Chicago: More Bars in More Places

tired & aching liver from wedding weekend
+ matttttt gone to vegas for work
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big time kicking it and video games tonight

wait that's most nights anyway, wtf

yeah, but this is BIG TIME

It's like the Vegas of kicking it

He's going to be kicking it bigger time, sounds like they're getting the VIP treatment from the Mir@ge.

Have any of the Deerhoof fans onthread heard Marnie Stern?

Yes. Didn't Nick put her on one of his quarterly mixes?

Or did you mean live?

Oh, I don't know if she was on a mix or not, a radio station friend recommended her over the weekend and I like what I've heard, is all.

I've only heard the song on Nick's mix, it's silly and I like it.

i heard marnie stern recently....but like one track, and i think it got the diplo or girltalk treatment. still sounded badass, tho

sounds like they're getting the VIP treatment from the Mir@ge

oh man, I'm there. In spirit. What is it about me that loves casinos? I'm not a huge gambler or anything, and I don't feel like the kind of guy who says things like, "I love Vegas," but I do. Hmm.

I watched Knocked Up this weekend, and the scene where they go see Cirque on mushrooms looked like the most fun any human has ever had.

Gambling bothers me, but here are some happy memories of Vegas.

Kenan, it's probably the liminality of windowless, clockless places where the rules are different from the everyday world - places like casinos, churches, and Clarks on Clark.

RIP Clarks on Clark.

I should have taken pix of my lovely Bell@gio room. Le sigh.

Your Vegas pics are the best, Sarah. I'm glad you spent your time there outside.

The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation. Liminality is a period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed - a situation which can lead to new perspectives.

But yeah, you're right about the rules. You can sit at the bar in a casino at four in the morning, fucked off your ass, talking to a total stranger, having the most nonsensical bullshit conversation you have ever had, and that is totally acceptable behavior. Hell, it's encouraged.

http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/2007/01jan/eyeswideshut.jpg

lol I think they are going to cirque too

also: http://www.mirage.com/dining/fine_dining_samba.aspx

JEALOUS

Dan, we and the bros could do that at Fogo de Chão some night.

The higher ups in my company go to Vegas on weekends alot for funsies. The owner has a private jet. We also have a project in Vegas, which is just an excuse for them to go there more often.

I think I'll be fine never going to Vegas.

Me too, but if work was going to send me there I think I'd go along with it.

Sarah, would they let you tag along for a weekend if you and Nick just hitched a ride and then did your own thing for the weekend?

I would love to go to Vegas. I have been saying this for years.

I doubt it. They did pay for that (flickr) trip above, but I don't know if I'd like Vegas without someone else's money behind me. I was inspired hearing about your visit to the outer areas though.

There are some fantastic hotel deals there in the off-seasons (October, Jan-March). Especially without gambling it could be an affordable weekend.

BUFFETS AND SUNSHINE

Yeah, if you don't have gambling problem tendencies, just budget a couple hundred or so for the blackjack table and then walk away when you're done. And get free drinks in the meantime. And then go see Elton John or some wacky shit like that.

No more vacays for me this year until Christmas in Asheville, NC. :-(
(Excited about Asheville though!)

just budget a couple hundred or so for the blackjack table
a couple HUNDRED? what planet do you live on?

why asheville, sarah? is the whole fam meeting there for some reason?

a couple hundred is chump change, for reals.

i have been to vegas precisely 3 times. twice on climbing trips to red rocks (one day in vegas proper each time) and once with parents when we flew in on the way to the grand canyon.

i had _____oom infused OJ on one of those college trips, and vegas was *_*

I kind of hate Vegas.

nb - i won approx $125 that night, walking around playing slots randomly. i was wearing hospital scrubs and a track suit top, with a recently shaved head, and was worried for a while that people were going to think i was a mental patient, since that is exactly what i looked like.

xp oh it's awful, for sure. but it's AMERICAN awful, and totally fascinating to me for that reason. i mean, it's KILLING the west.

like, i sort of understand why people get all worked up about dubai and how it's omg over the top, look at all the money and construction and weirdness and then i remember flying into vegas airport and the ensuing hitch out to the desert.

you're going by developments, then there's nothing but streetlights and sidewalk and desert, and then it's just desert. it's like someone just arbitrarily turned off the city.

If you like gambling and risk as much as Kenan says and know when to quit winners, there's always the chance of covering the cost of the trip...

xxxxpost RW OTM, in Vegas a couple hundred is nothing. A $5 blackjack table is a real find, maybe at Mandalay Bay or one of the smaller places on, like, Wednesday morning. At a place like Bellagio, $25 is prolly as low as you can go.

yes, I was in Vegas as part of a crosscountry road trip and it was like whoa where did this all come from and how is it sustaining itself? LA was kind of like that, too, actually.

I have added links to zip files of the first FF album (Fact Friction) and the follow-up Ep (Experimental Cheerleading) to the mp3 page of our website, if anyone wants to download them. If you do, please let me know if the links work or not.

i guess i am probably cheap, but that is not chump change for me

:-/

i truly genuinely cannot bear the thought of losing $200 to a casino

i realize there is a chance that i could win, but that chance is not worth more than $20 to me.

Stay out of Bellagio if you want to leave with your shirt.

xpost Vegas out of a plane window at night is wild. There's no mistaking it. There's NOTHING out there except for this one really, really bright spot.

I think I aloted $10 for myself to gamble with. I lost all of it. ha ha

I thought I would hate vegas, but it was interesting as a cultural phenomenon. I can think of a zillion other places I'd rather go though now that I've been there, done that.

A - Nick's parents moved there from DC when his dad retired. Neither of us have been there before. Since my fam doesn't have a home base, we chose Asheville this year. They'll be staying in a B&B, but our families will converge for a big Christmas Eve dinner. I'll be jumping between the two places. Then my fam will all leave on the 26th and Nick and I will spend the rest of the week hangin' with the ammercrew.

that's good, Amanda! when I was in Vegas I was driven to distraction by the thought of all the money that was going to be lost by the tourists walking around. it's the saddest place I've ever been.

it's not chump change for me either!

i have never gambled more than $40 at a casino! it's just that, as kenan says, if you go to vegas to play blackjack, THAT is your entertainment, so a few hours at a table getting lit on free drinks and maybe winning every now and then is actually worth a couple hundred for lots of people. plus, you've got to spend money to make money.

I think I aloted $10 for myself to gamble with. I lost all of it. ha ha
I also meant to mention that I think I'm prone to addictive behaviors, which is why I've avoided smoking/gambling/drugs like the plague.

I am a bummer and no fun at all, I know. I don't get gambling.