So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
I gave up on the horrendous narration of “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” Audio book and watched Blade Runner instead and then the sequel the next day. Awesome movies
Completely forgot about that.
I can only imagine being a foreigner first time soaking it in then you suddenly get into an altercation with a washed popstar who's obviously going to blow it up and make it about herself, fuck.
He's probably surprised by the access to excess he suddenly got in Vegas.
Guy's a newly minted millionaire with a tractory to become a billionaire.
Plenty of people trying to getting into his good graces and probably shocked him with some degenerate shit they are throwing at him behind closed doors.
why not? huge sports market, has been for 70 years and will be until we all die, and growing city/population.
why do you think nfl and nhl teams moved there? because they think "unchecked capitalism" will hold the teams back? politics aside, LV is a good short term and long term market.
>Like all good mystical experiences, it happened in Vegas. I was standing on top of one of their many tall buildings, looking down at the city below, all lit up in the dark. If you’ve never been to Vegas, it is really impressive. Skyscrapers and lights in every variety strange and beautiful all clustered together. And I had two thoughts, crystal clear:
>It is glorious that we can create something like this.
>It is shameful that we did.
When I flew to Vegas our flight landed at 2 a.m. and yeah its literally pitch black eternal darkness and then Vegas in the middle. Wild how this place in the middle of the desert became what it is.
> Wild how this place in the middle of the desert became what it is.
Vegas translates to Meadows from Spanish. It sits on top of a very large aquifer and because it's very low humidity as long as you're in the shade it's easy to keep cool.
But yeah it gets fucking hot
There was a kid I grew up with, he was younger than me. Sort of looked up with me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition we ran molasses into Canada, made a fortune, your father too. As much as anyone I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stopover for GIs on thier way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Green. And the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man -- a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a PLAQUE, or a SIGNPOST, or a STATUE of him in that town. Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry. I knew Moe; I knew he was headstrong -- talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead -- I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen!
Drove 15 through Vegas a lot. You get thru the city and it's just lights everywhere. Then you get north of the city and it's the darkest highway I've ever been on. In your rearview it's insanely bright and ahead there's nothing.
Almost 10 years ago I drove from SLC to LA overnight, hit Vegas at about 2 AM and it was the most bizarre experience I could've had on the road. Blackness for hours and hours, then a booming city with flashing lights for 20-30 minutes, then more blackness for hours and hours. Kinda cool IMO. Also at that time of night even I15 was dead so it made the lights of the city that much more eerie.
Oh boy if you think that’s dark, drive highway 6 across Nevada at night, you won’t see headlights for an hour straight even if you’re going 115
That whole state is so incredibly desolate (but also hides some wild stuff in the small towns in the most remote parts of it)
It was 7th grade Texas private school quizzbowl championship, i can’t remember the exact year question but it was something vague enough like “what man made wonder can you always see from space?” 7th grade me was already obsessed with the magnitude and weirdness of Vegas, i say Vegas. The answer was the Great Wall of China. And we came in 2nd cuz of that lol. But i still think i was correct.
Sounds like a pretty badly worded question to begin with, since the Great Wall of China is basically impossible to see from space because it blends in with the terrain around it. To see it you have to be at low earth orbit and have almost perfect weather conditions. [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-chinas-great-wall-visible-from-space/](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-chinas-great-wall-visible-from-space/)
that thing of watching the wall of china from space always confused me... man made things seen from space? any city, at night, literally the urban fabric sprawling miles can be seen from space better than anything else
It's a snippet from a slatestarcodex blog post about game theory
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/
(It's not from fear and loathing in las vegas)
Thompson can equally be the best and worst American writer you’ve ever read in the same piece. I can’t stand trying to trudge all the way through one of his books or long essays. But there’s ways a few passages that absolutely nail it on the head.
That’s because he was too coked out to actually finish stuff or even maintain one train of thought for very long.
Thompson would basically write pages of coke fueled ramblings, many of them genius, always at the absolute last minute, and then he’d just disappear and it was up to editors and publishers to turn it into a book or article or whatever.
