It is actually 9-14-12, but internet connection has been
sketchy and I am only now able to post.
I am used to hotels providing free wifi connection. Here, at the Flamingo, they want $13.49
per day. So, I have been using
Ananda’s 4G connection, but it keeps shutting down. Go figure.
Ananda and I have been doing Vegas on a shoestring. Really odd in a town that is determined
to take whatever money you might have.
Our room was from a comp ticket a client of hers had and that she wasn’t
going to use. We brought some food
that Ananda had bought with her food stamps. Entertainment was walking around and looking at all the
different people and, well, Vegas.
Driving in, I saw several signs that combined the sacred and
the profane. There was Kokopelli
on the side of a panel truck, but rather than a flute he held two pipe
wrenches. A big billboard had the
symbol of Tao, advertising a bistro.
The caption read “Always a Happy Ending”. Nice, but the photos was of a female backside. Lovely, yes, but with a not-so-subtle
subliminal message. Then there was
the Parthenon, a symbol of Greek cultural worship, but perched high atop a
skyscraper, so that it looked like a toy house. A large (I’m talking 100’ tall) sign underneath read “Veni,
Vedi, Whoopie!”
We spent the morning sitting outside the pool area in wooden
chairs that rocked. We had canned
coffee and peaches and nuts from the grocery store. We could watch the swimmers, although no one really
swam. We then walked around to some
of the nearby casinos. I liked
Paris, with the Eiffel Tower rising through the throng of slot machines into a
fluffy-clouded sky. Caesars Palace
had a Hindu shrine in front near one of the fountains. The Flamingo actually had
flamingos.
We got caught by a dabchick. For those of you that don’t know, my definition of
‘dabchick’ comes from a game of Fictionary, where you have to come up with
definitions for obscure words.
Someone defined ‘dabchick’ as the woman in a store that wants to give
you a dab of something. Well,
there was a dabchick at a kiosk we walked past. She stepped in front of us and gave each of us a packet of
face cream and started talking.
Ananda, social butterfly that she is, answered back and the next thing I
know, this woman is putting some goo on my face. She asked me what I used on my face and I paused. “Soap and water?” She was shocked, shocked, I tell you,
that I didn‘t use any ‘product’ on my face. Boy, did I get a lecture. I knew that I wasn’t going to buy any of this stuff, and
neither was Ananda, but the saleslady wouldn’t stop with her dabs and mirrors
and wait-I-have-another-free-gift-if-you-buy-today. Since I didn‘t have the 500 or so dollars that she wanted, I
kept inching away and taking pictures of the ceiling.
Las Vegas bills itself as ‘Sin City’. But from my point of view, it is not
the sex, booze and gambling that is the sin. People doing those things are, for the most part, having
fun. And fun is a good thing. The sin, for me, is the waste. Water for all the people and fountains
is pumped in from Lake Mead, but it is dropping below the level of the intake
pumps. It takes an enormous amount of electricity to power all the neon. It is not a sustainable city. But the worst waste is of people. A lot of people begging. One sign said, “Help me get drunk” and
another “I won’t lie. I want
beer.” Now there are beggars in
every city, I know. But the stark
contrast between the passing stretch limos and surrounding glitz with these despairing
people is a microcosm of our nation.
So, it occurred to me, that there are way too many Sin
Cities in this country.
I haven’t pursued my quest to find out if someone is
voting. For one, I always hesitate
to start a conversation with someone.
For two, people here are always going someplace or concentrating on
their drink or a gambling machine.
And for three, it is LOUD.
Booming music inside and roaring traffic outside. I left Ananda early to come to the room
and just feel the quiet. An
intense desire to be home is building in me.
No comments:
Post a Comment