Really _ Photo by Royal Hopper

How things are in the City of Sin

by Royal Hopper

Things are not always what they seem in the City of Sin and sometimes they are. We have talked about this before but with summer coming on in Sin City it bears repeating. Lets start with this observation.

On a pleasant spring day drive down a Sin City byway you see a man walking down the street pushing a bicycle with one hand. It is not an unusual sight in any western city to see a man and his bicycle except this is less than three feet high and bears a bright white and pink basket with pink ribbons and brightly painted pink and yellow flowers.

A man and his cart _ Royal Hopper

It is a child’s bike designed for pre-shoolers.

Now there are several possibilities. He could be bringing a birthday present to his young daughter or niece. Yeah that could be it. He could actually be a transvestite midget wearing realistic three foot stilts under his dirty stoned washed blue jeans and the bike could be for him. Yeah that could be it.

Maybe he found it one the sidewalk near the busy intersection because 6-year olds often go bike riding in the middle of the day near a busy Sin City intersection. That could be it ..it could .. . . It could.

A couple that shops together _ Royal Hopper

Maybe he stole the damn thing.. Maybe that is it. You really don’t know.

On the same day you see a woman in slinky black walking down the avenue toward a group of men. She could be a working girl working the corner and the men are her potential clients that could be. She could be a stripper too drunk to walk and dress at the same time.

Then she turns toward the bus stop absent mindedly dragging on a hoodie and checking the contents of her bag which looked to be groceries .she was a cocktail waitress or just a waitress to tired from a long day at work to put on a jacket as she walked out of the casino.

You get the idea

In the city anything is possible. The entire length and breath of good and bad possibilities are right in front of you every time you walk out the door. The most innocent of sights can be utterly diabolic and the most suspicious of transactions can be utterly innocent.

It’s why I love this city and hate it too. It’s why some days you say “ man I live in Las Vegas” and other days you say “damn I live in Las Vegas.”

Its not a bad B Movie plot. Its just life in the City of Sin.

Take Care Sinners

The Past the future and driving Las Vegas

By Royal Hopper

Super Parking as opposed to non super parking ? Photo by Royal Hopper

I was driving down the street of Las Vegas the other day doing something boring and I had the strangest sense of déjà vu. As I was waiting for the man in the shopping cart to finish his jay walking across the street so I wouldn’t run over him. I remembered nearly 27 years before waiting for a group of coyotes to cross the road in a part of Sin City that now boasts thousands of barbecuing, hot tub sitting, sun screen wearing suburbanites and their dogs.

Musician walking – Photo by Royal Hopper

Lots of things have changed in the City of Sin since that day in 1989 I first set foot in Bugsy’s misadventure, Elvis’ second home the desert hideaway named after the Spanish word for Meadows and called the City of Sin.

Vegas is a city is a city now not a big town like it was back then. Homeless guys with shopping carts have replaced coyotes and drunken tourists. There are always things stumbling out onto the boulevard in this city _ the times just change the nature of that thing.

A man and his shopping cart _ Photo by Royal Hopper

Driving down the boulevard you see what you think are some new things _
a huge truck stop for a moment in the turn lane and hand a bag of food to a man who has seen better days. You see two women with spiked frosted hair walking down the street holding hands in the ancient ritual of lovers walking in the afternoon sun and nobody caring one way or the other and you think maybe times have changed. You also remember 1989 and the two men you saw kissing on the boulevard ..and remember that one of them was dressed as a woman.

You see a man handing out pamphlets for a religion you have never heard of before and you see two people from vastly different societies crossing paths _ competing for the same resource or taxi or space on crosswalk and the larger more physically impressive one giving way gracefully with a polite gesture allowing the stranger to go in peace.

You see a young man in a Lucky Strike T shirt boldly striding beside the parent from whom he surely got the idea of romanticizing a deadly habit as a symbol of rebelliousness and hipness from.. .. The father surely boasted the same shirt in 1989 when you first arrived in the City of Sin.

