I first came to Las Vegas in 1948 when I was 13 years old. It's where I first tasted pizza. I've been back many times and now I call it home in the neon (that's what culture critic Dave Hickey calls it in his book of essays "Air Guitar". He likes the fact that everybody treats everybody the same). It's one of the great democratic aspects of a casino culture. Of course people from other places say that Vegas lacks culture (Define culture!)Of course the Strip has feather shows, Cirque de Nauseum and guys doing impressions of George Burns. However, there is a fine university, a philharmonic and a ballet (topless of course). But how many cities in the US have any cutting edge culture. Most orchestras play Beethoven and Bach, and the opera mounts the Ring wieder und wieder primarily to validate the middle class half asleep in their seats after a hard day of golf and vodka. You won't find much jazz on the air or in the air unless you live in NY.
Broadway seems to be stuck on a reef in the South Pacific and in rehashes of Andrew Paine Webber, er, sorry Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber...I was thinking of his millions. What do I like? The soft warm nights. The view of the Strip from my dining room window. My friendly new neighbors who brought us lasagna our first week. There are bookstores everywhere and lots of TV channels and internet to keep me amused. And if I really want to go highbrow for culture I can always check out the literary disco star Dr. Zhivegas.
There is a great essay in Air Guitar called "The Heresy of Zone Defense." Dave Hickey begins by describing a thrillingly gymnastic dunk by Julius Erving over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Game 5 of the 1980 NBA Finals. The dunk is thrilling, aesthetic and legal! There is joy in watching athletes and artists interpret, bend and redefine the rules of the game. Hickey points out that every change in basketball has been motivated by a desire to make the game more exciting and interesting. From the Ten Second rule that requires teams to advance the ball aggressively, to the Shot Clock rule that requires teams to shoot within 24 seconds, every legislative change in the game since the rules were codified in 1894 has been in the interest of aesthetics.
ReplyDeleteHowever, most style changes in other areas of society have been motivated by the opposite agenda. Indeed, it was Thomas Jefferson who noted that the rule that liberated us yesterday will, almost inevitably, govern us tomorrow. I suppose it is up to each of us to review the rules by which we live, and decide which motivates us toward pedagogy, and which to joy.... which attitudes make our days tedious and which more joyful, which conventions make our lives mundane and which more articulate. In Las Vegas, you see society reflect and reinterpret the rules. You feel the joy of the dunk writ-large. In Las Vegas, there is no Zone Defense.
-Thor