Too much is somethings spectacular

(Image source)

Las Vegas is sui generis: one of a kind.  It is perhaps uniquely American, where the lights shine from what not so long ago used to be empty desert.  Europeans sometimes charge us with being superficial as a culture, and certainly Las Vegas spells "superficial" in big, blinking neon letters.

In a word, it's vulgar.  A fun vulgar, to be sure - the picture here comes from a web site that can help you plan your wedding, including getting hitched by a preacher man who looks like Elvis.

Everything there is big, over the top, dialed up to eleven.  Mostly, Vegas lives up (down?) to the expectations of a European Elite that likes to sneer at the vulgar American Cowboys while turning a blind eye to the lager louts in Tenerife.

But sometimes - rarely - the Las Vegas kitch is done spectacularly well, where everything is dialed up to a resonant frequency that you wouldn't expect.  The Bellagio fountains are an example, and simply must be experienced to understand how this has gone from crass, to vulgar, and all the way back around the mobius strip to the best of high art.  I say that seriously.



It's Vegas.  It's Sarah Brightman*.  It's too heavily scored with violins.  And it's simply breathtaking.  #1 Son and I spent a whole evening there in 2006, watching song after song.  Each one is different, each mood is different, and the play of the water is always exquisitely matched to the music, whether it's Mancini, or Copeland, or (of course) Sinatra, or (of course) Elvis.  It is sui generis, and in my opinion it's one of the wonders of the world.  I hope to take #2 Son to Vegas this summer (for the Black Hat Briefings, 'natch).  It's worth not just a detour, but the full journey.

* Nothing wrong with her, of course.  She has a lovely voice - one that's typically spent singing commercially successful pop classical.  A good fit for Vegas, actually, but her performance here transcends all that.