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| Fremont District - Las Vegas - 2010 |
The rest of the stuff below is from my old blog.
We went to Las Vegas last summer to celebrate our anniversary. Even though we stayed in the faux New York New York, we spent much of the time on the old side of the Strip, especially on Fremont Street. I really like the old side of Vegas and saddened a bit that they renovated a big chunk of it into a big outdoor mall. I guess it helped save the area though and keeps tourists visiting that side compared to the mega casino side of the Strip, where our hotel was.
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| El Cortez Hotel - Las Vegas - 2010 |
The El Cortez Hotel is an old school casino... or old school to me. It has a Subway Sub in it. That is healthiest thing in that place.
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| Beauty Bar - Las Vegas - 2010 |
The Beauty Bar (Salon of Beauty) is a great hot spot with a 60's style beauty shop theme inside. They have cheap drinks and the best alternative music in Vegas (or at least the little bit of Vegas I saw.) It is a great little hip place where youngins and oldins' (like me) are welcomed. The concerts in the back lot are hot as hell, even on a summer night. Great music.
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| Lady on the ceiling - Las Vegas - 2010 |
The ceiling of the renovated covered walking mall is a long screen showing music, dancing and sexy ladies eating cherries. I would guess she is 15 feel tall in that photo, just to give a bit of size perspective. I am not a big fan of this part of the Fremont experience, but it gave me good light to take photos with.
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| Showgirls - Las Vegas - 2010 |
God bless the showgirls. There were a number of street performers out there that night, including a few Elvises, mimes, and two beautiful showgirls that put on short routines and posed with the tourists for tips. There is something about fishnets and hot pink boas that seems at home in Las Vegas.
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| Cowboy in lights - Las Vegas - 2010 |
I forgot the name of this cowboy and the cowgirl below. They are Vegas landmarks and I am glad they are preserved. The advertising under the cowgirl tells of the modern age of this sin city.
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| Cowgirl in lights - indeed - Las Vegas - 2010 |
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| Emergency Arts - Las Vegas - 2010 |
Emergency Arts was a bastion of sanity for me. It is a former clinic that houses a number of art galleries and a great little coffee shop that plays old LPs and has delicious healthy sandwiches. As a tourist, it is hard to eat healthy in Vegas. There is a great little museum/display inside honoring the art of burlesque and its history in Nevada entertainment. I will post photos from there at another time.
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| Dinner Company - Las Vegas - 2010 |
We were starving by the end of the night and found a great little taqueria open late. It was as bright and colorful inside as the strip. Elvis, the tall black lady dancer, and the little lady in the shot glass looked over our meal from the shelf by our table.
I love Las Vegas. I don't really gamble or take in the big shows, but the little things there are precious gems. This is another great city that I need to get back to. Terrell over at Photo Anthems Blog lives in a great place.
I like these. They are reminiscent of another era.
ReplyDeleteI will have to live vicariously through you when it comes to Vegas. By the time I get used to the idea of visiting Sin City I will back strapped to my walker but for a different reason than falling off my roof.
ReplyDeleteVegas is just not a place on my list. I don't know why. It seems so awfully shallow and fake. Joe's comment that it's reminiscent of another era fits your photo style here, but not my perception of Vegas. It's very kitschy, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteI find Vegas has a strong simulacrum that is "shallow and fake". What fascinates me is learning about the wizard behind the curtain. That is where the depth and meaning of the city is important to me.
ReplyDeleteU.L. will get no argument from me on that. I moved here because the exploding economy meant job opps. That was in 2007...just a few months before the housing bubble burst and spilled its guts all over Wall Street.
ReplyDeleteBut now that I've been here a few years, I've gotten to feel the city's heartbeat. Its got a fake facade but it actually not as superficial as I once thought. Especially when you venture out beyond the lights. The desert beacons and you find yourself into the most natural habits that still exist in America. You still get to see landscapes like it was hundreds and thousands of years ago. You don't find that in too many other places.
Even the city itself is not much different than any other once you leave the few square blocks of the Strip. I like your shots of Downtown Vegas, Karl. You're about the first person that didn't come back with a bunch of shots of Caesars or Bellagio. The Strip is a function of revenue that investors built for everybody else. Us Locals rarely venture onto the Strip except for work or showing it around to friends that come to town to visit Vegas.
Its made me want to stay put for a while and ride this thing out. See what happens. The summer is about to begin. In a half hour's drive I can be either knee-deep in snow, rolling in sand dunes, or swimming in a river. This weekend, I'll be shooting an early morning nude in some natural hotsprings. Monday, I'm doing a day trip to shoot a nude in a coldspring oasis.
I've found some magic here that only a select few even know exists. The sad part is that many long-time locals don't even know about many of the places I've scouted over the years! I took a model to a new location just down her street to some Wetlands that she never even knew existed less than 8 miles from her home. Karl, you'd better say something next time you're here!!!