Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I've just posted an experience update with about 140 new stories. Thanks to all the authors, the review team, and to Michelangelo Cornini for the cover shot of a large Borneo scorpion design he did at Primordial Pain in Italy. Other than that, I have a few more comments about my trip:

Gay Slaves (and not the fun kind). As I mentioned, we noticed a fair chunk of homophobia while in Vegas — from people walking out of Zumanity to general rudeness to gay service workers. What surprised me though was that at the same time, there were more overtly gay employees at casinos and around town than I'm used to seeing — so it's one of those phenomena of “I'm glad to have you as an employee, but don't ever think I'll tolerate you as an equal.” Very odd, but I suppose there were plenty of men in the past who had wives that they loved, but didn't want them voting…

American Bookstores. Given how much we hear how the American public is “sheltered” from the tough realities, US bookstores seem to dispel that idea. If the Borders bookstore at the airport is any indication, there's a great selection of “anti-establishment” literature. While waiting for our flight I read Is that a politician in your pocket? (”Washington on $2 million a day”) — a highly recommended and sobering book about the role the (largely non-partisan) bribery works in American politics. Again I say:

• Vote for the politician who makes the least money, and takes the least corporate contributions.
• Support clean campaign financing.
• Be prepared for a total economic meltdown in America if these things are not resolved. Get healthy — don't expect to any healthcare to be available to you. Oh, and learn to garden.

I also had time to read much of The End of Oil, a terrifying but very levelheaded and balanced overview of peak oil and energy issues. If I'm to believe the “best seller” advertisements, there are a lot of people reading these books. I hope it's reaching people, not just entertaining them on some morbid level. Oh, and I read Paris Hilton's book which is silly but a better than I thought it would be — the message is basically “be yourself, have fun, and stand up for yourself as an individual.”

Airport Security. It's fucking insulting to my intelligence. The screening and searching they do is ludicrous and would only catch the most moronic of terrorists — terrorists may be a lot of things, but they're not stupid. To give the most obvious example, I brought on a fair amount of large electronics. None of it was searched, turned on, or even swabbed for chemicals. If I wanted to put a slab of explosive inside my laptop big enough to blow the side out of the plane I could have done so in my sleep (not that I'd ever do so, Carnivore/Echelon folks!) — simple truth: if someone is willing to die in the process, taking out a US, Canadian, or European airliner departing from a Western airport is easy.

Not that I'm nervous about flying, but if I was, I'd stick with El Al.

I've been seeing a lot of tattooed people while I'm here — I guess it is true that one in seven Americans are tattooed. Lots of big forearm pieces and quite a lot of nape work as well — although what's most interesting to me is that I can probably count the number of pierced people I've seen on one hand. Tons of tattoos, but no piercings…

The other thing we've seen that surprised me was having people in the audience at Zumanity (more) storm out after the “gay” scene (which was basically two guys fighting a la capoeira and then at the end they kissed) — although no one was bothered by the girl-girl action it seems. I liked Zumanity but it was really unsophisticated and dumbed down in comparison to Alegria.

Our (very obviously gay) concierge was telling us that the show actually was much more risque in the past but they had to cut it out because so many people complained or left during the show… I guess it surprised me because Canada is such a gay-positive place on the whole (even my small town highschool fifteen years ago had openly gay teachers), but now I understand that people here really do hate homosexuals for some strange reason.

Not that they have a problem with depravity (other than the dudes with the Jesus/Sin bilboards in front of the Bellagio I guess) — the “escorts to your hotel in thirty minutes” services and the in-room strippers seem to be doing very well — and getting the most mainstream of customers if the card-advertisers on the street are any indication. We're off to see a magic show tonight with Rachel's continued Big Wheel of Gold winnings, and then tomorrow we fly back.

In the right photo (the Luxor one), check out the dude staring at us. Just can't get away from it I suppose. Staff here are incredibly nice, but tourists are looky-loos anywhere you go in the world… I still want to make the shirt that says “If you're not interesting enough to talk about yourself, talk about me” on it, but it's a knockoff of a tattoo shop shirt I saw a decade ago and I'm not sure if I'd feel too guilty ripping it off. Rachel proposed a more blunt version (which i think I'm about to misquote):

“If you're staring at me, fuck off.”

No, I'm not (yet) in a US immigration gulag.

It was strange crossing the border — I was like the “anti-random search”. Every single other person had to take their shoes off. Every other person was asked all sorts of questions and had their electronics swabbed down. I wasn't photo'd, fingerprinted, or asked anything at all… literally just waved through which was an experience I haven't had in a while.

Rachel's meetings in LA went far better than expected and now we're in Nevada… Anyway, just wanted to post so people weren't worried I'd been arrested!