First off I have, I think found my drink of the trip... Every trip has a signature drink, and it should always be your mission early on to find and define and perfect this, and make it unique, and then own it for the duration... Often it is a team effort between you, your companions (if the same way inclined), and more importantly, your bar staff... So I discovered my barman here at the Lobby Bar, when asked for a Drambuie, will not carefully measure a double of the (apparently) priceless amber liquid and pour a little puddle in the bottom of a whiskey glass, he will in fact take a small sized (traditional, not tumbler) whiskey glass, mash some ice into it, and fill it to the top with my beloved... So rather than ending the night on a Drammy (because I can only afford one), I am now getting one (or, in fact, five in one glass, by NZ measures) and sipping on it while chasing it with several beers. I shall call it Dramvegasbrau. Or perhaps something more classy which I will come up with later. I only wish I had some smokes to go with it, as I feel very intrepid and bohemian sitting here in my dark corner watching Vegas roll by while typing my ramblings (like a madman, some might say). Everything always feels more intrepid and dangerous when smoking. Dammit.
So the official part of my night actually ended up somewhat surpisingly... We finally found the foodcourt in the hotel and decided for a change from Merkan food to get some Chinese... The usual 'three choices on rice or noodle' type deal... And we both got some veg and stuff to try to at least eat SOMETHING vaguely nutritious... All of which was a huge mistake... It was just the most greasy slimey mess... The veges somehow were the worst, greasiest part... The bottom of my container at the end looked like a half full grease trap from a barbecue grill... Blech...
But actually that wasn't the surprising part, that was pretty much to be expected... The interesting part was after we amused ourselves for probably an hour watching obese Americans eat whole massive boxes (or two) of Popeyes chicken and then move on to Krispy Kreme for dessert, we retired, tired, (yes, I do poetry also) to a beer in the room and flicked on the TV, and rolled through a dozen channels of crap before I got distracted for a second and stopped on PBS, and when I looked up, starting was a documentary on Pete Seeger... Actually when it started what caught my attention was a picture of Woodie Guthrie, and being a huge Guthrie fan, and having inherited a lot of my love for and knowledge of music from my travel partner, I asked if he had ever listened to Woodie Guthrie, and he said he hadn't... I wasn't overly surprised, as Guthrie was a bit before his time and probably not that well known back then, where we come from...
Ok time out, just looked up and there are three security guards at the end of the bar... They are all looking at what I think is probably a duty manager over by the reception counters talking serious talk to a young black dude... Shit maybe gonna get all real up in this hizzle....
Nope they just walked him off... Oh well.. Retaliation driveby later maybe.
Anyway, and then, Woodie Guthrie, amazing... But we watched this doco on Pete Seeger who is also a music legend... And let me go no further before saying that until about ten years ago if you had said 'folk music' near me I would have recoiled in horror, and the sound of a banjo or a fiddle would have seen me running miles with visions of inbreds on porches playing hoedowns with uncle dad and cousin sister... But then, in time, I learned that folk music is in fact the basis for pretty much all we hear now, and everything has evolved from it: far from being ignorant and simple hick tunes, it is in fact the music of grass roots subversion, defiance and counter-culture... And much of that is owed to Pete Seeger, along with his friends like Guthrie and those who later emulated him. I could go on for hours - Seeger although you have probably never heard of him wrote many of the songs you know, and could have been massively successful, had he not shunned commercialism (he quit one band he was in when they were #1 in the charts because one of their songs appeared in a cigarette commercial, and he disagreed with smoking... In like 1960) and also been blacklisted from TV for nearly 20 years due to the communist witchhunts of the McCarthy era, despite having actually given up on communism years before. A man of inspiringly strong belief and principles, even if you don't agree with some of them. So anyway, we both thoroughly enjoyed that, as an amazing example of how one person and some music can literally shape history. Find it if you can, it's two hours well spent.
I will also point out the correct use of a colon in that paragraph... I know right? A colon? Who does that any more?? And don't get me started in the word colon itself...
And THEN... I needed scotch, and also haven't told you much about today...
I just well over-tipped the barman. He pours a lot of single malt for nine dollars
The other thing I was going to say was that while sitting here just before I saw an attractive girl, with a great figure, and she was wearing a hoodie, and baggy jeans, and flat soled boots, and I just wanted to go over to her with an orchestra playing, and give her a hug, and congratulate her, put a crown on her head, and give her some kind of 'The Only Attractive Girl In Vegas Not Dressed Like A Total Skank' trophy and sash to wear... Made even more awesome because it turned out she was waiting to meet her friends, who all turned up dressed like hookers. Runner up was the entirely disinterested looking teen punk girl in a Ramones singlet being dragged past by her parents earlier.
So by now you have probably all given up, and I am probably talking to myself... If I could make a computer animated purple elephant dance across the screen right now I would... Suffice to say tomorrow we are doing similar stuff and I will catch you up on all that next time. For the more visually inclined...
Anyway. Enough ramble. Still not tired hence I keep going. Anyway, keep well all.
1 comment:
Um, I would have suggested that ; was a more appropriate punctuation symbol but your blog I guess.
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