Underneath all the flashing lights, faux finish architecture that seems placid amongst the glittering golds and shimmering silvers, lies a thorough network of people that are all looking for something that they will not find here.
Walking around all of the different buildings, stopping momentarily to gander at some crazy out of place lamppost, watching complete strangers make absolute fools of themselves all happened within 10 minutes of arriving at our destination. The next 6 hours would be an eye-opening, soul churning, theory spawning idea-fest, and my best friend and I had no idea what was about to unfold.
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On the surface of the experience, compared to others I have had at this location, seems very short-lived and dull. But dig deeper, as we did, and uncover the true meaning of this city that never sleeps (although half of it actually does, for a part of the evening). First walking from the parking garage into a lavishly decorated elevator station, to which we took down to the casino level. The metallic glow of the gold plated doors seemed to melt to the sides as we stepped out into the cesspool that is Las Vegas, Nevada.
I probably could not have picked a better location to start this adventure in, the Venetian Hotel and Casino, very ostentatious even for the rich. Among the ranks of the Wynn, City Center at Aria, Bellagio, and Pallazo, the Venetian definitely follows suit with the rest of them; spending gratuitous amounts of (your) money to heavily cover the douchebag-ridden, whore-infested shit tank this once playful city has turned into.
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Not saying that 1940s Vegas didn't have douchebags, they were just ALL douchebags, with Tommy guns, and yes, they will fucking murder you.
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Now? Men are acting like women and the women are acting like men. Think about that one for a minute. Men have become more "metro", pampering themselves with mani/pedis and facials/severe eyebrow trimming (a little is understandable but really...), which in MODERATION is acceptable, by anyone's means. I'm sure all those things feel great. But they are only temporary. This new breed of man is trying to perpetuate the fake. Just like the city they came to party in.
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Back to the wonderful Venetian. Honestly, this casino is beautiful in all aspects. Socially, financially, structurally, everything works out great. That's what we first thought when we walked in the obviously hard to miss revolving door that NO ONE GOES THROUGH. They all walked around it and decided to pull open the automatic doors that are built for the handicapped to access the whorehouse- I mean casino floor. Then, we delved deeper into the hungry bowels of this soul destroying machine they call The Devils Playground. Going from table game to table game, video poker to slot machine, cashier to ATM, we suddenly realized that this was going to be an interesting journey to say the least- and probably the most insightful experience we've had to date regarding humanity.
Finishing a round up in the Venetian, we head over to the Palazzo (owned by the same company, apparently), then up the very wide sidewalks of the strip, and end up going back to the car and driving ourselves to the Luxor and Excalibur, both of which I recall having plenty of fun at previously. UNDERAGE, mind you. Now that we are both 21, it is surprising how unappealing it all seems when you don't have money to lose.
These are the main 4 buildings we visited, aside from the sidewalk/walking outside times.
I COULD write about the grandeur of each one of these fantastic buildings, but then I would be a bad blogger; I would be writing the same thing four times. It doesn't matter how much glitter you smother in, how much booze you drown in, how much green paper you throw at the man with the cards, or how many women's shoes you carry down the dirty streets of this dirty town.. IF you come to Las Vegas, check your soul along with your bags, because once this city is done with you, you're lucky if you have anything left inside you to cry over.
All in all it was a VERY spiritual, eye opening, sobering (hah) experience, and I'm glad we decided to spontaneously go last night. I'm still up, actually, pushing somewhere around 42 hours as I type this report. I had a few important things to do, such as homework and playing a bit of guitar.
Even in my rants and raves about douches and douchettes, Las Vegas, like anything in life, is what you make of it. If you come and act belligerent and drunk off your ass, or are sober as a mormon, whatever joy or experience you can extract out of this time capsule town is worth whatever you decided to pay. But I can also bet you, that I spent much less, and gained much more knowledge and insight than any bottle will give you.
Deuces wild.
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