Monday, May 23, 2011

Viva Lost Vegas

Viva Lost Vegas

A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I went to Las Vegas. He was assigned to a work conference and I got to tag along. This was my first time to go. Vegas had never been one of my top destination places, but I always considered it somewhere I should visit before I die. The allure was not so much in the potential to dive into debauchery and then leave it all behind, but to hopefully get a peek at the glitz and sparkle that I came to know in films of the 60's and 70's. Apparently there's not much of that left. Yes, there's glitz and sparkle but its shine is more Dion than Dino. 

We stayed on the strip but fortunately found some time to head downtown. While it did not quite hold up to my retro notions and hopes, we were able to see that many relics were still there hearkening back to more Rat Packy times. Many of the old neon signs were there simply as landmarks, but there were also tons welcoming visitors to casinos and restaurants that were still very much open. Seeing these signs made me hungry for more history, and I quickly realized that most of what I wanted existed only on paper and photographs. 

Vegas seems to shed its skin like its constantly preparing for another layer of self-tanner. It's kinda gross and never content with how it looks. I'm sad for this, and like with many of my other hopeless wishes for times passed I'll have to settle for "progress" and find solace in Google searches, memories and movies. As my kind of love letter to the old days I made a series called "Viva Lost Vegas" which are simplified signs from a few of the Casinos and Hotels that once were or still are and reach back to those times. You can see them all after the jump...


Thunderbird

STARDUST

HORSESHOE

WESTWARDHO

MARINA2

DUNES

SANDS

HILTON

RIVIERA

ALGIERS

FLAMINGO

2 comments:

JJ said...

Wish you had posted about your trip. I would have told you about the Boneyard. Did you hear about it? Here is a link to some photos one of my friends took: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.450482311268.243325.550586268

erin said...

yeah I heard about that place and REALLY wanted to go. in fact we were there with a friend that has a neon shop, so he told me all about it. we unfortunately were not able to make it out there. there were some restored signs on the old strip downtown at least -- part of the neon museum.