The Sounds of Silence

I tried to sleep in this morning at the Tropicana Hotel, but I woke up at 730 am.  My flight was not until 114 am so it was going to be a long day.  The Trop was going to charge me $35 to stay until 5, so I needed to find some things to do because I wasn't paying to lie in bed and watch ESPN.  After a little web browsing I had tentative plan.  I was disappointed when I discovered that the Liberace Museum had closed it's doors.  The HBO movie Behind the Candelabra got me interested in Mr Showmanship, and proved that Matt Damon is the most excellent actor of his generation.

After checking out I left my bags with the doorman because my first stop was in the Trop - Mob Attraction.  It was an interactive tour about the mafia and Las Vegas.  If you have ever seen a gangster movie then you wouldn't learn anything new.  It starts off at Ellis Island and they give you a passport and then you are supposed to work your way up through the ranks and make money working for Big Tony.  It's pretty silly, especially for someone doing it alone.  After an interview with one of his associates, I sat down at a cafe with a guy playing the role of Big Tony.  He and his associate didn't know if they could trust me because I was from Massachusetts.  Despite his concern, he slid an envelope of fake money across the table and told me to deliver it to his guy and don't say anything to the cops.  At this point I was barely able to contain my laughter at the ridiculous role-playing capers I had gotten myself into.  Then I went to the police station and was questioned by a cop.  He asked me why I was talking to Big Tony and what was in the envelope he slipped me.  I'm no snitch so I had to think quickly and said I was lost and looking for directions to Yankee Stadium and that I didn't know nothing about no envelope.  He pressed me harder, but I didn't give up the goods.  

So I ended up in the slammer.  I picked up the jailhouse phone after the third ring, as instructed, and Lucky Lucciano informed me that he respected my standup character and that I should head out to Vegas to make the real money.  The role-playing was over once I got to Vegas and I was free to roam around the rest of the exhibit and learn about the "players" of early Vegas.  I took some photos of the ridiculous portraits there and read a little.  My favorite quote from the exhibit was, "someone is always trying to take your place in this business".  

I appreciated Allen Smiley heading to prison in a white tux

           

The most interesting thing I found was the digital journals of Meyer Lansky.  I flipped through to see if there were any bits of wisdom and then I somehow broke the machine.

At the very end, right before I was transported to the gift shop, I was gunned down by two Tommy gun wielding gangsters and then welcomed to the family.  Didn't make sense, but whatever.  Was it worth $28?  No.    

I needed lunch so after Mob Attraction I went to In-N-Out Burger for the first time in my life.  It was so busy there was nothing in and out about it, but the burger and fries were good.  

After lunch I made my way to the National Atomic Testing Museum.  I only went to the special exhibit Area 51 - Myth or Reality.  It was pretty corny, but I got some statistics that made me think.  Let's consider for a moment the logistics involved in an alien UFO landing on earth.  Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is one of 100,000s of known galaxies, and I stress known.  Let's see how long it would take to travel from the earth to the sun, which would only be within our galaxy.  The Earth is on average 93,000,000 miles from the sun.  The other day I drove about 620 miles from San Francisco to Las Vegas.  If I traveled to the Sun at that rate it would take over 400 years.  If I went at a speed of 2000 mph it would be about 5 years, which is much more reasonable.  However, the Earth is closer to the Sun that it is to Pluto.  At 2000 mph, it would take over 200 years to reach Pluto, and that's still not out of this galaxy!  If there is life out there somewhere the one thing we know for sure is that life ends for all living things, so no being would be able to survive a trip of such an astronomical distance.  If you believe a UFO landed on Earth, then you're most likely a fool.          

  

I left the NATM with my alien ID badge and top secret documents and headed for the Bellagio. 

New York, New York

Paris

Excalibur, Mandalay Bay in the background, yeah, it's gold

The Bellagio is a gorgeous hotel.  I dropped my car off with valet and walked to the Bellagio Fine Art Gallery, and the main exhibit was Warhol Goes West.  Some of Andy Warhol's art works for me and some of it doesn't.  The room of floating helium-filled silver pillows is pretty cool.  Here's a link to that, Silver Clouds.  I also liked his row of polaroids, and I was drawn to Mick Jagger, Sylvester Stallone, and Debbie Harry.  I wasn't allowed to take photos.    

