Viva Las Vegas

I'm headed off to Vegas come this Tuesday, to attend an annual computer security conference or two. A friend of mine who'd never been this afternoon was asking me what the deal was with it (she hadn't been), and I was struggling for a way to explain it. You know, how in an old school arcade game, you could wrap around from a really high score to go negative? Vegas is like that, in reverse. It's so awful, it's good, as it kind of wraps around from negative to possible. So that's what I told my friend, in my best hipster mode:

"Listen, it's so fake, it's real!"

Which is pretty true. You put people outside their familiar environment in something highly contrived and highly .. hmm.. seductive, and lots of inhibitions go bye-bye, and you have a city that's having a sort of tacky neon Mardi Gras 24/7.

I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to do some photography there too -- I plan to go shooting downtown with my friend Meder, some actual shooting with Betsy, a soiree through the craziness inside the casinos, and maybe catch a taste of old school Vegas too.

If they find my body in the desert, be sure to look for the CF cards buried nearby. ;)