Living Las Vegas

Real Life in the Shadow of the Strip

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Top Vegas Hotels: Bellagio, Luxor, Rio

Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier, by Megan Edwards

Events in Las Vegas

Hail, Elvis and Joe!

You might think that everyone in Vegas is out doing something Elvis-related today, the 30th anniversary of the King’s death. Around 75 Vegans, however, were out celebrating something much more mundane. I was one of the small throng present at the 9:00 a.m. opening of a new Trader Joe’s supermarket on the south side of town…

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Helldorado Days

When I first moved to Las Vegas, a new acquaintance described it as “a sweet Western town.” I remember thinking he was nuts, but over the course of the last seven years, I’ve begun to discover what he was talking about. Often completely overshadowed by the glitz of the Strip is a community whose members ride horses, cultivate beards, and reminisce about the good old days when all it took to cause a traffic jam on Las Vegas Boulevard was three Packards and a milk wagon.

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From Star to Dust: The Pulverization of a Legend

The folks at Boyd Gaming didn’t announce the time and date of the Stardust’s exit from the Las Vegas skyline, but that didn’t mean they weren’t planning a spectacle. When I arrived around 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday, there was no doubt that all the rumors flying around the Web (and my own discovery of a slightly cryptic sign on Industrial Road) had been accurate.

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Dust to Dust: The Impending Implosion

The Stardust’s annihilation is drawing nigh. The building has been picked as clean as a cow skeleton after a piranha attack. The remaining structure doesn’t even look like the Stardust any more, just a nondescript multi-story framework. I think it’s fair to say that the Stardust is already dead. The implosion will be its funeral.

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Valentine’s Day at the Courthouse

If Las Vegas is the “marriage capital of the world,” then I figure Valentine’s Day is its Fourth of July. Up to now, I’ve only read about all the wedding action that happens every February 14th, but today I checked it out myself. I took a little field trip to the Clark County Courthouse to see what it’s like to get a marriage license on the busiest day of the year.

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