This young man was standing on a Sin City street corner waving what appears to be a Romanian flag. I have no idea why _ Photo by Royal Hopper

In Sin City This week

By Royal Hopper 

You see a man walking he doesn’t look like a bum

_ but hes walking down the road just sucking his thumb

Its Windy and Cold in the City of Sin
Hump me naked on a pogo stick its raining again

Ford is here _ the Democrats _ the Republicans and still
The man with Armani on skips out on his bill

Its not all that different _ not crazy or Zen
Its just another week day in the City of Sin

Rough Day in Sin City for this dude _ Photo by Royal Hopper

This Week in Sin City 
This week was a normal week in the City of Sin. You saw the normal things on the way to work and when you were out and about.

You saw a man sucking his thumb with great abandon oblivious to those watching his infantile activity.. Finally noticing he was being watched ..he pulled the thumb out of his mouth and as if contemplating not sucking his thumb in public and then shrugged his shoulders and thrust his thumb back in his gob and continuing down the boulevard.

The City of Sin is a lot like our childish boulevard stroller. It is a state of mind _ a place where it is okay to be a childish drama queen. Much of the Vegas myth is based on its reputation as an adult playground.

But it is also a place where people long past 17 can once again act like totally drunken DBs or stranger still they pretend that they are drunken teenaged DBs when their wrinkles and gray pony tails say otherwise.

Another Rough day in the City of Sin _ Photo by Royal Hopper

There is an old joke in this city ,., Elvis, Big Bird and Abraham Lincoln are spotted on a street corner and the tourist asks where did you get those costumes.

Its just Sin City man _ Royal Hopper

To which all three reply what costume?? The local that was walking by looks at his watch and walked on by. . . Muttering damn under his breath certain he will depend on said damn tourist for his tokes later that week.

That is a true story btw.

That is life in the City of Sin

Love You Sinners

Take care

The Urban Jungle _ Royal Hopper

A man stands on the corner in the City of Sin _ Royal Hopper

Betting on Basketball in the City of Sin

By Royal Hopper
March Madness, March Madness oh what a sight

Skateboard Dude takes it all in on a corner in the City of Sin _ Royal Hopper

Your team looses its game ..you start a fight

Walked out the doors by four men in black

As you walk you turn and begin a verbal attack

You end your day drunk as it began

You look at MIB and say what will you do old man

A man stands on the corner in the City of Sin _ Royal Hopper

You suddenly realize this is not for kicks

You wont be coming back because your 86ed

You gamble and steal to watch girls on a pole

Your not misunderstood you just an ahole
The glory of betting on teams you don’t know

And after ten drinks buddy you got to go

Middle Tenneesee won the game Hurray

They beat Michigan State and ruined your parley

You swear off the booze the gambling and fighting with Zen

Hugging is a popular pastime . . . . In San Diego .. In Sin City its a rare sight _ Royal Hopper

But you will be back ..be back and be back again

There is no rhyme or reason in the stars no grace above the Din

Its just life and love, March Madness and then another week in the City of Sin

They are working on a tire

A Vegas sign holder takes a break and maybe does some homework _ Royal Hopper

Oh Brother oh Brother

By Royal Hopper 

Oh dearest ..oh dearest oh best beloved and kin

What should I tell you how should I tell you

Where should I begin
On one side of the road walked a man with a stoop

He looked like a bird and he walked like chicken

Stuck in a coop

Sin City Sign waver

Two men with signs glared one at the other

I’m free glared the beggar I have a job stared his ad sign holding foe

I work for my brother
Good foreign food to be had said the sign held on the right

I’m hungry need help said the one held on the left Police flash their strobes

_ and they were both gone out of sight
The Pros and the Hos and the Whiskey and Gin

The conventions, the gambling, the drinking and at the end

Its just another week in the City of Sin

Love you Sinners
Take care

Hey You guys _ Photo by Royal Hopper

Kids in the City of Sin

by Royal Hopper

A young woman carefully eyes a stretch of Sin City concrete in front of one of the City’s oldest gambling houses _ not the oldest but a senior citizen in Sinner terms. The lithe young woman smiles as she raises her hands in the air leans over and begins to cartwheel across the stretch of Sin City walkway.
She miscalculates bumps head on into a surprised pedestrian who being much larger and stronger doesn’t move an inch. The tumbler tumbles down hits her head on the concrete and begins to cry.

