LCD, Or, Post Mortem, July 2015.

Trip 3 over. Conflicted.

Not going to do a blow by blow on this one, because it can be broken down easily into three categories, a meditation and a plan for the future.

Category One: The Good

-I saw Alice In Chains. They were great, easily the best part of the trip. Good setlist (though no Rain When I Die, damn it), good acoustics, I was up close and they didn't miss a note.

-I ticked a few new resorts off my 'haven't been" list. Palms, Rio, O'Shea's. Wasn't in any of them for long (O'Shea's was about 2 minutes) but at least I can say I was in them.

-The late nights at Cosmo's Vesper. Hung out 3 of the nights at this great little bar in the bowels of Cosmopolitan. This place is comedy. Great people watching and the bartenders are a hoot, commenting on all the drunken idiots they have to put up with every night.

-NYNY. Another unfailingly clean, comfortable and quiet room a what has become my go-to resort. The steak on Sunday night at Gallagher's was predictably amazing too.

-The weather. Really dodged the bullet over the weekend. High 80's to low 90's the whole time I was there. Never got the summer heat. Rained a little Saturday morning but otherwise completely fine.

Category Two: The Meh

-Ka at MGM. Some parts of it were amazing, some crazy acrobatics and such, but it's a pale shadow compared to Beatles Love at Mirage. It also has a completely unintelligible story. Like, I have no IDEA what I watched. They had an opening narration, why not carry that on through the show?

-The gambling. I went with $3500 and came back with $1100. Didn't hit anything big but didn't allow myself to lose much, either. Had one little run on a Lord Of The Rings machine bank early Saturday morning at Mirage where I turned $40 into $300, but other than that it was a slow, steady decline. Kept my string of 13 straight trips without ever coming back up alive.

Category Three: The Bad

-The airline. The flight out was relatively uneventful, but as always, Southwest fucked up my return trip yet again. First doing a last minute gate change, which seems to always happen at LAS. Then a 1+ hour delay to get on the plane. I sat around in the gate area for 3 hours at the airport. This happens time and time again on SWA. I was supposed to be on the ground in SFO at 5:50p, we didn't come in until nearly 8:00p. Seriously, Southwest, fuck you and fuck your treatment of people like they are cattle. I'm going to pay the extra $50 bucks or whatever going forward and fly Virgin.

-The people. The crowds. The street hawkers. Hookers. Idiots. See below.

-The gouginess. I mean, this isn't a huge issue for me b/c when I come into town I expect to spend money, but $20 for a shot of Belvedere? I paid as much as $20 and as little as $7 for the same shot in different places on the strip. Ridiculous. Enough said.

A Meditation. 

Something dawned on me Monday night as I was making my way back to my room. I was completely frustrated, tired, and ready to get the fuck out of town. What caused this was the people who come to Vegas, and the people who PREY on the people who come to Vegas.

It struck me that Vegas is a very LCD (lowest common denominator) town. As I walked up and down the strip, the people I saw were drunken, stupid, lacking common sense. Standing in the middle of the sidewalk forcing everyone to walk around you. Literally dozens of drunk club girls carrying their high heels staggering around after getting blasted in the clubs. Middle-aged grey haired guys trying to pick up on 20 year old girls at 1p on a Monday. Fat, dumb hillbillies and their fat, dumb wives lumbering through casino walkways slowing everyone else down. Wannabe gangsters screaming obscenities at their baby-mamas in the middle of the casino.

Then there's the people who prey on those idiots. The desperate, damn near criminal pick up "artists" trying to swoop in and take advantage of those drunk club girls. The endless dime-store salesmen trying to get you to go to the strip club, and insulting you when you ignore them (almost knocked one of these out). The thousands of illegal immigrants handing out "girls to your room" cards working for probably $5 an hour. The hookers working single older guys (like me) in bars late at night who just want a damn drink. The aforementioned price gouging.

It dawned on me that even people who are normally rational and intelligent come to Vegas and become blathering, drunken idiots, and the people who live there know this, expect the worst of people and prey on that. This has been something I've been noticing more and more on my trips and is very difficult for me to stomach. I suffer fools VERY, VERY poorly and I suffer the assholes who prey on fools even more poorly. Common sense and fair play are two of things I believe in most strongly, and it strikes me that Vegas is almost devoid of both of them.

The Plan For The Future.

So what does this mean for my personal trips to Vegas? Well, I'll be taking a nice long break, for one. It's the last week in July; I won't be going back until the last week of December. That's a nice 5 month break where I can clear the palate as it were of all the "Vegas-ness" of this year (three trips so far). It'll be nice to have the time to re-acquaint with SF and, with the extra money I'll have for a couple months, to get caught up on some stuff here. See some shows, get out once in a while on a weekday, maybe. Won't have to worry about saving up until November.

What it also may mean when I'm on the ground in Vegas is staying more grounded to one casino when there. Instead of constantly walking up and down the strip, fighting through the idiot crowds and the asshole parasites on the strip, just staying rooted in the resort I'm staying at. Maybe seeking out the slightly more pricey resorts like Cosmopolitan, even if it means (gasp!) paying for a room, then just pretty much staying on site. Not saying I won't venture out a little to some of my fave spots, but minimizing the potential for frustration.

Also may help to seek out the lightest times of year for visitors to Vegas and going in those pockets. Xmas is always one, at least until the NYE crowd streams in. I love going over Xmas week as the crowds ARE lighter and, frankly, I have the week off anyway and there's nothing else interesting I'd like to be doing that week. There has to be a couple more pockets like that during the year.

So. A break from Vegas and likely a break from this blog for a while. All 2 of you who read this, please feel free to check back monthly, as that's about the frequency of the updates I'll be doing until I book the Xmas trip. Sure it'll ramp up again in December.