About a month ago, I started reading The Biggest Game in Town. After a few pages, a trip to Vegas started looking really good to me. After a few chapters, a trip to Vegas started looking like something I had to do. After about half the book, I was deep in a full-on, hardcore, undeniable Vega$ Lust. It was powerful, man. I’d look at my watch and think, “You know what? If I left right now, I could be in Vegas in four hours!”
I’d often randomly shout out, “Vegas, baby! Vegas!” While puzzled strangers looked on in . . . strange puzzlement, I guess.
Since I was in the middle of the Just A Geek rewrite, It would have been rather irresponsible to go, and the best I could do was watch Swingers, read accounts of other bloggers’ trips to vegas, and play iPoker. Then, when I couldn’t play any more, I read the great poker blogs. Hell, I was even wistfully checking the Vegas moblog at Buzznet several times a day.
Yeah. Lust. Hardcore lust. (Heh. That ought to bring in some interesting google results.)
About two weeks ago, in the midst of The Lust, a WWdN reader sent me a link to this amazing Vegas story written by ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons.
For me, it isn’t even about Vegas as much anymore. When you hit your 30s, your friends settle in different cities, get hitched, pump out a kid, start working 50-to-60 hours a week … you look up one day and realize you haven’t seen three of your closest buddies in 15 months. Vegas becomes the great equalizer. There’s always that first glorious stretch with everyone sitting at the same blackjack table, throwing down drinks, cracking worn-out jokes and busting chops, when you realize that nothing has changed. Thank God.
It’s a fantastic column, and it could have been written about me and my friends . . . so I’ve totally fallen off the Vegas wagon.
I’m done with the rewrite now, so the big question for me becomes . . . “When can I get away from town for three days in a row, and am I taking my wife, or should I even try to get the guys together for the trip?”
You know what? I think I’m going to write a story about Vegas.
Vegas, baby.
Vegas.
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I LOVED YOU IN NEMESIS WESLEY!!!
Vegas is one of those places you either love or hate. There is no in-between. I guess it all boils down to whether or not you have self-control. It can be fun as long as you know when to walk away.
As for taking the wife… I guess it depends on whether she reads this or not 🙂
Lar
Since we don’t get Screen Savers here in this far side of the world, can you put up pictures of your marvellous double chin… i couldn’t bare to miss out!!!
Wil has more chins than a ch…..see…i didn’t go there….chins are a manly aspect usually ignored if not derided by our superficial culture…
CHINS RULE….i say…points to self
I just got back from Vegas two weeks ago, having really had no previous drive to go until some friends started planning a trip there, and asked me to go along. It was incredible!! The place is gorgeous, totally fun, and even though it seems “tacky” from the outside, there are so many cool, nice, fun things to do, and elegant places to go. I played craps like a MAD WOMAN the whole time we were there, being totally sucked into the whole atmosphere of the game. I flirted for a few days with a cute guy who worked as a cashier at Excalibur; I wish I’d at least LOOKED at his name tag –I was too busy looking at his eyes 😉 Oh well. 🙂 Vegas was great, a totally unexpected surprise adventure, and I’m ready to go back now, lay my money on the table, place my bets, and THROW THE DICE!!
I’m heading to Vegas in August for the first time myself. You’ll have to let us know what it’s really like.
Woo Hoo !!
About 2 years ago, we had it bad. I just resigned from a very stressful job and we took the opportunity to go to Vegas (and use up & rack up a bunch of comps) as much as we could. We estimate in between the months of May-September, we took 8-10 road trips (each 2-4 days long) to Vegas. It was a fun summer.
Okay – so this is all a bit random, but what the hell! We’re up in the Lake District in the UK having drunk about six pints of beer and four malt whiskys. It’s kinda like Vegas, I’m sure (okay – it’s probably not). Anyhow, Wil (W)Rocks, and all vote for Kerry (please) in the “Fall” (’cause, like, I’m sure he’s more in favour of Vegas or something – I’m on topic, honest!). Anyhow, I’m going somewhere to fall over now…
Take the risk, Wil! Good Morning, America on ABC had the story about the guy from the UK that bet his life savings on the roulette wheel. I think it was either Vegas or Atlantic City. He bet it all and then he WON! One bet! Take the risk!
Scott
Take the risk, Wil! Good Morning, America on ABC had the story about the guy from the UK that bet his life savings on the roulette wheel. I think it was either Vegas or Atlantic City. He bet it all and then he WON! One bet! Take the risk!
Scott
Hmmm…wouldn’t it take you four hours to reach Vegas no matter what time you left? No need to waste time looking at your watch before thinking “If I left right now, I could be in Vegas in four hours!” 🙂
for the uninitiated..
wil’s title of the day is from the song ‘heaven or las vegas’ from the album of the same name…
if you haven’t yet heard them, or heard of them, we inist you imediately go out and buy it..
it’s pure genius..
Heaven or Las Vegas (by the Cocteau Twins)
Who’ll ever win?