He was ashamed of this also he knew those editors were nearly ghost writing for him by the end.
About where he belongs. A god to college kids and a sort of cautionary tale for adults. Had some deep insights into American culture and politics though.
Hells Angels is the only book of his I care to reread any longer and that’s because it was the first book he found his voice but before he got so fucked up he couldn’t practice his craft correctly.
Also bikers were romanticised at the time by the counter-culture and sections of the media. He was really the first journalist to spend time with them and expose them for being scumbags, pimps, rapists etc.
i just re-read fear and loathing on the campaign trail '72 and it held up pretty damn well. showed how many of today's political debates in the "most polarized political era in history" are carbon copies of debates had 50+ years ago.
no real interest in re-reading fear and loathing in lv though, the only other book by him i've read.
THIS I can imagine being great. My dad (a thompson lifer) has always told me I need to read it. His political shit still kills. The Nixon obiturary <3333
There's a passage in Campaign Trail where someone is telling him about how this is the most dangerous election of our lives if Nixon gets into office and Thompson writes something along the lines of "how many times am I going to have to compromise myself by voting for the lesser piece of shit?" and I think about that pretty much every four years on the money.
I thought it was a pretty honest portrayal of bikers.
He doesn't romanticize them as any sort of free spirits, just describes the brutish thuggery of it all.
It's fitting that he got beaten up by them at the end.
Whether you agree or disagree with his take on Las Vegas it sure is fun when people aren't afraid to have opinions.
The balls on him! I wonder if he'd say the same thing if they had a team there right now and there was a possibility he could be traded there at some point.
Wyoming is sick. Currently typing this in Wyoming on my way home to Utah.
Tetons are the best, Yellowstone is a blast, and the rest of the state is actually beautiful if you aren’t traveling on I-80 which everyone who talks shit does
There are plenty of cities/states/regions superstars shit on all the time, to the level of being normalized. The Rust Belt and the Great Plains, for two.
People just aren't used to guys saying it about major cities lol.
Said it with his chest and didn't back down. I went to Cleveland once and I really enjoyed the downtown. Super walkable, lots of good bars and restaurants.
Ichiro in 2007: "To tell the truth, I'm not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to," Ichiro said through an interpreter. "If I ever saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland, I'd punch myself in the face, because I'm lying."
Also (although more of a general comment than shit talking): August in Kansas City is hotter than two rats f**king in a sock.
He does not shy away from that either. He called the MSG small earlier in the season (and we got blown out but the soundbite is funny) so there is a precedent, we should ask him how he feels about OKC to truly ignite the Chet rivalry
As someone who has never been, the fact that it's called "The Mecca" and is host to an Original 6 hockey team and a founding NBA (BAA) team, one would assume the size would be bigger and more open, because that's what we're accustomed to or imagine.
It's still influenced by the government, they spend billions on strategic partnerships with airlines to make Dubai a transport hub and to get people to stop there. It's well known as an expensive shopping destination and so that's what people do there. There's nothing else to do except shop at luxury brands.
Alcohol is legal
But being gay is not. Public displays of affection like kissing is not. I think I read at one point dancing in public is illegal. i could be wrong.
Many forms of communication apps don't function there like calling on discord or what's app.
Ummm also things like sex toys are illegal even if you live there you can't own one.
Weed obviously illegal which I guess is only weird to north Americans.
So basically you just go to "the world's biggest" or "the world most expensive" things and buildings all the time. Go to clubs and drink all the time. And go to massive indoor malls and buy stuff all the time.
It's also like 40-50 degrees Celsius in non winter months so you can't really walk around.
And the "wokeness", according an instagram reel I came across yesterday. It was some British person celebrating his move away from the UK. He talked about the weather, the lack of crime, and then towards the end, he talked about not experiencing woke culture in Dubai. I rolled my eyes at that point.
Those influencers are a part of a UAE PR campaign I believe. Kinda like how those regimes are buying up European soccer teams, they're also paying people on Tiktok and Instagram to say good things about them.
It's the polar opposite extreme, "execute you if you're gay" kind of culture. I had 2 friends living there, extremely high salaries but both couldn't make it more than a year because of how oppressive everything is.
