Month: October 2016

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Is it Halloween yet?? by Royal Hopper

Uniforms, Costumes and girls named Ashley : An Everyday Thing in Sin City

by Royal Hopper
Just when you think you have seen every sign the City of Sin has to offer you see Spider Bites  …. This week I saw a sign held by a man sitting on the ground holding a sign that said Spider Bites  with the word Homeless right above it in smaller print.
I’m not sure whether that means his Spider Bites were homeless or he was homeless because of Spider Bites but the dude looked a little stoned so I let it go and walked on. If you walk down the Strip on any busy day of the week you see any number of silent sign of the times. If you look.
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A Sin City sidewalk _ Royal Hopper

If you look you might have seen the cell phone sticking out of the confines of Mr. Spider Bites …..stuff….
You walk further and you see a woman laying on the ground a man handing out CDs and another posing as Freddie Kruger.
As you walk into the mall carefully dodging the packs of fellow Mall Rats as they patrol their natural environment looking for new prey or a box of curly fries you observe their Mall costumes of Mall purchased trends.

Walking past isolated groups of girls named Ashley and Crystal who roll their eyes at your dated …”so last month” clothing you make your way onto Las Vegas boulevard eyeing many of the various species of tourists, Sinners and passers through ..(people genius different types of people who frequent Las Vegas Boulevard)
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Mall Rats on patrol _ Royal Hopper

You see two of the “Pretty People” walking in tandem silently bragging about how much they spent on their $20 deck shoes smiling like drunken jackasses as they mutter “losers” just loud enough for those nearly the hear. You see even more phony “Hot Topic” rebels dragging out their Mall Wear for the weekend to prove how rebellious they are before heading back inside to vote republican and make thinly veiled comments about the nice lady and her four kids walking nearby and other less trendy folks hanging about.

After a few minutes it hits you like a thousand tons of cliché’ debris. You stop and remember that there is a reason you don’t visit these places when they are busy and remember the one constant of modern life. Every body wears costumes in this city and in life and not just on Halloween.duck and babies.JPG
Halloween is the perfect Holiday in the City of Sin because costumes are our thing.. Everybody wears  costume.. Everyone is pretending to be something else. Everyone wears social camouflage to hide their inner truth _ to protect the inner child they keep hidden under layers of phony cultural bias; and social uniforms they wear to be part of something. In short in the City of Sin All Hallows Eve, Samhaign Halloween is a day like any other only more honest, because people know the costumes are fake and only for appearances.
It is not a mystery or a fairy tale.

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Somebody is gearing up for Halloween _ Royal Hopper

It is just life in the City of Sin.
Take care Sinners.. I think I will go to the Mall today….. Mall Rats of the World Unite

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Everything is for sale

By Royal Hopper
“Baby Sale,” says the sign on the side of the road way as you drive down the road in the Sin City suburbs toward the distant neon jungle on your daily commute to pay the mortgage. We all need cash to live and to do things and own things.

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A view of the London Bridge from a restaurant near Lake Havasu _ Royal Hopper

“OMG they are selling babies!!!… So it’s come to the selling babies,” you mutter quietly snickering under the cover of the loud dark metal blasting from your car stereo confident the heavy metal din will cloak the vision of you talking to yourself and laughing snickering at your own joke from other motorists and pedestrians.
It is kind of like the political process in this country. Everybody is selling something in an election and everybody is looking to buy something either with their votes or their donations. Some peddle anger and resentment hoping to buy your loyalty with populist performance art everybody knows is an illusion. Some peddle steadiness and fear of the very resentment that empowers the other salesman and in the end you buy the product that is least dangerous. The lesser of evils or the lesser of cons.DSCF0954.JPG
In politics some want to buy a voice with their votes. They want a fellow traveler,  a stern father _  a tough guy to fall in line behind and who will beat up the bad guys who are so different from us. Take us back to the good old days whether they existed or not.
Other voters seek to buy a flawed but enlightened and equally stern grandmother who will protect them from the bullies they see lined up on the other side and make the bullies play fair.DSCF0913.JPG
In much the same way Politics sells myth casinos sell the Vegas illusion _ the Vegas myth _ the opportunity to indulge your inner hedonist _ the inner child who doesn’t have responsibilities or bills to pay. Many, many times I have seen young healthy people get run out of hotel stairwells where they were sleeping because they didn’t have any more money left for a room.
To paraphrase an old adage you pays your price and you takes your chances.