Gee, you’re just so ephemeral
Go back for new
For new in vain, it failed
Singing on the famous street
I want to love me
Am I just in heaven or Las Vegas
It’s so much more brighter than the sun is to me
He’s a hustler
It’s a role, he’ll never make a suit
Hang on to this
So stay and spin and fail and fail
Who’ll ever win?
Gee, you’re just so ephemeral
Go back for new
For new in vain, it failed
Singing on the famous street
I want to love me
Am I just in heaven or Las Vegas
It’s so much more brighter than the sun is to me
The chill must itch in my soul
That’s like any old playing card
It must be why I’m thinking of Las Vegas
It’s why it’s more brighter than the sun is to me
Furthermore, let’s blast it off
I’m dizzy so I go, another bit it off
Come fantasy, for a carnival
I’m empty before our wedding day
Singing on the famous street
I want to love me
Am I just in heaven or Las Vegas
It’s so much more brighter than the sun is to me
The chill must itch in my soul
That’s like any old playing card
It must be why I’m thinking of Las Vegas
It’s why it’s more brighter than the sun is to me
Maybe there, while you was rail
I’ll go in and seize your heart and be personal
I suspect I’m singing to you a tune
And still you find the beat and sing it to you soon
Las Vegas is probably one of those places that mean different things to different people. I mean, yes, Sinatra, yes, Rat Pack, but the Sands is long gone and so are those guys. John and I don’t gamble, so that’s no draw for us. So why are we going to Las Vegas next month for our 25th anniversary? It’s all the themed hotel amusement stuff, of course–ship battles and knights and pyramids and yes, Trek at the Hilton. Last time we were there, we interviewed George Maharis for a book I never finished, and slept overnight at a rest area about 30 miles out. Not this time. Have fun, Wil, whatever allure the place holds for you.
Take the risk, Wil! Good Morning, America on ABC had the story about the guy from the UK that bet his life savings on the roulette wheel. I think it was either Vegas or Atlantic City. He bet it all and then he WON! One bet! Take the risk!
Scott
Take the risk, Wil! Good Morning, America on ABC had the story about the guy from the UK that bet his life savings on the roulette wheel. I think it was either Vegas or Atlantic City. He bet it all and then he WON! One bet! Take the risk!
Scott
Take the risk, Wil! Good Morning, America on ABC had the story about the guy from the UK that bet his life savings on the roulette wheel. I think it was either Vegas or Atlantic City. He bet it all and then he WON! One bet! Take the risk!
Scott
the Irish don’t seem to plump up on Guinness….
wonders why?
Alvarez is an amazing writer and he brings a different perspective to the world of poker. I just got back from Vegas and now all I want to do is write a Las Vegas novel. I saw Ben Affleck playing at the WPT Championships at the Bellagio. The only person I was awestruck by was seeing… Doyle Brunson. Oh yeah, and Gabe Kaplan… from my favorite basketball movie of alltime… Fastbreak.
What the hell is up with all these gobbledygook bogus LINUX messages?
I just hope Wil is able to edit out all these crap postings and ban the IP that is sending them, they will become very annoying very quickly otherwise.
I totally agree, what is going on Wil?! I’m also feeling rather deprived of my Wil fix, please write soon- anything will do!
AMEN Rocknar! But if everyone had a life we would have no one to laugh at. Thank you, fake Linux-loser for a good laugh.
Oh man – my first trip to Vega$ was in 2001 – just fell in love with the place… Now I can’t wait to go back, especially since hubby and I are addicted to CSI… So I know what it means to have Vega$ lust.
Oh, and the new Borg adventure at LV Hilton is also calling our name…
Vegas is addictive, it’s already calling me back. But a good friend just got married there, and I learned quickly that it’s hard for people to believe you are having a legitimate, planned, last longer than one drunken night and the two days it takes to get an annulment marriage, once you tell them it’s being held in Sin City.
Wil,
Thanks for deleting all that junk mail from LINUX.
I was recently in Las Vegas, NEW MEXICO–just a whistle stop on the Santa Fe trail in the middle of nowhere. Never been to THE Vegas. Enjoy your trip.
Freeman 🙂
been to both Las Vegaseseses…i think there is one in Kansas too…or mebbe that was a burrito bar near Lenexa…”Fertile Plains” in Spanglish….
the name is just cool to say…VEGAS…BABY VEGAS…great name for a maturnity shop on the Strip….where was i?…Vegas,Baby…yessa…Monday….7:29AM….
Try a book called 24/7: Living it up and doubling down by Andres Martinez. A former WSJ reporter, he took his book advance and gambled, gambled, gambled. Lots of good insights.
Check out Jim Kunstler’s Utopia of Clowns. Another take on Vegas. I never did get the Vegas allure either (I don’t gamble or drink, maybe that’s it), and after reading James Kunstler’s books on cities and how we’ve completely messed them up, I understand why.