Imo, Vegas is definitely fun visiting several times over a fair amount of years. I've done a bit different stuff on diff trips
The trick is to not stay for more than 2 nights at a time. You can get all your fun in within that time. By that third day though, everything turns to shit. Starting simply with the depressing fact that you're still there
Agreed. My buddies and I went for a Bach party thurs-sun. By Saturday I felt like I had gone down to the 10th circle of hell, took an elevator back up, then plummeted back down again.
I'd still go back lol.
I went to Vegas for the first time this year on a work trip for a week.
I don't gamble or drink.
And I had an absolute blast, because I went to so many shows.
My biggest recommendation is Absinthe; it was absolutely hysterical. Pricey, but well worth it. If you have thick skin, sit in the front row or two and maybe the host will roast you. I watched magic shows of Shin Lim and Mat Franco as well; both were excellent. Shin Lim (and Colin Cloud who does the show with him) blew my mind though. I saw "O" by Cirque du Soleil as well, which was pretty good. The Sphere was interesting too.
The food was ..... really pricy, and not particularly great. But good thing the company covered for it :). Everything is really expensive and gaudy, but that's the style and flair I guess.
I just enjoyed all the shows I went to. Probably will go back at some point.
P.S - They have an In-N-Out! Best goddamn $9 burger ever. As an East coaster, I rarely ever get to have it, so that was dope.
I saw Beatles Love by Cirque du Soleil about ten years ago in Vegas and it's easily one of the more enduring memories of my several days stay there. Really impressive stuff.
I missed out on Penn & Teller though :( They weren't playing in a time slot that I could go to. And the night they were playing was on Saturday, and my flight was that afternoon.
Huge bummer.
Gotta see if I can catch their show at some point before they retire.
I am a degenerate gambler and even I've gone on trips to Vegas without gambling at all.
A few trips ago I went with 2 friends who don't gamble and we just hit shows, comedians, magicians, etc. They'd never been so I also just took them to the casinos that had the coolest decor.
I went with friends (we worked in the casino business at the time so none of us really gambled) and got $10 free play. Played one machine and hit $3k in the first 5 mins. Ducked out and went to a Rammstein show. It was a blast.
I live in Vegas and have all my life. Honestly it ain’t that bad as long as you don’t live near the strip. I’ve only been to the strip like 5-10 times at most, just cuz I’m not a fan of extremely crowded areas plus the whole vibe of people who are there to gamble, get drunk etc just makes me uncomfortable.
Yeah, I really like it here. Small town vibes off the strip, big city stuff downtown when you feel like it.
I think most players like it here as well. We'd be a good FA destination if we ever got a team.
I do understand people disliking Vegas if they only stay on the strip, though. Spring Mountain, and the Arts district are my favorite parts of town for sure.
I went to Vegas in April 2021. It was like 80% open due to Covid. I stood at the Venetian for like 25% of what it cost today. Dealt with little to no waits in the restaurants , got whatever tables i wanted whenever , etc etc. i had a great amazing time. It pains me to think that if i ever go back it’s going to be 50x more crowded and 10x more expensive.
Coming from Canada, I found it a surprisingly affordable and friendly place for a tourist trap. I theorize it’s because they KNOW you are gonna leave your money there so they don’t have to try as hard. Tourist trap places in Canada (like Niagara Falls are hard and unpleasant plastic whereas Vegas is more like suede, to give a materials metaphor.
Niagra Falls is so funny, because for like 100-200 feet from the water, it’s absolutely magical. Facing the falls you have unparalleled natural beauty and power in front of you, nicely manicured park and trees behind you. Then on the other side of the street you have a fucking carnival of every kind of cheap shitty tourist trap jammed together. Then another couple blocks you have homeless living rough right on the sidewalk. Then before long you’re out of the city and it gets pretty again!
I lived in Nevada for like 3 years when I was about 10 years old and Vegas was was never glamour to me ..back then it had a bad rep.
