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

Vegas Do So Got Cultcha

In the world at large, by which I mean people I talk to when I visit Los Angeles, the words “Vegas” and “Art” are mutually exclusive. “Kitsch” is about as far as Californians will go in complimenting Las Vegas style. “Oh, I know,” they say, when you remind them that there’s a Monet exhibit at [...]

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New Bridge in Town: Mandalay Place

Bridges doubling as shopping malls have a long tradition in Europe, so I guess it’s not too surprising that Las Vegas, having already acquired a chlorinated Grand Canal and a digital-age Coliseum, should get an air conditioned Ponte Vecchio. Mandalay Place, like its slightly smaller Florentine predecessor, is a bridge you shouldn’t cross without some [...]

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Car City by Bus

Everybody knows that Las Vegas is a city built for cars. Whether you’re driving your own, zipping around in a rental, peering out from the back of a cab, or relaxing in the bowels of a limo, the automobile has been the Vegas way to move for nigh on a hundred years. Cars and Vegas [...]

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Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville

The Flamingo is the oldest super resort on the Las Vegas Strip, and it was beginning to look its age. Bugsy Siegel’s brainchild seemed more historic than glamorous, even after periodic remodeling jobs. Then came a glimmer of hope. Beginning several months ago, the “You are Here” map in the lobby showed an under-construction project [...]

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Book Review: The Lucky

The Lucky
by H. Lee Barnes

Probably the most remarkable thing about H. Lee Barnes’ novel The Lucky is that it is set in Las Vegas. That may not seem like much of an achievement, given the ever-increasing number of books, television shows, and films set in southern Nevada. The difference is that The Lucky actually takes place in the city it claims to portray, while the others all too often inhabit a mythological Neverland fabricated from stereotypes, hearsay, and previously published fiction.

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