Casino Report and Smash II

I finally put a page together for Smash II. I’m not going to tell you what that means, so click the link and all will be explained.

Last weekend I went to a casino (that shall remain nameless) in Mississippi to see “Weird Al” Yankovic. Having never been to a casino of any kind, I was very curious to see up close this particular aspect of our culture.

The floor of the casino isn’t what James Bond movies had led me to believe. The slot machines outnumbered the tables by a wide margin. The atmosphere was disorienting, and not just because of the thousands of bright flashing lights and constant beeping sounds. I was struck by a malaise that I think stemmed from the fact that there was a completely inverted proportion of shiny machinery to individual enthusiasm on the part of the casino patrons. Most people sat on their stools, smoking their cigarettes and punching their buttons with near-clockwork regularity. An overwhelming sadness permeated the facility.

I saw a lot of people whom I perceived to be intensely lonely and lost. Some people were like myself and my friends; we had come to the casino for a day’s amusement. I had the strong suspicion however, that many more people in the house were lifers. These people seemed as though they had nothing else with which to fill up their lives but the desire to win unearned money.

My mind may have just been painted a grey shade that day, as my perceptions began to lighten a fair bit as the evening progressed. I started to notice that I was witnessing a startling diversity of human specimens. Every shape, size and shade of human being was represented. This diversity expanded exponentially as fans of “Weird Al” Yankovic arrived. This collision of demographics gave me what I believe to be the most accurate sampling of the American population I have ever witnessed.

I saw humanity in its most common, and thus least popular form.