Vegas, a big well-lit place

Vegas is amazing. I went there last week on work, and I was fascinated by the intricacy of a city built on nothing. The city is host to many of the modern architectural marvels of North America (Of course, since I know nothing of architecture, that is simply an equally meaningless, slightly more pretentious way to say, "It has lotsa neat buildings"). I didn't know that the world still produced that much marble for columns and floors and ceilings and fountains. But it apparently does.

The city must put on more Broadway shows than Broadway does now. Every taxi cab and every buildingside is covered with an ad for Phantom or Spamalot, although all the shows are advertised as being able to turn me on or to excite my desires. Not sure how they do it, because when I saw Phantom of the Opera in San Francisco I don't remember getting all that randy. Of course, I was pretty young so maybe I just missed it. Whatever the reason, Vegas has a knack for making everything sexier. (Case-in-point: Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum in New York came out with the first-ever interactive wax figure. Her name was J-Lo, and when you whispered into her ear she would blush. Vegas also came out with an interactive J-Lo who also blushed, but not when you whispered into her ear. She blushed when you grab her "back forty.")

What I could not believe was that all of this exists not because of people's hard work and vision of a brighter future. This exists because of gambling, alcohol and sex. I love the place, don't get me wrong. But I find it a bit unsettling that the most opulent, beautiful parts of our culture exist thanks to what can be accurately called dirty money. As far as I see it, the only things that are built to this scale are funded by one of two things: sin or religion. Maybe that's ironic, maybe it's convergence. I hope it's ironic.