Waiting for the light in the City of Sin _ by Royal Hopper

The tumbler is ten _ an aspiring gymnasts and the adult she tumbled into is more worried about the little ones tears than his own surprise at being plowed into.
There are a lot of drama queens who act like little kids in this city. It is cute even adorable in a child of 9 or 10 years-old. In adults it is annoying in the extreme, ill advised in a city dedicated to adult fun and occasionally dangerous to participants and onlookers alike. It pisses me and a lot of other Sinners off and it should piss you off.

People come to Sin City to be adults. In the old days only adults came to the City of Sin. In 89 or so right when I first arrived fresh out of Uncle Sam’s Cammo and Gun Club some unwise but business saavy casino builders decided families were an untapped market for casinos full of alcohol, Pros, gambling and unsavory characters.

Twenty seven years later conventions catering to kids and their families are common and kids are everywhere in the City of Sin.

All those years ago a couple might get caught renewing the passion of their marriage up against a fence in a remote parking lot just out of sight. I actually saw that BTW the couple was in their 40s and the image is still burned into my mind _ although now that I am long past 40 the memory of that evening dress hiked up above the jazzercised waistline and the unbuckled pants of the guy doesn’t seem so weird. The I cringed and walked away and now I kind of cheered for the couple. These days you would have to dodge the gazes of a dozen kids and their baby sitting grandmother to reignite that same passion.

Photo by Royal Hopper

A kid acts like a kid .you make sure they are okay _ laugh it off and hope they learned their lesson. An adult acts like a kid or worse you realize most people never really grow up.

Later in that week

A squad of black clad young people with colored hair make up and modern fashion sense stride together arm in arm and side by side in a loose groups drawing the attention of passersby and motorists. Maybe they are techs from a nearby show or just some overage Goths finally making their way home after a night and morning of partying their ass off.
Everyone looks and they love it .

Its not even all that weird anymore.. Its just life in the City of Sin

Love you Sinners

Anybody looking to buy a good used Bump and at a good price _ Photo Royal Hopper

Goofy Dogs and Writers Block in the City of Sin

by Royal Hopper

We have a dog named Kuma. Kuma is a sweetheart.

She is also very brave .._ afraid of little of nothing and nobody except maybe a vacuum cleaner .
The other day we were walking Kuma and hadn’t gotten three feet out of the door when she started one of her low gravelly understated barking fits. I looked over at the thing she was barking at thinking perhaps it was the neighbors neglected, angry canine making her growl. It was a ceramic owl with brightly painted yellow eyes sitting in the shadows and it pissed her off with its ceramic courage. That bird was ignoring her and it pissed her off.

Anybody looking to buy a good used Bump and at a good price _ Photo Royal Hopper

The City of Sin is a lot like that ceramic owl. Image over substance _ a fake New York skyline, a fake tropical Island, a fake work of art the size of a building, a fake Pirate ship, fake girlfriends, fake luck and fake people pretending to be Elvis, mermaids, and Big Bird. That day was full of mayhem. Murders assaults the police guessing that a rash of murders and mayhem that year was due to competition between pimps and pros and dealers for territory in the City of Sin but Kuma was only concerned with that uppity owl that ignored her warnings.

This city makes the clueless growl and scream, laugh because they think Vegas is the monster sitting in the shadow they have come to conquer. It is a myth _ a dangerous myth. People know it is a myth and know it is dangerous but they come here and live here anyway..