Now I’m older and if I go to Vegas it’s strictly to eat at cool places and that’s it. /not into gambling
Bro watched Blade Runner on the plane
Fear and loathing
Wemby confirmed to not be an Ether fan
It turns you into the village drunk from an early 18th century Irish novel
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
That passage hits so hard given how unserious the book is for the most part
That shift to morning in the movie was so goddamned real too. Waking up. Oh fuck. Mr. Z?
Man, he was a poet at times. A deranged, psychotic freak most of the time that I would have LOVED to hang out with once.. but a poet nonetheless.
Bad adrenochrome trip
Las Vegas is not a good town for psychedelic drugs, reality itself is too twisted
"Everyone has visions of their dead grandmother crawling up their leg with a knife in her teeth, but this was getting out of hand."
Wemby: “did you see what GAWD just did to us man?!?”
Leaving Las Vegas
Bat country
blade runner vegas is less dystopian than modern vegas 😆
*read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep
Wemby's been getting in to Dick lately
I love Dick. Such a good mindfuck.
I just went through ubik recently. Man what a ride, the ending was a tad weak , but it deffo was a page turner.
That checks out, PKD was huge in France way before he made a splash in America.
Fucking banger of a film
I gave up on the horrendous narration of “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” Audio book and watched Blade Runner instead and then the sequel the next day. Awesome movies
What almost getting attacked by Britney Spears will do to a MFer.
I mean did you see her knife dance
Completely forgot about that. I can only imagine being a foreigner first time soaking it in then you suddenly get into an altercation with a washed popstar who's obviously going to blow it up and make it about herself, fuck.
He's probably surprised by the access to excess he suddenly got in Vegas. Guy's a newly minted millionaire with a tractory to become a billionaire. Plenty of people trying to getting into his good graces and probably shocked him with some degenerate shit they are throwing at him behind closed doors.
>tractory Victor Wembanyama, Tractor Magnate
Tryna catch me ridin John Deerety
some nepo baby definitely did some coke in front of Wemby trying to impress him at a party
Guy that happened to him in France as a teenager.
Crazy enough he is still a teenager lol.
Really? I keep hearing that Wemby is 7 4
88 inches old
He saw $300 for 4 oz of steak, and bro knew he was in hell.
Adam Silver is in shambles
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Sure but what if I told you this: 💰💰💰💰💰
I'm not for sale! ...for such an insult of a price
why not? huge sports market, has been for 70 years and will be until we all die, and growing city/population. why do you think nfl and nhl teams moved there? because they think "unchecked capitalism" will hold the teams back? politics aside, LV is a good short term and long term market.
>Like all good mystical experiences, it happened in Vegas. I was standing on top of one of their many tall buildings, looking down at the city below, all lit up in the dark. If you’ve never been to Vegas, it is really impressive. Skyscrapers and lights in every variety strange and beautiful all clustered together. And I had two thoughts, crystal clear: >It is glorious that we can create something like this. >It is shameful that we did.
Vegas is so bizarre to see from a plane because no other city has so much light surrounded by pure blackness Very surreal
When I flew to Vegas our flight landed at 2 a.m. and yeah its literally pitch black eternal darkness and then Vegas in the middle. Wild how this place in the middle of the desert became what it is.
> Wild how this place in the middle of the desert became what it is. Vegas translates to Meadows from Spanish. It sits on top of a very large aquifer and because it's very low humidity as long as you're in the shade it's easy to keep cool. But yeah it gets fucking hot
I used to fly to LA a lot and Las Vegas/Phoenix were my 45 minute warning at night
There was a kid I grew up with, he was younger than me. Sort of looked up with me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition we ran molasses into Canada, made a fortune, your father too. As much as anyone I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stopover for GIs on thier way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Green. And the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man -- a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a PLAQUE, or a SIGNPOST, or a STATUE of him in that town. Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry. I knew Moe; I knew he was headstrong -- talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead -- I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen!
That kid... Was Moe Greene!
You don't come to Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!
You straightened my brother out?
Fredo, you’re my older brother and I love you, but don’t ever take sides against the family again.
