City of Winners Lost...

One night in Las Vegas is all anyone needs... Especially for those who think they don't need it.

Forget gambling... It's a 10+ on the Richter Scale of Socio-voyeuristic experiences. Everywhere you walk you see the core values and fantastic mechanations of the modern marketplace in full rotten bloom. From 99 cent bottomless Margaritas to the hilariously inflated delineations of self worth - Are you a Diamond member? Platinum? Ultra? Elite? or a cool Sinatra-esque Classic? You are the King baby, as long as you are a walking ATM as well.

The city is in on the greedy act too - the very handy and well-constructed monorail should be free, thus allowing drunken idiots an alternative to getting behind the wheels of their rented Hummers and shouting at girls walking on the Strip. Instead, you pay a $5 minimum boarding fee to go 1/4 mile. No one uses it. Over and over you see what humans are reduced to in a marketers paradise: Drooling, obese lever-pullers or hooting meatheads who think they've died and gone to heaven.

Speaking of heaven, the religious underpinnings of the city are clearly discernible through all the noise. Las Vegas plays its "evil" card all the way down to it's Catholic-mobster guilt-ridden origins - You are BAD, so you might as well be REAL BAD! And while no amount of debauchery can shock, Sarah and I were taken aback by three massive new towers which, at night, reveal huge illuminated crucifixes emblazoned across their exterior (a la Christ and the two malefactors at Mount Golgotha). We found out that they are luxury condos attached to the MGM Grand casino complex.

We then discovered that the main building of the MGM Grand, viewed from above, is very definitely constructed in the shape of a cross. MGM stands for Metro Goldwyn Mayer, which sounds like a bunch of Jewish guys to me - so who's browbeating architects into errecting Christian iconography in Sin City? Roads point to Kirk Kerkorian, the majority owner of the MGM Mirage gaming company. My guess is that it's not his religious devotion, but just another gamble - throngs of weary Christians will opt for housing that radiates a subliminal message that Jesus is beside them as they gamble and that later, weeping in their rooms over Gideon's bible, He will always be available to absolve their sins. Just dial the front desk for rates and terms.

(photo by Paul Gachot)