Why ? Hell if I know .. This city is like a drug. Once it gets under your skin. You never really get over it.

A windy day in the City of Sin _ Photo by Royal Hopper

Question:

What do you do when you do when you live in the weirdest city in the world and cant think of a thing to write about it except your lunk of a dog who growls at ceramic owls?

Answer You go to the mall to have lunch.

When you sit down at a Mexican restaurant in the City of Sin you expect it to be a little boring, and it was .. To a point.

In one corner of the restaurant sat the black t-shirt couple one boasting a shirt with the clever saying .223 beats 911 any time .. . .

Hey look what I can do _ Photo by Royal Hopper

Mr. .223 looked around at the collection of mostly overweight non Mall Rats gathered in the world’s whitest Mexican Café as if he actually expected them to turn blue start shuffling and shouting their desire to eat brains ..

He was ready if the zombie apocalypse came to Chevy’s that’s for damn sure.

Next to us was the Salt of the Earth couple who actually looked uncomfortable and out of place. “What are those Metal Head Mall Rats going to do now ?” their attitude seemed to say.

Outside was a group mid week church goers one of which was armed and again ready for the Zombie attack on Sunset Mall that was going to happen at ant time.

Its not really all that and a bag of chips . . .
It’s just life in the City of Sin

Take Care Sinners

Love You guys

I know I put that license plate somewhere _ Photo by Royal Hopper

The Sin of Transaction

By Royal Hopper 

As you drive down the usual Sin City byways on your way to punch the drone clock and put in your daily eight hours you see a man who is familiar. He has a sign asking for charity and money in his hand. He looks around then quietly slides the money he holds into the hand of a woman standing on the corner. The woman makes a point to look straight ahead with a look of feigned innocence that is almost insulting in its B-Movie obviousness. It appears the sign holder gave the woman some money and she gave him something.. What does it mean _ stay tuned.

where is that damn thing _ Photo by Royal Hopper

It the City of Sin there are a million transactions some innocent, some legal some suspicious and some obviously not legal. it’s a lot like the cocktail waitress that allows a stranger to ogle her assets in return for being tipped for the free rum and coke she brings him as he shovels bills in a slot machine or tries to beat the house at black jack or another player of his rent money at the poker table.

We buy, rent bargain and steal every day in this city and we buy and we buy and we buy. The City of Sin is a huge transactional nexus.

This one is a sign carrier you see nearly every day on a street corner in the City of Sin holding a bright yellow sign with multicolored letters _ more like a junior high art project than request for charity. They could be a couple _ he could be giving his honey lunch money or simply giving his charitable haul of the day to her for safe keeping or he could be buying some blow for the party later on or a few black Mollies to ease the pain. You pick up a lot of buzz words hanging around the reprobates in this city.

I know I put that license plate somewhere _ Photo by Royal Hopper

A little further down the road you see a man all 6foor 4 inches 260 pounds of him staring out at the traffic as a small woman who probably weights 100 pounds on her best day poking the man in the chest with the vigor only small women who weigh 100 pounds on their best days can manage.

He could swat like a 100 pound fly or just walk away and ignore her ..but he doesn’t. With a long suffering smirk on his face he just stares out at the city. She get to speak my piece to someone who wont push her into traffic and he gets to not be alone I guess _ my best guess anyway.

I know I put that license plate somewhere _ Photo by Royal Hopper

Just before you turn onto the street where your mortgage payments are located you see a man and his dog walking together down the street. He seems to be talking to the dog __ quietly so on one notices but you catch a glimpse. The dog just looks at him wags his tail and paws at the man’s leg a little and seems to smile his doggie smile.

I get fed and walked _ the dog seems to say _ and I get a friend who wont desert me not matter how a dress or talk or even smell the man seems to say _

It’s not all that weird. It’s just life in the City of Sin and everywhere else . . . .

Take Care fellow Sinners
Love you all

Shal we start the minutes of this weeks meeting _ Photo by Royal Hopper