And you see strange hairdos that make you shake your head and long for the days when rebellion meant shoulder length and stoned washed blue jeans.

There is nothing cuter than Doggies _ Photo by Royal Hopper

The cross section of humanity you spy while driving down the boulevards and byways of a metropolis can tell you a lot about the character of a city _ its personality _ the part it tries to keep hidden from the brightly lit marble tile covered confines of its proper places of business but is the same game in 2016 that it was a 1989.

The City of Sin _ Photo by Royal Hopper

What do you conclude from all this. It is simple as the movie line says. “Some things change and some things don’t.” (Matrix 1999)

That’s life in the City of Sin boys and girls in 1989 and 2016

Take Care Sinners love you

A couple out for a walk in the City of Sin _ Photo by Royal Hopper

The more things change the more they stay the same

by Royal Hopper

You saw a lot of things in the City of Sin this week. You saw a woman laying on the floor to drunk to move and barely able to remember her name.
A man with a tent pitched 100 yards from a busy City road in plain sight
parked by a dumpster abandoned and unnoticed by motorists scurrying along their daily business like giant worker ants making for the safety of the mound where they earn their daily pittance or fortune as the case may be.

A couple on the street in the City of Sin _ Royal Hopper

You saw a street preacher warming up for the Sin City High season this week _ preaching to no one in particular and a future Hip Hop mogul rapping and dancing across a public sidewalk to music on his headphones and one day you see something ordinary that stops you in your tracks.

You see a woman and her boy friend walking down the street as if they had stepped out of a childhood memory and suddenly in was 1975 again and the world was simple, badly dressed and so sure of itself the self the very world seemed to reek of deluded self confidence _ kind of like my city. It stops you in your tracks not because it is outrageous or unusual _ by City of Sin standards it is fairly ordinary. It stops you in your tracks because it is familiar _ because if you had a mind to and the technology or magic to accomplish such a feat you could drop those two in a street in Sin City in the City of Angles in Pittsburg even and no one would blink an eye.

One of our dogs _ Kuma just because I like dogs and this one is mine _ Royal Hopper

It was the long ultra straight hair of the woman that caught my eye first _ that and the long suit cut black leather coat that reached below her slim hips. The long straight shoulder to waist length hair as popular with young women in my age group in the 70s _ the decade I was a child and a teenager in _ as were sundresses and hip length leather and cloth coats _ and pet rocks and solar power watches but that is a story for another day. Everything gets recycled eventually _ fashions, music, love stories, attitudes everything. You could take an Alice Cooper song from 1974 fiddle with the lyrics and it would be top 40 today rebellion and social awareness doesn’t go out of style it just gets recycled.

I take great ad shots as well hire me _ Royal Hopper

You take snippets of today’s politics and fiddle with sound and video and blare it on the TV in 1976 and no one would blink an eye.

Men at Work in the City of Sin _ Photo by Royal Hopper

Of course the fact that a reality TV show host who made billions flipping hotels and screwing his contractors had a shot at the White House might throw them for a loop but there are the same people who bought pet rocks and introduced jogging suits as high fashion so who knows.
Pool players came to Sin City and went
They spent time playing 8 ball and time getting bent

It rained twice and people were freaked
and inside waded through water where the ceiling had leaked

A tribute to Prince, the funk and the King
They shed all tears, laughter, and all the money they could bring

They gamble and drink and carry on like Vegas of old
Some of them are shy and some _ some are foolishly bold

That’s Las Vegas for you whether its Bugsy or Wynn
Everything old is new again
Some are lost some are found
Some reach for the stars or fall on the ground

Like always in 1950, or 2016 Some lose and some win
Its tragedy for some but its just another Thursday in the City of Sin

PS ..The more things change the more they stay the same

My Dogs . I love my Fn dogs _ Photo by Royal Hopper