ODE TO LAS VEGAS

 

Las Vegas was created to fill a universal longing for uninhibited gaming, hedonism and escape not only from the toils of life but from its rules and regulations that it is one of the few cities in the world built outside of a cultural landscape. Since then it has become as much an adjective as a real place that it isn’t so much the city itself that surprises upon arrival.

Rather, it is how arbitrarily (at least superficially) it fits its surroundings. Las Vegas was built for the global, inter-cultural desire to play and dream of striking it rich. It could have been built anywhere and still have been the same glittering city. It has no culture or style of its own. Like Disneyland which replicated once in the United States and then abroad it is the same park filling a void that knows no boundaries.

True, just like the locations for the Disney parks were strategically chosen so was that vast desert between the cities of the Gulf and the West Coast seen as a playground distanced not only from civilization but also its laws. And yet, the surrounding cities, towns and even landscape with their culture are often so disconnected from the islands of pleasure they shield.

Indeed, the ride to Vegas at night is remarkable for its darkness as there are hardly any street lights to spoil the desert night. Up until the last ten minutes or so of the stretch of Route 15 leading to Vegas it is hard to believe you are entering Glitter Gulch.

Once in Las Vegas, however, the famed neon signs, the street lamps and the resorts assault the eyes. The red rocks that surround the city simply disappear (oh they are visible from the right vantage point, but their overpowering presence is a mere ghost). Tellingly, on our visit to Red Rock Canyon after my first night in Vegas I was reminded that I was in the Nevada desert.

Las Vegas is a delightful place, but it is a delight that comes from making all that come into it a product of Las Vegas, rather than a product of where its from. Its casinos modeled after one of the pyramids of Giza, a medieval castle (where we stayed), the streets of New York City, and, my personal favorite, Caesar’s Place, take nothing but the most rudimentary aspects of the themes (a sphinx adorns the Luxor, replicas of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower tower by New York, New York and Paris, respectively) and uniform them to a Vegas (and popular) interpretation of such themes. The tourists from around the world all go there to become Las Vegas tourists, points of origins cease to matter faster than in most other places.

There’s no denying the elegance of some of these palaces (Mirage is a gorgeous resort) which is just as well as gambling, though still the top draw, is becoming increasingly easy to sidestep in favor of other activities.

I played a few rounds of slot machines at each resort each night and at Luxor actually did quite well though I foolishly didn’t realize when a good time to cash out would be. Fortunately, I did not lose a lot of money. However, I could have easily done without gambling even as a point of amusement. Las Vegas is best enjoyed the way Times Square is enjoyed; that is, for its loudness, for its breathless energy, and for its bluntness. Indeed, the most fun part of the trip for us was driving through the strip, photographing the gigantic neon gods Bugsy Siegel and his successors created. Fremont Street is full of that tacky charm that has made Las Vegas the beloved piece of Americana it is. Vegas Vic, the waving cowboy over the Pioneer Club, and cowgirl Vegas Vickie are reminders not only of Las Vegas’s self-awareness of the history of the land upon which it was built, however it may mold it, but also that like the Old West many Americans love it before we even see it.

Finally, upon the edges of Clark County the iconic Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign greets visitors as it has since its installation in 1959, a cool piece of the then popular googie architecture. It is less commonly known that the back of the signs bids visitors leaving the city good-bye and reminds them to come back soon. We, as a collective, will. At best Las Vegas is a tribute to the universal desire for fun and uninhibited amusement. There is something to be sad for a place in which all visitors for their time there, are simply Las Vegas visitors finding what can only be found in that city tucked away by the Nevada desert.