A Sin City denizen makes his way down a city sidewalk last week his six string slung on his back _ Royal Hopper

The usual typical things

by Royal Hopper

It’s a long day in the city of Sin and you curse a little as the group of tourist stumble onto the road giggling as they walk and then a 9-year-old dashes across the busy Sin City road smiling like 30 pounds of cuteness with eyes as the Toyota in the right lane misses her by ten feet.

Its cool by desert standards almost pleasant like the weather spirits are waiting to spring the bad news of 110 degree days and the images of pale tourists from Canada and Idaho passing out in the desert sun.

Like most days driving down the streets of Sin City you see the obvious, usual things.

This huge painting of the Terminator himself graced the side of a Sin City hotel all last week and more to come – Royal Hopper

As you drive you might notice the group of yuppie hipsters in their trendy $300 cut downs playing catch with bottle of $10 beer while the groups token Goth rolls her eyes at them stumbling toward their cars with inane giggles on their drunken faces.

Ahead of them more tourists with crew cuts all wearing the same cammo bal caps advertising a feed store in Nebraska. Gis or Marines on a Holiday ??? Football players with bad fashion sense ??who knows..

As you leave the burbs you curse a little as a child darts across the road through traffic because her parents are off making bets on a four team parley and groups of tourists standing in the median while locals late for work honk at them and scream obscenities while they wave and struggle to get just the right focus of their friends standing on the sidewalk with their favorite bar in the background.

Jesus saves says one sign held by a man standing in the road ..Homeless Hungry says another sign held by a man who walks out into traffic as cars stop for traffic light.

This is what it looks like. Two senior citizens out for a walk _ Royal Hopper

You see the usual things as you drive down a street in Sin City. You see two working girls having words with another as she walks the opposite way down the boulevard. You see the usual things as you drive past the police cars with lights flashing and the younger of the hardened group of Sin City’s finest standing by the car looking a bit pale and ill as they examine the scene of an accident. You see the usual things and then you turn down the road toward your workplace for another day of work in the City of Sin.
That’s life in Sin City Baby

Ciao Sinners

Da da da da da Batman _ Royal Hopper

This person was curled up in a ball for unknown reasons on a Sin City street late last week – Royal Hopper

Off the Grid

By Royal Hopper

A lone person squats in the darkness by a stream of running water soaking an old shirt in the water and periodically wringing the cloth out in the water as it rushes over the black stone they squat on looking for all the world like an extra in a movie about pioneers.

The smell of oil and sand, decades old grime, alcohol and desperation is everywhere. Just where is this mysterious washer woman washing her or his soiled linens. Just a minute and I will tell you. Keep reading..

a lady taking pictures – Royal Hopper

cityscape by Royal Hopper

There is an entire subset of Sin City citizens that lives on the edge in between the margins like the pioneers like homeless extras in an old John Wayne cowboy movie. (Look it up) Normally they are all but invisible but if you look you can see them. Washing their clothes in the stream of run off on dark city streets.

Some like the woman seen wandering into Wal_Mart last week dressed like an extra in a Madonna music video or a really dedicated Jackie O (look them up both of them)
fan as if Camelot had been reborn at the big box store near you.

Jesus Saves says one sign on the boulevard as you make your way south away from the Sinniest part of Sin City and toward the suburbs. Hungry and homeless says another sign held by another sign holder as you drive toward the relative safety of the burbs. In another place and another dimension stumbles up the counter of an over priced casino café and throws an undetermined number of bills on its shiny stone surface and points at an item in glass shelf beneath it. His clothes are expensive _ his jewelry equally so. He doesn’t have a clue what things actually cost and looks confused when the clerk rings the item up and hands him his change.

a cityscape 2 by Royal Hopper

There are dozens more _ but lets get back to our person by the “stream..”
They are washing their clothing in the time honored manner of all third world pioneers as the metal framed cart containing the bulk of their clothes sits close by _ partially shielding them from onlookers until the light from the crescent moon glints of the polished metal giving the washer and her dirty laundry away.

