Neon Painlets

Apologies for the gap since last week's posts, I'd been in Vegas, then at the dayjob, and then writing something for the kidz. Apparently they have a new website design coming. Double hardcore!

Vegas was slightly underwhelming, and this was the second time I visited. The last time I was a little poorer, and spent my time mooching around the north strip and various points off the strip, trying to absorb the seamier and less glamorous parts of the Vegas experience. A drink at the MGM Grand was the height of the last trip (the low was ambling aimlessly around the hotels trying to get into pool that was better than the New Frontier's.

The fancy Vegas we inhaled this time round. Staying at the MGM, flouncing around the Wynn, the Bellagio and the Mandalay Bay, we couldn't help but be bored by the sameness and soullessness of the place. The sort of bland and inoffensive default treatment you get unless your a high roller. And don't even try to get a decent meal after ten o'clock. One you realise the whole city is a giant pinball machine run by gaming corporations it's hard to stay affectionate.

So, I had a couple of good meals, dropped too much money at blackjack, and watched the Cirque Du Soleil show about the ninjas, and was glad to be back in New York, ginormous taxi queue and driver who claimed to be unable to find Atlantic Avenue notwithstanding. Actually, scratch that, the circus thing was pretty cool, and I was gutted not to be able to hate it. Ninjas, clowns, explosions and cheese metal are going to be hard to screw up in combination. Take your children, or even some nasty frat girl you bumped into at the crap tables.

Final thing. $1 PBR night at the mighty Rope, on Myrtle, close to the Pratt Institute, made me feel very old...