Living Las Vegas

Real Life in the Shadow of the Strip

sponsored resources

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

The Bots Came Back: DARPA Grand Challenge 2005

Whenever I go out into the desert to look around, I always run across one of three basic humanoid groups: geeks, grunts, or gearheads. The geeks are there because scientists are often banished to the howling desiccated wilds to carry out their explosive or radioactive experiments or to simulate life on other planets. The grunts are there because large arid expanses are perfect places for soldiers to drop bombs, play war games, and even fight real wars. And gearheads have been fans of dry lake beds ever since cars were invented because they are free of radar guns and traffic lights.

Continue reading...

San Gennaro Does Vegas

To outsiders, it might seem strange that a city with world-class rollercoasters on its main drag gets excited when a carnival comes to town. You’d think that a portable Ferris wheel might be a little ho-hum to people who can go up in the Stratosphere tower any day of the year, and that a petting zoo featuring a goat and a rooster could seem awfully tame compared to the white tigers at the Mirage or the lions at the MGM Grand.

Continue reading...

Lights, Camera, Countdown: The 48-Hour Film Project Comes to Las Vegas

“Let’s make a movie!” The proliferation of affordable cameras and editing software has made such exhortations far easier to act upon than they were in the olden days of celluloid and splicing. Thanks to digital technology, more and more people every day are indulging their inner Spielbergs. With so much creativity finding its way onto hard drives and DVDs, it’s no wonder that phenomena like the 48-Hour Film Project are in growth mode.

Continue reading...

Karaoke at the Bootlegger

“Karaoke.” Try suggesting it to your out-of-town visitors and see what kind of response you get. Among my friends, it ranges from “You’ve got to be joking!” to “Eeeew!” So then I have to say, “No! This is different! It really is!” And then they look at me sadly, knowing in their hearts that Las Vegas has stripped me of every last vestige of good taste.

Continue reading...

NASCAR’s on Its Way

I’ll admit it up front. I know extremely little about car racing. Even so, I did once drive a VW bug around the Nürburgring in Germany, I’ve watched electric cars race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and I once spent a scary night in an anti-smoking RV at the Marlborough 500. I still don’t know much about NASCAR except that if you live in Las Vegas, you can’t ignore it the weekend of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. NASCAR fever seizes Sin City, and all roads lead only one place: the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Continue reading...