Our Great American Road Trip included an obligatory stop in Las Vegas, where we had to check out the Fremont Street Experience and, of course, the famous Strip, starting with New York, New York Hotel & Casino.
The dense pastiche of landmarks made my head spin — the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Chrysler Building, and more are jammed together and crisscrossed by a giant roller coaster that [I guess] references Coney Island.
I didn’t want to risk detention and so didn’t take photos inside. Suffice it to say that the interior features miniaturized streets and buildings that offer a compressed version of some famous NYC neighborhoods, but without street vendors, panhandlers, or street performers. It’s a city without urban life.
From New York City, it’s just a hop and a skip to Paris, or actually the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.
The Excalibur looks like a Disney creation:
Arr, matey, it’s Treasure Island:
If you’ve seen Bugsy, you know that the Flamingo pretty much started it all in Vegas in 1946.
Circus Circus opened in 1968, making it practically ancient by Vegas standards.
The slogan for Las Vegas is “what happens here, stays here,” but I think it should be “build and destroy,” since the city is constantly regenerating itself, like a giant Ouroboros. This probably holds true for human lives as well as buildings.
Everything about this place kind of disgusted me, and yet I’m happy to have seen it in person. I constantly found myself wanting to touch every surface and peer behind everything. In a city where everything seems fake, authenticity takes on a very different meaning; it’s as though you’ve stepped through the looking-glass.
Department of Everyday Visualingual 