Then as the clouds pass by the sliver of moon in the sky the stream of water the lobe figure hunches over reveals the reflected neon glory of the jungle the person labors to wash their clothes in _ the urban jungle that is . The lone figure washing their clothes isn’t in some benighted third world country like Borneo or Alabama.. There are birds nearby to be sure but they are bright neon birds and neon trees and digital picture of half naked dancers and glasses of wine 30 feet tall. This is in the heart of Sin City. The back stone they squat on is asphalt and the stream is run off from one of the rare desert rain storms and the wagon that holds their possessions is a shopping cart.

a guitar man and his dog _ Royal Hopper

. People live entire lives in their heads sometimes just feet away from people who live entire lives off, off grid washing their clothes in a stream on the street.
I tried to get a picture but it was night and I was driving.

That is life in the City of Sin

Take Care Sinners

Man enjoys the desert spring time sun. Spring is one of the few times a year the oppressive desert sun is pleasant – Royal

Wearing black socks

By Royal Hopper

A man pauses for a minute suit case in one hand and mixed drink in the other as he searches for the third thing in the trifecta of things this city can legally “sometimes” legally offer. His black shorts are highlighted by black socks and black sandals.. And a ubiquitous Hawaiian shirt. Las Vegas is built on Gambling alcohol and that thing women in short skirts named Snowbunny can offer. That is not what this man is looking for and not the question that haunts the mind of every Sin City denizen who sees this man stumble toward the smell of something in the distance. What is the question stayed tuned for the answer.

As Somebody once said The City of Sin is obsessed gambling, drinking, the first two of the trifecta the city can legally offer. . . Of course it can also offer cheap or not so cheap hook ups, and illegal substances but those are you know illegal unless the purveyor is sober and gives it away for free The third part of the legal Sin City Trifecta is something we all have at one time or another . . . . It is . . . . . . . . Wait for it . . . . . . . . . Yes Breakfast.. . . . . .

There is always someplace in the City of Sin you can get all these things. You can always gamble. . . . . . You can always drink and yes you can always get a plate of scrambled eggs and some unhealthy

working man at workll

breakfast meats in the desert city named The Meadows by a likely intoxicated Spanish explorer in the early 19th century.

Las Vegans . Both native, residents and frequent visitors . . . Who I refer to as Sinners know all these things. They don’t sweat breakfast. . . .It is every where they worry about other things. They worry if the Cowboys can pull off 10 wins next season or if the Redskins can pull of six because preseason bets have been posted and the odds are okay. They worry if Rory Mcilroy is worth the 3 to 1 odds posted in his chances to win the Wells Fargo classic. They worry about who is going to win this years fight of the century.
What is the question that haunts all Sinners as they wind their way through the day in the City of Sin.

Can someone really look cool in black shorts, black socks and

You judge _ Royal Hopper

black sandals with a suitcase in one hand and

sign guy again _ Royal Hopper

a drink in the other..
Are you kidding me

Thats life in the City of Sin

Take care Sinners

The first time I walked into the Riviera sometime around 1992 it was a hustling bustling beehive of activity, packed to the gills _ the little casino that could surrounded by old school casinos it was destined to outlive with names like Syardust and Westward Ho. Everybody who was anybody played at the little casino that could at one time or another. The Riv was old school and made no apologies. It wasn’t a giant work of abstract art, a pirate theme park or a shopping mall with slot machines. The Riv was a casino..It was old school and offered no apologies.

Signs are a part of the Sin City landscape. This one sits on the corner of Las Vegas Blvd directing gamblers to various useful things like parking – photo Royal Hopper

My mother worked at the Riviera briefly some 24 or so years ago for reasons that are best left to another day when we are both a little more tolerant of drama and tears. I went there when I was bored and didn’t have a date. To show you what nerd I was I went to play video games and eat at the all night Burger King and drop a roll of quarters on the Quarter mania machine.

