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Click here for information on the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, with pictures and links!
EXTRAORDINARY PHOTOGRAPHS DISCOVERED!!!
Click here for a report on my first trip to Las Vegas in 1971 -- with never-before-seen photographs!
LAS VEGAS IN THE MOVIES
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Heldorado (1946)
NEW YORK GOING DOWN
Take a walk around the East Village these days and you see that all the old joints are still there -- only now half the crowd
at any one of them is inside and half the crowd is out on the sidewalk, smoking or talking to their friends who are smoking.
This has caused such a noise problem in the neighborhoods that bars with outdoor spaces have to close them at 11 or 12, to
minimize complaints and steer clear of the police, who can now cite a place for noise based on an individual officer's "perception"
of how loud it is. It's just a matter of time before the young people who depend on dives for community and cultural exchange
realize that this situation is ridiculous as well as oppressive and move on to someplace more tolerant and congenial.
Not long ago "The Village Voice" ran an article about the latest wave of young New York artists to leave the
city -- those involved in the dance music scene. They're headed to places like Berlin and Barcelona, where Big Nanny hasn't
started yuppifying the nightlife:
"New York's dance music scene is undergoing a brain drain. DJs and musicians feel constrained by cabaret and smoking
laws, the oppressive rental market, and general lack of interest . . .
"A generation of expats has abandoned a city where the average gig at the local watering hole pays maybe $50 and
cab fare, for cities where rent is closer to $400 than $1,200, and apartments are way more spacious than most New York rat
holes. DJs get paid hundreds of dollars for a gig, or they can hop on a plane for 100 euros and land in club-friendly Madrid,
Paris, or London.
"'New York has become prohibitively expensive for people without professional careers,' says house-music producer
Wang. 'A very spacious apartment in Berlin for 400 or 500 euros a month can still be found; in the East Village, $950 for
my cramped studio was a steal. Downtown New York now seems overrun with drab NYU students and tacky yuppies from the show
"Friends".'"
Read the complete article here:
The Next Brooklyns
A recent issue of "Time", however, suggested a different expat destination, and guess what . . .
Read more here:
It's Vegas, Baby!
Click on the links below for Lloydville essays on Las Vegas:
SOME RECENT THOUGHTS ON LAS VEGAS
THE CAPITAL OF THE 21ST CENTURY
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| © Jim Wilson/"The New York Times" |
AMERICAN DREAMERS -- THE BUDGET SUITES
[Beth Raymer sent the link above to an article from "The New York Times". (The subtitle,"Seekers, Drawn to
Las Vegas, Find a Broken Promised Land", is from Freddy Fender's classic song "Across the Borderline".) The
article reports that in 1971, when I first went there, Las Vegas and its suburbs took up about 38 square miles of the desert
-- now they take up 235 square miles. Beth, one of the early 21st-Century pioneers of Las Vegas, was my first guide to the
modern-day Nowhere.]
LAS VEGAS LINKS:
TOWARD MORE ADVENTUROUS PLAYGROUNDS
[A brilliant essay by David Kranes on the essential aspects of casino design.]
THE LAS VEGAS ADVISOR
[The ultimate insider's guide to great deals in Vegas.]
THE LAS VEGAS MONORAIL PROJECT
THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
[My hometown newspaper.]
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