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| - Oh, Las Vegas. You're really kind of just a sh*thole where people get fleeced in the middle of some gorgeous desert. Ironically, I've been calling it "Las Vagueness" for as long as I can remember, and even more ironically, even though it wasn't the original intention (it was just a play on the phonetics of "Vegas"), the name is becoming appropriate. The more time goes on, the more vague the place becomes. This wasn't my first foray. I've been to Las Vegas probably fifteen times by now over the course of, well, decades. I was there before even one of those big stinkin' hotels were there.
Let me start out by saying, it wasn't my choice to go to Vegas. I was there for a trade show. I haven't been there by choice since 1995, then it was only for two days, watch the freaks, play a little blackjack and then leave. The show I went to is there every two years, so I'm seeing a snapshot over that period. This was the third time I was in Vegas for the show.
I stayed at Harrah's, one of the host hotels for the show. It ... sucked.
You know, every few years, Vegas goes through a a molting, where new hotels spring up and the old ones do a facelift, but the premise is still the same, and the results are still the same, only now it all just looks tired.
What used to be cool about Vegas doesn't exist anymore. It had its own brands, and those brands were quintessentially Vegas. Now it has those brands, only remade, shadows of their former selves to the point where they're unrecognizable as what they originally were, plus a bunch of big nasty theme hotels, and a bunch of outlets from other cities. There's nothing really uniquely "Vegas" that I could discern anymore. Even the fancy hotels like Caesar's are starting to look past their prime, and guess what? It's brand new.
Why on earth I'd want to go to Vegas to experience restaurants, the original branch of which is in another city, I'm not sure. They never meet up with what you'd expect from the original, so what's the point? Why I'd ever go to Rao's in Vegas is a mystery. The reason it's hard to get into in NYC is because... it's Rao's. Lightning doesn't strike twice like that. It just becomes contrived. Stone Crab? A pale imitation of the original, from what I understand. They're actually banking on the fact that you never went to the original and won't be able to compare, because they don't stack up. They're hoping you'll buy into the brands, regardless. Listen here, ignoramuses (if you qualify), YOU NEED TO GO TO THE ORIGINAL.
The west side of the strip near Caesar's, Bellagio, etc., is almost like going to Disneyland, because you are forced to walk past stores in order to even walk down the street. You can't cross a street without being guided upstairs to some stores, to then have to walk on a bridge across the street you were intending to cross, into another yet another mall with MORE stores, and down the stairs back to the street level. What's worse is there's not one unique store in any of the indoor malls these enormo hotels have thrust in your path. Ferragamo, Victoria's Secret, Kenneth Cole, Cartier, followed by Cartier, Kenneth Cole, Ferragamo, and Victoria's Secret. It's ludicrous, but it must be working for them, otherwise they wouldn't do it.
The recession has hit Vegas and Nevada hard, I know, and it shows. But then again, this is the issue with Vegas, it's not constructed for long life, and so everything starts looking kind of shoddy fairly quickly.
It still preys on the hopes and dreams and addictions of those who are unable to do anything but succumb, but even worse, any vestige of a soul that Vegas used to have has been supplanted by mindless control-freak commercialism, and you get fleeced at every turn. No, there is no soul left there at all. I can't figure out what is appealing enough about this city that would make anyone want to live there, but then again, I could say that about most of the country, so there you have it. It's possible that by being a victim of the show and the strip, I missed something, but until someone shows me different, I just don't get it.
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