Neon Poisoning

Vegas has a love of themes: in the beginning it embraced its western roots, later Steve Wynn helped disassociate local casinos with the desert locale (resulting in England in the time of King Arthur, Gotham, waterborne Italy), and currently it’s back to the down and dirty (burlesque and ultrabars offering up hot girl-on-girl action in their advertising).

So what better addition than an “ice” themed bar for the desert gaming mecca? Below Zero London is an English drinker’s frozen refuge, and the Icebar Milano has an ice-sculpture version of the Last Supper.

Vegas should have a crystal-clear frozen caddy with showgirls and gangsters floating down a river of vodka.

And let’s hear it for drinking and blogging, ’cause that’s what I’m doing right now.

Just as many conservatives despise neo-cons and their highjacking of the republican party, there are a collection of apologists that reside in the liberal camp, excusing all sorts of behavior as a product of bad environment. My future home has one of these folks.

Attack on trucker spotlights troubled community

“At 2 a.m. Tuesday, a tanker carrying 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel was ambushed by a group of kids who pelted it with rocks and fireworks.

Police say a bottle rocket blew up inside the cab, injuring the driver and causing him to lose control of the massive tanker. It rolled over on the side of the road.

Investigators still are trying to determine exactly what happened next. But friends of the driver say he told them he prayed for help as some of the youths broke out the windows of the cab, hauled him out and beat him. Others danced on his truck.”

Local Councilwoman Felicia Moore responded in this manner…

“I’m hoping this is an isolated incident,” Moore said. “I don’t see it as a group of people who want to terrorize truckers. I see this as a few teens who need to find something productive to do. It is obvious that they need programs in here, especially for the teenagers. I am going to work to get some programs in here.”

Low income communities need all sorts of programs to give capable and deserving people the tools to work and contribute. But these guys aren’t those people. Ms. Moore is using environment as an excuse for the absence of a moral compass. What are the lessons learned for all those people that reside in that neighborhood that find this behavior completely reprehensible and not representative of their beliefs?

Insulted and condescended to is what I would feel like if I was one of her constituents. And as a liberal, I don’t find my beliefs so inclusive that criminal violence is allowed in the tent. Hers are the sort of comments that allow conservatives to rightfully point out an unwillingness to make people responsible for their actions on the part of some liberals. If anyone takes exception to a white, college grad guy coming to these conclusions, I’ll be happy to respond with my short history of the couple of co-workers, convicted murderers, that I worked with while in New Orleans.

When I/we first moved to Vegas, it was without a job or apartment, and no real idea of what Vegas had to offer. In my 4+ years here, the art scene has slowly grown enough to where the the hipsters complain about the newly boring nature of the art and the bars. My old site, Las Vegas Arts and Culture, was a means to keep discovering what the city had and was sorely lacking, and it lacks so much. But unlike so many American cities, it was never a center for shipping or manufacturing. Its modern start as a stronghold for criminal interests and business meant it never had a collection of culturally minded founders. It now is home to a large population of transient service workers. Casino valets can earn $60,000 parking cars, so getting an education often is not the answer for some.

Getting to know the city worked to my advantage in ways not expected, like being asked to proof Jarret Keene’s The Underground Guide to Las Vegas and writing the music section for 2005 Time Out Las Vegas. Vegas’ art scene was in a pretty formative state when I first got here and thus it was easy to see new things firsthand. Atlanta’s too big and established to allow for that same opportunity. So, I’m curious to see what I get instead.

When I read Erik Schneider’s site critiquing the High Museum of Art, it had me wondering what made Atlanta the city that would have a museum like that. The city also has the Woodruff Arts Center, but their website starts blaring Carmina Burana when you open it and Donny Osmond was playing there. So there you go.

Random conversational shrapnel… heard at a screening of “Sin City”,

“How did Ashton Kutcher get so famous?”
“Maybe he’s bi.”