Las Vegas

What I will say is that I enjoy the work of visionary artist / entrepreneur / whatever -- Meow Wolf. AREA15 has Omega Mart which is a brilliant place to mosey around filled with wonder (and whatever other substances you may choose to put into yourself to behold the sensory splendor).

Outside that, walking the strip, people watching, and overstimulating yourself should all come quite naturally when in Vegas.

So let’s zoom out for a moment here. This glitzy, glamorous escape is literally located in a desert. It is the epitome of excess. There’s novelty to that idea sure — look no further than the institutional “Heart Attack Grill” (that just went bankrupt; read: subtext). Yet, the jubilation at the city’s extreme now pales in comparison to real life. Is it the loss of the mob? We know these levels of ostentatiousness and depravity in everyday life all too well. They are ever present in every corner of our mind’s eye thanks to persistent state of social media and the lack of a need to read and process.

Don’t let my preferences take away from your own. All things in moderation, even moderation as Ben Franklin once said. Let loose from time to time and let Las Vegas be the place you do it, if needed. Sometimes you should indulge and this used to be the town for that. But to me I can do that too many other places. And now it’s private equity fat cats corpo-ing every inch of what was allegedly once a bastion of wild. Perhaps it’s always been a conference, corpo town despite the myths. That mystique maybe just washed away after an overwhelming tide of the exotic, 24/7, beamed into our eyeballs and reduced to being nothing exceptional.

Must do

• AREA15 -- Omega Mart
• Don’t lose your shirt; or conversely, do, I guess

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