the promise of wining big if your lady luck just decides to stay by your side. But that is about three miles of Vegas. that’s it. There is a city around that strip well more truthfully there are suburbs that surround the strip, Vegas doesn’t actually have a downtown not really a city just a bunch of suburbs where the locals live. These locals have it different than any where else. Because of the transient nature of this town relationships form strongly between those that do find a mate here. In seemed like in Houston everyone was single, or just getting in to a relationship or just getting out of one. But here all you get is relationships that seem to last for years and marriages at a young age. It seems that because no one is really from here and people are always leaving that those who stay here have to cling to each other.