Finally Saddling Back Up

It’s been a little bit. The horse is right next to me and I’m deciding to mount up. Back on the horse. There’s (potentially) a lot more of you now. Not in like a clouty social media way, but in fact the last time I wrote a piece was in November of 2022. I’ve met many more people along the way of this thing called life. No guarantee any of them will care about this or care to read it. But you never know. Speaking of my last writing work, it was a synopsis of a clip I filmed over the summer months at lowers. It’s pretty cool. You should watch it. It’s set to Red Hot Chili Peppers. How much more California could it get?

At one point I was penning a piece a month. Those days are in the rearview quite a bit. I used to try and find excuses as to why the writing has become so infrequent, but at this point I’ll just cop it on the chin. I guess I’ll give myself one scapegoat-I read a lot. Not like a book a week, but 30 minutes to one hour a day (with a couple no goes here and there). This kind of absorbed a time in which I would take to the keyboard. I’ve always heard that reading makes you a better writer. I guess we can find that out in the next couple posts. 

Works busy, lifes busy, but isn’t everyone busy? So why not hunker down and try to put pen to paper (but in most cases digits to keys) and have some trains of thought going a couple times a month? Maybe that’s a little ambitious. I am going to write more. But I’m not pinning it to a number like I have previously. I will write more. But no promises on frequency. Or maybe I’ll write a bunch but only post a couple. It’s all up to me.

If you ask me, I think I am a pretty creative guy. For instance, I am writing this to the sounds of the outdoors. No music. Usually I love writing to music. But not this time-it feels pure. Back to the original thought. I like creating things and always have. And it wasn’t always writing. There’s so many creative outlets out there. I definitely have been in tune with this (and could also be marked as my catalyst for doing this act) after flipping through some pages of Rick Rubin’s new book. A friend of mine dubbed it “the creative’s bible”. I am starting to see why.  Again, back to the original thought. I think I didn’t feel as dried up about not writing as I normally would since I replaced creating words with creating images. I tend to take a bit of photos for my work (start-up marketing requires only the most novice photography skills). And I’ve always been drawn to the minutiae of film photography especially. But over the years, I’ve snapped flicks I love on anything from the iPhone to a disposable. I think one of my new features of work will be a behind the photo series. It’s not always that deep, but as a decent writer I might be able to spin it as something deep. Or just tell a funny story behind the moment.

Ok, that was a bit of a tangent. Bottom line: I’m back in this bitch. I also went through a phase of doing work on my site and not telling anyone about it. I think if you are putting effort into something and not putting it out there, it might seem a bit lost. I am not someone to flaunt or jam something in peoples faces, but if I’m getting jiggy on the site I might broadcast it. Digitally. Maybe I’ll talk about it in person. Ask me about it! Please!~

Until next time, sooner than later. -JG

THE LAWLESS CITY THAT IS LAS VEGAS

Upon recent reflection, I’ve discovered that Las Vegas truly is a place that could have been drawn up in a fictional piece of literature or the setting for a hollywood blockbuster. If you’ve ever been, you know just how outside of the real world it can be at times. If you haven’t, I am going to try my best to paint you the picture (or atleast the one I know of [which is probably even on the tamer side than some devout Vegas goers]).

Enter a tall, bright light, hot, industrialized city plopped in the state of Nevada. Sure, there’s towns and civilization out there (shoutout to my roommate KC who grew up over there), but you have to think the idea to plop this crazy international attraction in the middle of the desert is a strange thing to dwell on. Just imagine nothing and then snap your fingers and you have big, bright buildings that never close down. I am sure it wasn’t built overnight, but this ideal alone can kind of get the gears turning. 

The second thing that really just makes you feel like you’re living in some sort of screwed up netflix series is the rules-or lack of them. It seems like just about everything is legal in Las vegas. Walk around with beers or open containers of hard liquor on the streets? Check. Having people trying to blatantly sell you all the drugs under the sun as soon as you exit your hotel and walk on those same streets? Check. Having go-go girls dressed up waiting to handcuff you and give a good time for a monetary payment? Check. Combine all of these along with the strange characters that inhabit the vegas streets and you can really easily see how things could go astray quickly. As all this is going down, there are still cops regularly arresting people and breaking up street fights.

Now on the polar opposite end of the spectrum-gambling is very legal but heavily monitored. There’s big money floating around even the common folk tables, and then there’s even the high roller zones where people put up stupid amounts of cash just to take a ride with luck and probability. In the casinos, rules are not meant to be broken. You have to know how to act. No phones on the table. Dealers switch every 15 to 30 minutes. It’s a well oiled machine and it’s kept that way so the gambler rarely has the upper hand on the casino. Which tends to work out well in their favor. The streets can be lawless, but the casino keeps things very buttoned up.

No matter the regulations, Las Vegas is a gambler’s dream. If you fly in, get ready to hit the slots at the airport, because there’s plenty there and you know you have time to kill while waiting for a cab or an uber. If you drive it, from where I live you spend 4 hours give or take with not much scenery just to arrive and most likely make that initial bet. You gotta spend money to make money here. And whatever money you have, you have to be very comfortable losing it all. Play it safe or suffer the consequences. 

These are all the attractions that pretty much come free of charge, and then you have to factor in the mecca Las Vegas is in the entertainment industry. Big shot DJs, rappers, and comedians all have residencies (or pretty much hotels they call home) in which they get paid boatloads of cash to perform. Either during the day, during the night, weekend or weekday, there’s a party going on. Like most things in vegas, you’re going to have to pay the premium, whether that’s a cover (girls get in free), a stupid expensive mix drink, or just something going wrong and throwing a wrench in the system. 

It’s easy to see how some people love this place. If you want my personal take on vegas-a weekend is typically enough. But I could see how you could get sucked in and stay a while. There’s just something in the air that’s different. I’m an early to bed and early to rise kinda guy, but in vegas I push the bedtime back a little bit and take in the big bright lights. 

Handwritten Posts 001

The scene of the crime.

Initially, I didn’t want any words typed-just the handwritten note. but there should be some context.

I decided to handwrite a post for the hell of it. It wasn’t any sort of structured post, just a free write with a pen and paper. In classic writer fashion (or at least how I picture them in my head), I had to write on the back of 3 seperate to do lists since i had no classic line paper. Upon beginning, I got instant flashbacks to my writing prior to actually enjoying it. Standardized tests and high school english assignments. But that’s enough. Read it below.