adventures in writing a dissertation while in vegas

i have never been to vegas until two of my friends decided to have their wedding at the flamingo. until i ventured to vegas the past week, i never ever thought about mixing academia and alcohol and i did just that...shamelessly, over and over and over again. bloody mary's to be precise. i naively thought, since i didn't gamble, it would be a relatively cheap vacation...i was wrong. this place is in a very pure sense: capitalism at its most insidious....seriously, it is the decadence and underbelly of the free market sitting side-by-side. i walked off of the plane and that place took twenty dollars. i had to take out a small loan to buy drinks...however, unlike gambling and losing a butt-load of money...i lost a lot but at least i was buzzed. the people at my credit card company called me the moment i put something on it...and when i say immediately it was before i walked away from the cashier (i was buying a toothbrush and yes in vegas putting a toothbrush on a credit card is completely and reasonably appropriate). the best part was my friend j. telling me about watching this older woman, dressed in a really nice bathing suite cover-up and perfectly styled hair puking in one of the lobby's trashcans while holding, out and to the side, her coach purse (which, again, made complete sense to me)...definitely a ftw moment i'm just disappointed that i missed it. oh well, there's always next year...not.

so, i worked on my dissertation with a buzz, listened to my ipod, people watched, and in between those times, i attended the wedding (which went off without a hitch). most of my friends hung out by the pool...which was impressive i must admit (the pool not my friends although i'm sure they would beg to differ) but i was born and grew up in florida...around palm trees, beaches, and pools so those things meant nothing to me.

i did walk around outside a bit...which, btw, dry heat sucks. i went to "the palace," and i trekked on over to "paris." i guess what freaked me out about these places in general is the illusion of history that they present to their "readers." i study rhetoric and these rhetorical situations where anything but interesting. i mean vegas has all of these copies with no original...i know that a number of philosopher/theorists have written about this complex (and yet straightforward) cultural intersection but reading and experiencing are two very different things. even the palm trees (which i don't think are indigenous to the area) that surrounded the waterfalls (which i know aren't natural) created this site of "meaning" that made no sense at all. flat, schizophrenic (as f. jameson would say), without a history, and copying off of an original that does not exist nor has it ever existed. too weird...no wonder i needed a drink.

in heaven, i'm in heaven

one of the most awe inspiring events to date...angela davis and me. i was so nervous that i could hardly even speak to her. thank you lauren for taking the picture and sending it to me!