Met The Funny Guy last night and did a mini “tour de Strip”, this time on the north end. I’m at Circus Circus, he’s at the Stardust. Last night, we discovered a true Goodboys-style bar JUST BEGGING to be discovered by the whole crew next year – it’s the Fireside Lounge at the Peppermill. Called the #1 make-out bar in Las Vegas, its neon blues, purples, and soft pinks, its couches surrounding mini-pools with mini-fires (!) for the necessary ambiance, and every foo-foo drink you can imagine, it took TFG less than a minute to pronounce it perfect for a future GB muster station. And, Killer will enjoy the classy waitresses in long black cocktail dresses (with matching pumps, I’m sure!).

Whenever I visit here I never cease to be amazed at how time seems to stand still and how it changes the way work (for those so inclined) and play time is measured out. What Elvis sang long ago in “Viva Las Vegas” held true then and remains even more so today:

Bright light city gonna set my soul
Gonna set my soul on fire
Got a whole lot of money that’s ready to burn,
So get those stakes up higher
There’s a thousand pretty women waitin’ out there
And they’re all livin’ devil may care
And I’m just the devil with love to spare
Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas

How I wish that there were more
Than the twenty-four hours in the day
‘Cause even if there were forty more
I wouldn’t sleep a minute away
Oh, there’s black jack and poker and the roulette wheel
A fortune won and lost on ev’ry deal
All you need’s a strong heart and a nerve of steel
Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas

Allow me to provide my own partcular example:
Normal day: Up at 6:45, at work by 9, back home by 7, in bed around 11:30.

Vegas day: Trudge into hotel 3-3:30 AM, up at 6, work till 7, sleep a couple of hours, work a couple of hours, repeat process until it gets dark, then start all over again.

You certainly couldn’t live your whole life that way, but for a few days here and there, well, that’s why I love this town! Here, both time and money – two of the commodities most cherished in the so-called “real world” – are reduced to virtual inconsequence, not because their absent, but because this town goes through both of them so fast. And no one, rich or poor, is immune from it in some way.