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They are selling estates. What next _ Royal Hopper

In politics and life you buy with your votes and sell with your support but the choice doesn’t own you unless you let it. Raise your voice to the salesmen and their supporters. Use your brain _ educate yourself. People will study like madmen to discover the kind of car they want to buy. They will spend days on end scrolling through hours of critiques and testimonials and technical articles before buying a car but will not spend one day looking past the sales material peddled by salesman in politics, society and life.

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Under London Bridge from last weekend’s trip. That is not us in the water _ Royal Hopper

In this city ..nearly everything is for sale. If you have a poison it is here somewhere.
But things do not own you and neither do people. You own you.

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A bird on the shore _ Royal Hopper

You buy and sell like always _ like you have to _ It is a part of life..but it_  the selling and buying _ the process doesn’t own it doesn’t own your decisions or life you unless you let it…

That is not a fairy tale .. It is life in the City of Sin because us Sinners understand that everybody is in it for something. Take Care Sinners. Love You guys
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These motorcycle enthusiasts poured into the City of Sin last week for events held on the outskirts of the city. Admire the Rebel … Despise the Idiot _ Royal Hopper

You Admire the Rebel and Despise the Idiot at the Same time

 by Royal Hopper

On your way to work in the City of Sin you spy an idiot with no shirt hot dogging a motorbike down a busy commuter roadway in your city— The City of Sin.

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Just two guys walking _ Royal Hopper

Suddenly the riders guns the bikes engine and raises its nose in the air balancing the steel and plastic two-wheeled death rocket  on its rear tire and standing on the seat as it roared down the Sin City byway surrounded by vehicles that outweighed it by 2,000 pounds.
Now your first thought and don’t deny it ..is something like this …”What an idiot.. I hope he crashes and scatters his organs all over the road.” You know its true. He is kind of like the pigeon your 80 pound American Bull dog almost ate and you almost stepped on because he was bathing in a puddle of run off near your suburban home. That pigeon was just not going to move and part of your admired him for it.

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Two people talking on the street _ Royal Hopper

In this city all bike riders are potential organ donors and the genius hot wheeling his crotch rocket down your road is trying desperately to reach that lofty plateau early in life.  But as you grimace at the daredevil goosing his built for speed Japanese crotch rocket into a death defying wheelie and standing on his seat…There is also part of you that admires him and you know it…
Even as you utter curses under your breath at this adrenaline junkie’s antics ,,, a small part of the fearless adventurer buried deep in your psyche admires the bravery and even the cluelessness it takes to do such a thing.

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A guy holding a sign “Baby” _ Royal Hopper

“Oh to be , brave enough and stupid enough and clueless enough of consequences to do such a thing. Even as you wish for his demise ..part of you wishes to stop your daily commute long enough to sheer on this clueless tempter of danger ,,,to feel that happily clueless that fearless and that unafraid of consequences.
Part of you hates him for his display and you know it. Part of you admires him for it and you know it….
Up ahead the light changes to green before you arrive and you depress the gas pedal to get through the light on your way to pay the mortgage. You roll your eyes, sigh heavily, grimace again and curse idiot as you roll through the traffic light and the daredevil disappears into the sandy, hot jungle of suburban Las Vegas and as he passes out of sight your inner adventurer smiles a little and wishes him well.

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For my daughter _ Royal Hopper

He is kind of like the pigeon you almost stepped on and kind of like you were so many years ago when you remember being goaded into jumping a ditch on your Schwin so many years ago and how stupid you felt as you flew through the air and how wonderful it felt when you hit the ground.
Its not a fairy tale. It is just life in the City of Sin.
Love You Sinners

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A guy walking _ Royal Hopper