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4th Of July 2015

For the past few years, I’ve been going to this town so often that I have developed this small yet nagging fear that I’ll run out of things to discover in Las Vegas and the resulting boredom will creep in, making my attention span numb. The sad result is that I WILL end up as one of the billions wondering zombies dragging their feet up and down the Strip and Downtown….only minus the drunken stooper. I don’t drink, but the fear is still there….I have been drunk with numbing boredom before and the “hangover” is not something I want to get into here.
 
This trip was coming up so soon and suddenly after my brief stopover in March, so I was embracing the mashed potato effect this trip will have on my brain.
 
However, there a couple of little things that would make this one interesting; 1) this would be my first Vegas trip on a 4th of July weekend and 2) a friend gave me his old digital video camera! Now instead of boring photos of whatnot falling off on the sides of this city, I’ll be making videos of such “excitement”.
 
The excuse for this go-around was that there was another set of birthdays coming in our family; my mom, her sister, my brother’s wife and a niece. My mom got lucky with our rooms at the Jockey Club and the round trip flights. The original plan was to drive to and from, but after a very cautious conversation with a friend who has relatives in this city, mom was scared off and booked the flights.
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I have been here once for New Year’s Eve in the late 80’s, so I have experienced the party demolition derby this town can create and this trip would be no different….only updated, more packed and stinking warm!
 
I had to take care of some small business from the last trip and I finally found it at the Flamingo Shop, it was the 2-CD set of Olivia Newton-John’s Vegas show! After many months available on her web site, it showed up on Flamingo’s pink shelf! It was the first purchase of the trip….outside of the many bottled waters consumed thus far.
 
After aimlessly roaming around the south Strip area, I made it back to the room and went to a comfortable cold bed by 2 a.m.
Unfortunately, this trip got off on a rocky start as our flight to Las Vegas was delayed by a good three hours. Thanks, Allegiant Airlines….we got in so late (10:30 pm instead of 6:30) that I missed First Friday…damnit!
 
Still we made it in one piece and made it to our awaiting room. Feeling giddy with my first video camera, I decided to go out and record the onslaught on the Strip. I then realized why I never been here for the 4th….the weather. I don’t need to go any further about this issue with this town. Just to say that the low temperature was 85 degrees!....at midnight! Any wonder that money and A/C are competing to be the city’s official religion?
 
Taking an inspiring note from Ray Glasser and his old Vegas videos on his YouTube page (sample), I made these shots simple and let the action around me do the sweating for me….and there was a lot of it; the sidewalks were packed and whenever someone saw my camera, many would scream cuss words into the built-in microphone or jump in front of it.
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Saturday was be the free day of this trip as on Sunday morning would be the birthday brunch for the birthday gals at the Paris Buffet. That morning was to check out an update on the failed Harmon Tower Deconstruction Project with MGM slowly and carefully tearing down one of their City Park towers….and it looked about 10 stories shirt of being erased from the Strip.
 
I had to help my brother and his fussy wife to downtown on the express bus and after dropping them off, I went my way down Fremont East and the surrounding neighborhoods with a plan to make a video version of my Unglamorous Las Vegas YT short.
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With all the 4 o’ July noise that was all over the town, it was quite nice to visit the more quitter sections of this town, which made shooting sections. I then discovered a record store on Fremont and if it weren’t for the hot weather, I would have gotten an album. Hot weather and vinyl have yet to be best of friends.
 
As I was traveling back up to Downtown, I saw something that stopped me dead on my tracks and smacked upside the head HARD!!! Luckily, the video also served as a standard photo camera (though in widescreen) and I managed to capture it in seconds!
 
It was a man lounging on his electronic wheelchair holding up traffic on Fremont.
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….I must say….this might just be the greatest picture I even had taken in this town……EVER!
 
After recovering from that moment, it was back to the room to rest up from the heat and for tonight’s fireworks! The only issue with those was…where were they going off! There were reports of many going off the surrounding neighborhoods and a couple at Casers Palace and Stratosphere and a large fake one down the Fremont Experience (sorry but just not the same!) There was printed announcement that The Linq will have their own.
 
However, The Linq never happened for the south strip area and Casers Palace took over the firework chores. Obviously, this called for the video camera, though the problem was that the fireworks were on one side of one of its many towers and we, especially in the dwarfed Jockey Club towers were on the other side of tough shit mountain. Still, we made it this far for this show and view whatever it was from our A/C stands so why the hell not. With all the lights turned off in my room, I show away!
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When the fumes settled, I brave out the crowded sidewalks of the strip and it was crowded indeed. I wished I brought the video, but there’s enough YouTubes of people cussing and puking more than the entire run of Jackass (TV and movie series), so I played conservative and brought the photo thing.
 
The crowds got so bad that that the police and security had to do some traffic control on the skywalks; if you at the Bellagio and want to go across the street to Casers, you have to the other way around in the opposite direction until you ended up at Casers.
 
….and that was as far as I got before I turned back towards The Club.
 
On the way there, the Jesus Guilt party made their regular spot on one end of the Bellagio sidewalk, but they had to make do for attention with a small army of home-made Minions begging for change….and The Guilty Party wasn’t happy with that as I was trying to take a picture of both parties on the same corner, one of the Guilties saw me and demanded me not to do it and erase it. Huh? Both? Regardless, I did anyways and went on my way.
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On the way there, the Jesus Guilt party made their regular spot on one end of the Bellagio sidewalk, but they had to make do for attention with a small army of home-made Minions begging for change….and The Guilty Party wasn’t happy with that as I was trying to take a picture of both parties on the same corner, one of the Guilties saw me and demanded me not to do it and erase it. Huh? Both? Regardless, I did anyways and went on my way.
 
Sunday morning came with the family birthday gathering and feasting at the Paris Buffett and a stuffed stomach was had by all….in a fancy guiltless way….compared to the one at Circus Circus…
 
From this point on, it was the standard heat wave through town and the A/C land of The Club before the day and trip were over….though Allegiant wasn’t done with us yet as there was another three hour delay going back home…..complete with a unannounced gate and plane change. It was a freakin miracle that our luggage came back….period.
 
From this point on, I’ll refer you to the two videos I made during this trip. They are self-explanatory.
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Don-O's Las Vegas 4 O' July Trip Video

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Don-O's Las Vegas 4 O' July Trip Video (outtakes)

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