In Las Vegas for The Amazing Meeting. I’ve boned up a little on craps and can’t wait to play again. I will say that one thing about Vegas that’s kind of sad for me personally is the way that the whole point of Vegas is to stay inside all the time and never stick your head out the door. Since I grew up in the Chihuahua desert (Vegas is in the Mojave), going to the more arid parts of America fills me with a sense of homecoming, particularly mountainous areas like Las Vegas. I like to take a little in when I’m out west, but that doesn’t come up much in Vegas. The reliance on unnecessary refrigerated air also makes me sad, like it’s doubling down on the dryness. One thing I always liked about living in a desert was that you can use evaporative cooling, which is a lot easier on your skin and nose, and just feels less cold than refrigerated air. It took me years of living in Austin before I made my peace with refrigerated air.
Anyway, today’s Genius mix is based on a song about all the trouble I’m planning to avoid in Vegas. It’s a good one if you like “roots” country-western, or whatever the hip term the yuppies are using these days is.
Original song: “Gambling Bar Room Blues” by Jimmie Rodgers
It was a good choice for desert nostalgia, because it coughed up a bunch of country songs with references to coyotes and moonlight and other Western stuff. I’m probably one of the few people in the country who goes to Vegas and has a stir of that kind of sentiment. Anyway, here’s the mix. Leave yours in comments and consider this an open thread:
1) “Just The Other Side Of Nowhere”—-Johnny Cash
2) “Copperhead Road”—-Steve Earle
3) “Green Pastures”—-Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, & David Rawlings
4) “I Want To Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart”—-Patty Montana
5) “Slowly”—-Webb Pierce
6) “Drivin’ Nails In My Coffin”—-Ernest Tubb
7) “Is It True”—-Brenda Lee
8) “Bloody Mary Morning”—-Willie Nelson
9) “I’m A Rambling Man”—-Waylon Jennings
10) “Angel Band”—-The Stanley Brothers
Videos below the fold.
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Craps is by far the most fun of the table games, especially if you have some friends playing who really understand it. Plus, some of the bets have the best odds you’ll get against the house.
Of course, you can also lose your entire stake pretty quickly. That’s why they keep building those 4,000 room hotels.