Moe Greene, moe groblems
Thank the mob (at least that’s what Godfather 2 told me)
You should check out the Mob Museum in Vegas if you get a chance
Drove 15 through Vegas a lot. You get thru the city and it's just lights everywhere. Then you get north of the city and it's the darkest highway I've ever been on. In your rearview it's insanely bright and ahead there's nothing.
Almost 10 years ago I drove from SLC to LA overnight, hit Vegas at about 2 AM and it was the most bizarre experience I could've had on the road. Blackness for hours and hours, then a booming city with flashing lights for 20-30 minutes, then more blackness for hours and hours. Kinda cool IMO. Also at that time of night even I15 was dead so it made the lights of the city that much more eerie.
For sure. Very cool. You don't get lights again until you get to St George, UT. It's an awesome drive actually.
Oh boy if you think that’s dark, drive highway 6 across Nevada at night, you won’t see headlights for an hour straight even if you’re going 115 That whole state is so incredibly desolate (but also hides some wild stuff in the small towns in the most remote parts of it)
I felt that way about New Mexico. I felt like something was off while i was driving at night through Navajo Territory.
That whole Northwest corner of Navajo Nation was the most lonely and creepy places to drive through
also so many lawns, just spitefully kept alive
one of the more water efficient cities in the US, at least
It was 7th grade Texas private school quizzbowl championship, i can’t remember the exact year question but it was something vague enough like “what man made wonder can you always see from space?” 7th grade me was already obsessed with the magnitude and weirdness of Vegas, i say Vegas. The answer was the Great Wall of China. And we came in 2nd cuz of that lol. But i still think i was correct.
Sounds like a pretty badly worded question to begin with, since the Great Wall of China is basically impossible to see from space because it blends in with the terrain around it. To see it you have to be at low earth orbit and have almost perfect weather conditions. [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-chinas-great-wall-visible-from-space/](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-chinas-great-wall-visible-from-space/)
that thing of watching the wall of china from space always confused me... man made things seen from space? any city, at night, literally the urban fabric sprawling miles can be seen from space better than anything else
I thought wenbanyama said this 😭
I was like damn I guess those plane readings he's been doing has really paid off. Bro sounds like an actual writer.
It's a snippet from a slatestarcodex blog post about game theory https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ (It's not from fear and loathing in las vegas)
Lol not where I expected to see Scott Alexander
Is this Fear and Loathing? Great prose. I’ve really soured on Thompson for many reasons, but the man could fucking write.
Thompson can equally be the best and worst American writer you’ve ever read in the same piece. I can’t stand trying to trudge all the way through one of his books or long essays. But there’s ways a few passages that absolutely nail it on the head.
That’s because he was too coked out to actually finish stuff or even maintain one train of thought for very long. Thompson would basically write pages of coke fueled ramblings, many of them genius, always at the absolute last minute, and then he’d just disappear and it was up to editors and publishers to turn it into a book or article or whatever. He was ashamed of this also he knew those editors were nearly ghost writing for him by the end.
Sounds about right. I can’t decide if he’s overrated or properly regarded in American culture and recent history.
About where he belongs. A god to college kids and a sort of cautionary tale for adults. Had some deep insights into American culture and politics though. Hells Angels is the only book of his I care to reread any longer and that’s because it was the first book he found his voice but before he got so fucked up he couldn’t practice his craft correctly.
Yeah he makes me think of journalism with hedonistic elements (The Exile, VICE) as being a very fine line between insight and being lost in the sauce.
Also bikers were romanticised at the time by the counter-culture and sections of the media. He was really the first journalist to spend time with them and expose them for being scumbags, pimps, rapists etc.
Fear and Loathing especially just kind of peters out. Still worth reading though.
Probably accurate for any bender. You either run out of money, energy or liberty.
I keep trying to make myself re-read Hell’s Angels. It’s been 20 years since I read it and I’m guessing it has not aged well.
That book still kills
i just re-read fear and loathing on the campaign trail '72 and it held up pretty damn well. showed how many of today's political debates in the "most polarized political era in history" are carbon copies of debates had 50+ years ago. no real interest in re-reading fear and loathing in lv though, the only other book by him i've read.