The whole Campbell's soup can and other advertisement pop art doesn't do anything for me.  Nor did his take on western portraits of Native Americans.  I get that particular images of the west have shaped our perceptions and myths of the west.  I wasn't into those, but I was absolutely mesmerized by the Screen Tests 1964-1966.

The Screen Tests are live portraits.  Subjects sat in front of a black and white camera for four minutes in a close up shot that showed their head and top of their shoulders.  The viewing room was set off to the side in a small area with the videos projected and there was a small padded bench to sit on.  Famous people sat for him but I didn't recognize anyone.  Here's a screen shot I found to give you an idea.

I went in to sit down and left after a minute to see the rest of the exhibit.  Then I was drawn back into the viewing room by a powerful force.  Turns out that four minutes of silence and staring is extremely intense.  It felt like the subjects were baring their souls to the camera even though no words were spoken.  It was as if the camera's penetrating eye would expose their deepest, darkest secrets and fears.  It seemed like each and every person was thinking about what the camera was revealing abut them, what fear or shame would the viewer discover.  Each of them was uncomfortable and it manifested in different ways.    

One woman tried to hide her discomfort by acting bored and another kept looking away.  A guy wearing sunglasses maintained some privacy by hiding behind them, or so he thought, because his mouth twitches gave him away.  One guy tried to look tough, but his throat swallows and raised chin revealed his false bravado and self-consciousness.  Another man tried to relax but his shoulders kept raising because he was taking deep breaths to calm his mind.  One woman didn't even have the strength to look at the camera for more than a couple of seconds, she looked around and made a telescope with her magazine, but, of course, looked away with it.  She'd rather make jokes than let anyone see her true self.  A woman and a man grew their hair so long it hung over their eyes, like a veil to hide their eyes from full view.  Nose wrinkles, blinks, and twitches all showed the discomfort of the subjects.

I couldn't look away, I noticed other people were coming and going from the viewing room but I felt like the only person there.  I was so moved by the vulnerability of these people who sat for these portraits almost 50 years ago that I felt alone with each of them and nothing could disturb us.  One woman started out with a stoic look on her face, but after only about thirty seconds I thought she began cry.  She was! She was crying.  Wow.  She cried a few tears at first and kept a tight look on her face and just let the tears roll down.  Then there was a steady stream of tears on both sides of her face - drip, drip, dripping from her chin and she looked away for an instant to compose herself.  I wanted to go to her and say - it'll be ok, baby.    

I had no idea how long I had been in that room.  I looked out the doorway and the entire crowd had turned into new faces.  The video transitioned to a woman who was fixing her hair, then she dabbed her eyes and showed off her long fake nails and large rings.  She kept fixing her eyes, hair, face, and whatever else might have been slightly out of place.  Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried to appear perfect on the outside, she couldn't hide the pain.  She couldn't use make-up to cover the hurt she felt inside.  She may have fooled herself into thinking that if she appeared perfect on the outside that it would cure the despair on the inside, but she didn't fool me, I pitied her, and the hopelessness of the situation made me uncomfortable.  

Then, finally, another subject faded in, it was a man.  This was no ordinary man though because he appeared comfortable with the camera.  He blinked naturally, he didn't swallow hard or breath deeply or look away, and he wasn't afraid.  He was happy and invited me to join him in his contentment.  He didn't want anything to be different, he accepted life and all it's suffering.  It was ok to look at him closely because he didn't try to hide anything.  He offered a connection that was true and genuine.  Then, after what seemed like hours, I got up and walked out.  Screen Tests was a living work of art that  is beautiful and touched me deeply, it was pure genius.  

Then I headed for McCarran airport and dropped off my car.  My trip is just about over.  I'm sitting at the airport eating pea and barley soup and drinking a Dutch beer while I watch the planes over Las Vegas.