Vegas: Downtown Alley Sprawl

It's absolutely fascinating, to me, how you can walk a few short minutes away from the center of action and find yourself almost entirely alone. Downtown Las Vegas and especially Fremont Street, and the area directly around the Fremont Street Experience, are the hub of activity in this area. Once you find yourself on the numbered streets (like 6th or 7th) beyond Las Vegas boulevard to the East, you're far less likely to have to worry about finding any space on the sidewalk to navigate through. Crowds here are sparse unless there's a special event, and the later the evening gets the more sparse the traffic becomes. The raucous sounds of laughter, live music, fist fights and other drunken shenanigans fades into the distance as you walk. Murals start to proliferate the walls with a nearly manic frequency, though I'm not sure whether it's to disguise the decay or try to fight off urban depression. There's a lot of homeless people in the area, pushed out of the busier tourist areas by the ever-present security guards and police presence,  forced to congregate in more residential corners. I've stopped and given a girl my leftover food not far from here, after she cowered in fear as I walked by and her instinctual cowering tugged my heart strings. It's not just homeless people or night-owl locals you'll encounter here, though- sometimes you'll see a party bus or limousine roll by, or a rickshaw being pedaled by a dinosaur. Given that Las Vegas is home to many Burning Man aficionados (aka "Burners") , you shouldn't be surprised to encounter brightly lit bicycles or strange sculptures and vehicles at random, either. These things tend to happen here. It's Vegas, and it's weird here. Something about a city that thrives on sin, hedonism, and debauchery attracts artists and creatives, and yes, the just plain weird. Random sequins on the side of the road, too, are not so uncommon as you might expect or hope. 

Vegas: Fremont Street evening walk May 2018

Even the fountains are getting into the spirit! This season was an epic one for Las Vegas's Golden Knights hockey team, and the city has really rallied behind them as they rose through the ranks. It's pretty cool to see the city so unified and excited about something,  and as the season progressed more of our local landmarks got into the fun with their own gear. While I, personally, aren't much of a sports fan, I have to admit it was fun to watch from the sidelines as the hardcore fans cheered and jumped with excitement at each turn of the game. My current day job has me quite close to a sports bar, and Antho will hang out and explore the nearby area so he gets to see the game from a few spots around the Linq Promenade, so I get to hear the shouts from inside the shop along with a live update from Antho. Sometimes my coworkers, who are fans, will be there and hang by the door hoping to catch the action. Like I said, it's pretty cool to see the city coming together with so much enthusiasm and support for their team. I'm sure it's been an incredible fount of money coming into the city, too, as tickets to the games rapidly soared well outside of my price range and the team's gold and black are ubiquitous throughout gift shops and stands everywhere within the city. I have friends who will rally at the arena outside the games to show their support, which is something I might consider doing in the future seasons. For now, it's fun to see the gear and live vicariously through the reactions of people who know more about sports than I do.

We found ourselves here after watching Deadpool 2 in a theater nearby, and then opting to walk home. Since we were in no particular hurry, we decided to amble down Fremont street and take in the Fremont Street Experience along with a white russian or two. Antho was not much for drinking throughout the majority of our relationship, which was a factor in why I was comfortable leaving to Korea for six months- he's not the kind of guy to go to a party and make a "drunken mistake", as it were. It's only been in recent months that he's started dabbling in drinking again, and the big drink to convert him to accepting a cocktail from time to time was the white russian, thanks to the Big Lebowski. Antho abides, dude. I'm not averse to one from time to time, either, though the dairy doesn't tend to sit well with my system. These things. You can't win them all. The drinks were more expensive than we expected, given the area's somewhat more low-budget vibe compared to the strip. Antho will sometimes go to Casino Royale near Harrah's and get one from their cash-only bar for about $8, and they're pretty strong. Maybe it's just the connection he made with the bartender, though, as Antho does tend to have a habit of making friends with people wherever he goes. 

In the end, it was a lovely evening for a walk and we had a nice time. It's always good to get out and have a date night, isn't it? We find ourselves exploring Fremont street and the Downtown area fairly often due to our proximity to it, but you never know what you'll see! 

More photos below~ 

Vegas: Downtown business district at night

Downtown Vegas, near Fremont, is its own sort of world. It's different from "The Strip", where all the newer buildings congregate in their huddled glistening masses and tourists tend to be densely packed. Fremont Street itself and the Fremont Street Experience  plus the Zipline help attract tourists, who may even opt to stay in one of their older hotels for the novelty, but once you start heading east you'll quickly find the pedestrian traffic thins out. There are still hotels and motels popping up from block to block, and even an RV park too, but this isn't where the majority of the action tends to happen. It's plenty interesting for us locals, as we get some of our own events in the area, like Zappos Fandom Friday or the recent Intergalactic Art Car Festival hosted by Lyft and the Mantis from Downtown Container Park. I'm sure some lucky tourists find their way to the Fandom Friday event but it's mostly locals and, not surprisingly given its location at Zappos headquarters, a good amount of Zappos employees in particular.  

The prominent downtown area, nearest to Fremont, is populated with multiple office and municipal buildings that classed up the area with fresh new pavements and glossy new exteriors. There's been a lot of new restaurants cropping up in the area as well, catering to the worker bees who need their smoothies before work and a cocktail after hours. This all translated into there being a lot more for locals to do than one might expect, especially off the traditional touristy track. On this particular evening Antho and I had gone to see Deadpool at the Eclipse Theater in Downtown, which was quite an experience. It's a luxury theater with in-show service, meaning you can press a small button and have someone bring you a beer and sliders while you watch your movie. Pretty legit! We walked to the movie and walked home as it's not that far from us and we're always looking for an excuse to stretch our legs, anyway.  I hope you enjoy this glimpse into a side of Vegas not many people might get to see. Cheers! 

More photos below.

Las Vegas: Candy Warpop & 710 Visual at the Triple B 2015-10-09

Candy Warpop, if you guys didn't know, are a gang of badasses who rock the stage and sometimes give us the privilege of blinding them with pretty lights. 

On October 9th they performed a fantastic set at the Backstage Bar & Billiards in Downtown Las Vegas and asked us to light them, so we did!

Jonas was unable to perform for the evening due to another event with some Cirque du Soleil related business, so the very talented Angelica Santis stepped in on bass!

Unfortunately for us, their giant neon sign kind of drowned out our visuals, but the effect is still pretty neat. More photos and video after the cut!

Members: Amy Pate - Vocals, Guitar Joshua Cohen - Guitar Jonas Woolverton - Bass Anisa - Drums