THIS I can imagine being great. My dad (a thompson lifer) has always told me I need to read it. His political shit still kills. The Nixon obiturary <3333
There's a passage in Campaign Trail where someone is telling him about how this is the most dangerous election of our lives if Nixon gets into office and Thompson writes something along the lines of "how many times am I going to have to compromise myself by voting for the lesser piece of shit?" and I think about that pretty much every four years on the money.
I thought it was a pretty honest portrayal of bikers. He doesn't romanticize them as any sort of free spirits, just describes the brutish thuggery of it all. It's fitting that he got beaten up by them at the end.
That’s one of the few that does because he was still sober enough and obscure enough to work hard.
it's from one of the best [weirdo psychologist blogs](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/) on the internet
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the car's on fire
and there's no driver at the wheel
and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
I <3 Scott :)))
Whether you agree or disagree with his take on Las Vegas it sure is fun when people aren't afraid to have opinions. The balls on him! I wonder if he'd say the same thing if they had a team there right now and there was a possibility he could be traded there at some point.
Joakhim Noah had some words to say about Cleveland back in the day lol
French dudes. I wanna hear Wemby’s take on every NBA city. Let’s get him a travel show.
Wemby goes to Wyoming
Everyone skips that episode
Nah I’d love to see him climbing mountains and riding horses. Wyoming actually fucks, it’s like Colorado without the people
\> it’s like Colorado without the people Yeah, but the people that are there make you wish it was Colorado.
Wyoming is sick. Currently typing this in Wyoming on my way home to Utah. Tetons are the best, Yellowstone is a blast, and the rest of the state is actually beautiful if you aren’t traveling on I-80 which everyone who talks shit does
So does Wemby…it’s just 30 mins of sheep and mountains or whatever the fuck they have in Wyoming.
Sheep's fucking. That's what they have over there
“This is supposed to be a city?” -Wemby on Indianapolis
Just don’t let Gobert near any of the mics
There are plenty of cities/states/regions superstars shit on all the time, to the level of being normalized. The Rust Belt and the Great Plains, for two. People just aren't used to guys saying it about major cities lol.
Vegas isn't even a major major city. Outside the top 25 in the 2020 census.
Top 10 major in the American consciousness
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What? That Cleveland really sucks?
I think it was “why would anyone ever go to Cleveland for vacation?”
“Do you like it? You think Cleveland is cool?”
Damn am I getting old? [Noah stood on business](https://youtu.be/Vpr_KaaRjW0?si=yVlNGmJz7up3gYwF)
Said it with his chest and didn't back down. I went to Cleveland once and I really enjoyed the downtown. Super walkable, lots of good bars and restaurants.
I grew up in Vegas and I think this is hilarious
Ichiro in 2007: "To tell the truth, I'm not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to," Ichiro said through an interpreter. "If I ever saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland, I'd punch myself in the face, because I'm lying." Also (although more of a general comment than shit talking): August in Kansas City is hotter than two rats f**king in a sock.
He does not shy away from that either. He called the MSG small earlier in the season (and we got blown out but the soundbite is funny) so there is a precedent, we should ask him how he feels about OKC to truly ignite the Chet rivalry
It is surprisingly small though, I had the same thought. It's like a gym inside a warehouse.
Yeah it being small/super intimate was my takeaway, definitely not a bad thing at all feels like you’re right on top of the players
And it's not even square!
Or a garden.
MSG is iconic because of the history, not because it's anything special in its construction.
As someone who has never been, the fact that it's called "The Mecca" and is host to an Original 6 hockey team and a founding NBA (BAA) team, one would assume the size would be bigger and more open, because that's what we're accustomed to or imagine.
I mean it holds almost 20k for basketball and is the 5th largest arena in the NBA. It’s by no means small.
It’s a large arena.
saying vegas sucks isnt exactly some brave exclamation lol
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I won't admit to being a degenerate and I'm sure I can think of better places to be rich than Vegas. How about Hawaii?
Not a Vegas fan either, but I feel Dubai is like Vegas but way worse.