I saw my first and only burlesque show there. I was heckled for the first time by a sarcastic comedian at The Riviera Comedy Club. I have never been to another comedy club or female impersonator show and likely never will. Old school shows are not my thing but I will never forget those dates..

There was something about the little casino that could back then. It had been punching above it weight for years. It was packed every night, a fun place to go to even if it was just to drop a few quarters in the Terminator video game or take a chance at Quarter Mania slots. Twenty years later I was working there and the four years I spent are something I will never forget.

The good old days are going fast

By Royal Hopper

Crazy Girls – Royal Hopper

When I first walked into the employee entrance of the Riviera as an employee 20 years after my first visit as a customer the first thing I noticed was the old Faux Southwest design on the walls of the narrow cinder block back hallways. The design looked like it had been pulled right out of a 1950s design catalogue for dyslexic alcoholic art students.

There were layers of white paint in these back hallways a were seemingly a quarter inch thick in spots. The paint no doubt intended to cover the smell of 56 years of cigarette smoke _ layers on layers of cigarette smoke, and something else that tickled the nose and made you pause. As a native of the Texas Gulf coast I knew that smell. It was mold.
Mold takes a long time to grow in the desert but when it sets in it is hard to get rid of and never completely leaves. It was glorious in a way _ the place was battle scarred like the moldy smell of your favorite ancient aunt who baked you cookies while she told you about her days as a flower child or your least favorite battle scarred uncle who told war stories to anyone who would listen with the kind of honesty lacking in today’s fairy tale world.

Inside the Riv – Royal Hopper

As you walk into the casino you notice the low ceilings creating a sense of intimacy and showing off the acoustic tiles lining the ceiling _ the same acoustic tiles once a common feature of Junior High libraries all over the world and the usual assortment of feaux gold and brass fittings.

Don’t get me wrong I loved this place but much like that old aunt who hung bright red curtains and pots of lavender on the windows to keep away the moldy smell of their ancient house from your youthful nose somebody had forgotten to put make up on the little casino that could and it showed. Somebody had forgotten to hang the curtains and restock the lavender for a long time and brother it showed.

I used to walk through the Versaille Theater while on patrol there as a security guard as part of my patrol through the casino. It had been closed for years and was full of dust _ books left open where they had been set, performers lunches half eaten, props from the last show that played there packed up and left on the counters where they were stored a roll of toilet paper on a table for so long that it had turned bright red from the paint that had leaked from the ceiling. I used to write dates on the dust on the tables in the theater every time I walked through the old showroom _ until I ran out of table space because all the tables were covered with dust bunny graffiti. The buffet was closed, the coffee shop closed, entire sections of the casino walled off.
There was hope for awhile. The Versaille was renovated and two hot new shows booked for it. The old cheesy paint jobs in the back hallways was replaced with bright red and white, the old girl was packed with fans raving about the glories of the old girls charm and there were plans upon plans made to save the old place. The Riv was back in the green there were big plans for the little casino that could but it was to late.
In retrospect we should have seen the end coming. When an offer was made to turn the old school little casino that could into convention space it was just too tempting I guess.

The Riv smelled like age, stubborn Sin City pride, a glorious past and an air of desperation the vintage photos of its glorious past covering the lack of repairs and upgrades that had been needed for years.
In April of 1955 a long line of badly dressed men with dubious connections to dubious people in Chicago and New York posed for cameras at their brand new 9 story casino and hotel their house star Liberache standing nearby.

Monday May 4, 2015 the Riviera Hotel/Casino officially closed its doors perhaps, probably for good.
It will be missed for awhile but like the city they live in Sinners are sentimental to a point and they will move on shortly after the little casino that could is a memory.

So long old girl you will be missed.
That’s life in the City of Sin fellow Sinners

And you know it is