Live From Las Vegas

A few years ago when I was in Paris, I spent a lot of time hanging out in bookstores, vinyl/dvd stores, poster shops, galleries, etc. And I noticed something that really surprised me. The only American city I ever saw represented in any way was Las Vegas. Not Hollywood, not New York, not Washington. Anything America oriented was always about Vegas. And whenever I'd mention to someone that I was from Vegas, they usually treated me like a cross between a rock star and an extra-terrestrial. People excitedly wanted to know every little detail about "Planet Vegas". Paris is very much the cultural hub of Europe. It's absolutely THE place to get a feel for what Europeans as a whole are into. The moral to this story is simple. To people around the world, Las Vegas is seen as the real capital of America. America is legendary for being the land of opportunity. Well, in Las Vegas, anything is possible. 

I've lived in Vegas for ten years. Before I moved here, I'd always thought of Vegas as corny and square. Once I finally arrived and settled in, my initial opinion was totally confirmed. Vegas is corny and square... but only on the surface. Once I took the time to look behind and beyond the neon, I soon realized that there's far more to Las Vegas than meets the eye. In an ironic twist, I ended up becoming obsessed with the very city I'd scorned. I collected books, articles and documentaries which I studied like the Dead Sea Scrolls. I conducted informal interviews with old timers and old schoolers; the people I often refer to as "elder Vegas". I spent many hours... years actually... processing the information I'd gathered. And finally, I developed several theories of my own about Vegas. 

I had more than enough material for a book, but I didn't want to wait a year or two to make the information available. So I created a twenty-two minute documentary called Occult Las Vegas Revealed. It can be seen right now on Youtube. Though I'm quick to tell people that it doesn't sparkle and shine like something on Discovery Channel, I'm still very proud of it. That's because I present some of the most startling and original theories about Vegas that I've ever heard. I'm now in the process of finishing the book and it should be available in 2009.

I'm very much obsessed with "culture stuff"... art, music, books, films, etc. Suffice it to say that I'm equally obsessed with Las Vegas, a city that reflects so much about American culture. So I'll be devoting a fair amount of blog time to Sin City. But I can assure you, my ideas about Vegas will be radically different from anything you've ever heard before. If ever a place complemented my dark, somewhat morbid world view, that place is Las Vegas. Don't let the neon fool you. Las Vegas is a dark place... where anything is possible.