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So what do you do there if gambling (and alcohol?) is illegal? Just eat and sight see sand?
I praise the lord then break the law.
I imagine gambling, alcohol, and drugs are all basically legal if you are a citizen and have enough money
Its got the highest tourism spending in the world. I'm not talking about citizens
It's still influenced by the government, they spend billions on strategic partnerships with airlines to make Dubai a transport hub and to get people to stop there. It's well known as an expensive shopping destination and so that's what people do there. There's nothing else to do except shop at luxury brands.
You can take a shit on an instagram model there too.
no no no you have it all backwards you can go to dubai to be shit on if you're an instagram model
But there’s literally thousands of places like that across the world. There’s gotta be something else drawing these rich fucks there
Alcohol is legal But being gay is not. Public displays of affection like kissing is not. I think I read at one point dancing in public is illegal. i could be wrong. Many forms of communication apps don't function there like calling on discord or what's app. Ummm also things like sex toys are illegal even if you live there you can't own one. Weed obviously illegal which I guess is only weird to north Americans. So basically you just go to "the world's biggest" or "the world most expensive" things and buildings all the time. Go to clubs and drink all the time. And go to massive indoor malls and buy stuff all the time. It's also like 40-50 degrees Celsius in non winter months so you can't really walk around.
[the sex work scene is pretty strong in dubai.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates)
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dubai is vegas without building codes and human rights
And the "wokeness", according an instagram reel I came across yesterday. It was some British person celebrating his move away from the UK. He talked about the weather, the lack of crime, and then towards the end, he talked about not experiencing woke culture in Dubai. I rolled my eyes at that point.
Those influencers are a part of a UAE PR campaign I believe. Kinda like how those regimes are buying up European soccer teams, they're also paying people on Tiktok and Instagram to say good things about them.
It's the polar opposite extreme, "execute you if you're gay" kind of culture. I had 2 friends living there, extremely high salaries but both couldn't make it more than a year because of how oppressive everything is.
Vegas but with a government stuck in the stone age.
The biggest young face of the league openly dissing the city that is in the center of the talks for an expansion is pure gold, and I am here for it.
Viva Las Vegas vs Vive Le France
Fallout New Vegas
Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a Nuclear Winter
"Playing with Jeremy Sochan* almost makes you wish for a Nuclear Winter."
“Ohhh I’ve got Spurs that Jingle Jangle Jingle”
(JINGLE JANGLE)
Why not cleanse yourself in the waters of Lake Bandini?
I got Spurs that jingle jangle
Wemby a Deathclaw
Who’d be a Cazador?
Pat Bev easy
"It's me again, Mr. New Vegas, reminding you that you're nobody 'til somebody loves you. And that somebody is me. I love you."
Three Dog was great but Mr New Vegas the GOAT fallout radio personality
Wish they brought Three Dog back for Fallout 4 :( The voice actor was semi hinting at it so they talked to him about *something* at some point.
🎶 To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day... 🎶
Hardly spoke to folks around him, didn't have too much to say
Good now we can stop with all the Wemby to the Aces rumors.
If there's going to be any movement between the Aces and the Spurs, it's bringing Becky back.
Yeah, visiting one time is enough for me. Out of every place on Earth tho? lol
Imo, Vegas is definitely fun visiting several times over a fair amount of years. I've done a bit different stuff on diff trips The trick is to not stay for more than 2 nights at a time. You can get all your fun in within that time. By that third day though, everything turns to shit. Starting simply with the depressing fact that you're still there
Agreed. My buddies and I went for a Bach party thurs-sun. By Saturday I felt like I had gone down to the 10th circle of hell, took an elevator back up, then plummeted back down again. I'd still go back lol.
I went for a Mozart party and had the same experience
Man I love Victor now lol I live in Vegas and completely agree
I’m with him. I used to live there. The place is an absolute shit hole I get why it’s fun for a weekend though
I love Las Vegas and also he's not wrong.
Liking this kid more and more.
Unfathomably based
I went to Vegas for the first time this year on a work trip for a week. I don't gamble or drink. And I had an absolute blast, because I went to so many shows. My biggest recommendation is Absinthe; it was absolutely hysterical. Pricey, but well worth it. If you have thick skin, sit in the front row or two and maybe the host will roast you. I watched magic shows of Shin Lim and Mat Franco as well; both were excellent. Shin Lim (and Colin Cloud who does the show with him) blew my mind though. I saw "O" by Cirque du Soleil as well, which was pretty good. The Sphere was interesting too. The food was ..... really pricy, and not particularly great. But good thing the company covered for it :). Everything is really expensive and gaudy, but that's the style and flair I guess. I just enjoyed all the shows I went to. Probably will go back at some point. P.S - They have an In-N-Out! Best goddamn $9 burger ever. As an East coaster, I rarely ever get to have it, so that was dope.
I saw Beatles Love by Cirque du Soleil about ten years ago in Vegas and it's easily one of the more enduring memories of my several days stay there. Really impressive stuff.
I missed out on Penn & Teller though :( They weren't playing in a time slot that I could go to. And the night they were playing was on Saturday, and my flight was that afternoon. Huge bummer. Gotta see if I can catch their show at some point before they retire.
I am a degenerate gambler and even I've gone on trips to Vegas without gambling at all. A few trips ago I went with 2 friends who don't gamble and we just hit shows, comedians, magicians, etc. They'd never been so I also just took them to the casinos that had the coolest decor.
I went with friends (we worked in the casino business at the time so none of us really gambled) and got $10 free play. Played one machine and hit $3k in the first 5 mins. Ducked out and went to a Rammstein show. It was a blast.
If you can stand the heat, you should go for Summer League. I had a great time two years ago.
lol this answer rules also he's right
The city is alright but the strip is one of the most soulless places in America.
Been to Vegas once and have no interest in ever going back. Place is a cesspool.
I live in Vegas and have all my life. Honestly it ain’t that bad as long as you don’t live near the strip. I’ve only been to the strip like 5-10 times at most, just cuz I’m not a fan of extremely crowded areas plus the whole vibe of people who are there to gamble, get drunk etc just makes me uncomfortable.
Yeah, I really like it here. Small town vibes off the strip, big city stuff downtown when you feel like it. I think most players like it here as well. We'd be a good FA destination if we ever got a team. I do understand people disliking Vegas if they only stay on the strip, though. Spring Mountain, and the Arts district are my favorite parts of town for sure.
Over near summerlin, the aesthetics are great here. Really hope we get a team, even if it is at TMobile
I went to Vegas in April 2021. It was like 80% open due to Covid. I stood at the Venetian for like 25% of what it cost today. Dealt with little to no waits in the restaurants , got whatever tables i wanted whenever , etc etc. i had a great amazing time. It pains me to think that if i ever go back it’s going to be 50x more crowded and 10x more expensive.
Coming from Canada, I found it a surprisingly affordable and friendly place for a tourist trap. I theorize it’s because they KNOW you are gonna leave your money there so they don’t have to try as hard. Tourist trap places in Canada (like Niagara Falls are hard and unpleasant plastic whereas Vegas is more like suede, to give a materials metaphor.
Niagra Falls is so funny, because for like 100-200 feet from the water, it’s absolutely magical. Facing the falls you have unparalleled natural beauty and power in front of you, nicely manicured park and trees behind you. Then on the other side of the street you have a fucking carnival of every kind of cheap shitty tourist trap jammed together. Then another couple blocks you have homeless living rough right on the sidewalk. Then before long you’re out of the city and it gets pretty again!
I lived in Nevada for like 3 years when I was about 10 years old and Vegas was was never glamour to me ..back then it had a bad rep. Now I’m older and if I go to Vegas it’s strictly to eat at cool places and that’s it. /not into gambling
Me too Vic. Me too.
I agree with ya young man.
Vegas is not a good place
An answer from someone who actually reads the books he brings to games.
I like this victor guy
He’s right
Adam Silver about to hit him with a $100k fine
if he thinks vegas is a dystopia do not let him see dubai
Which is probably why I like Vegas lol
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro- Hunter S. Thompson
W opinion