Home Means Nevada, part 4.

So, Reno is not exactly the class capital of the world, but I think there are certain aspects of this town that really exemplify the city's stranger aspects. On the surface, Bizarre Guitar seems like it should probably just be your typical if mildly seedy independent guitar/drum type of music store. You know, it's in kind of a grungy building in a kind of grungy area and the employees all seem a little sketchy and like they probably all have criminal records. But still, nothing too special. But there's more! I'm bummed that their website (www.bizarreguitar.com) doesn't reflect the more interesting aspect of their business, but this here video does. The first bit is the ad they air in Reno, and is really the main bit that's worth watching.

I don't know if I'm the only person who finds this incredibly amusing, but in addition to selling all their guitars and whatnot, they also have a large selection of guns. I guess judging by the owner's appearance, this shouldn't be all that surprising. Nonetheless, I think a store dealing in guitars and guns is a pretty distinctly 'Reno' thing. Pretty cool, huh?

Home Means Nevada, part 3.

So, my beloved state of Nevada is experiencing a pretty intense financial crisis, like pretty much everyone these days. However, some brilliant folks are thinking up some new ways to increase revenue. I'm too lazy to summarize, so just read this. Personally, I think taxing prostitution is a pretty sweet idea. Our lipless, psychotic governor disagrees. Hell, he doesn't even think prostitution should be legal. Eh. What does he know.

On a sort of unrelated note, Vince the ShamWow/SlapChop guy, has been arrested for felony battery after an altercation with a prostitute in his ritzy hotel. The Smoking Gun is more eloquent than I am. Check out his mugshot! He looks like a white, very un-sexy Benicio del Toro.

This was almost as good as the biker brawl in the Sydney airport last week.

Home Means Nevada, part 2.

My time in Reno is gradually drawing to a close. Presumably. As my departure draws nearer, I'm getting more and more anxious about leaving and noticing things that make Reno really special to me. Who knew that I could be scared of missing Reno?

Why is it that Nevada is the only place, that I'm aware of, where you can get all-you-can-eat sushi? What's more, in Reno we've got to have at least 10 or 15 places to get it. I don't even like sushi, but I like the idea of all-you-can-eat sushi. It's like taking a really classy food and making it fit into the Reno idiom of trash and vice and gluttony.

In Nevada, you can buy hard liquor at the supermarket. It never occurred to me that you couldn't do this in other places.

We have an intersection of streets called Colbert Drive and Patriot Boulevard.

Not only do we have brothels just outside of town, some of them have tours!

I don't want to move away from all this sin. What if I accidentally move to North Carolina or Texas? Shit guys, this is scary!

Hooker update:

The other night I was at the Chapel with my dear friend Frankie, and after a few pints of PBR I asked him whether or not our mutual friend whom I often see with nasty old dudes at the bar is a hooker. He says she is not, but I'm not sure I believe him. Nonetheless, I'm disappointed. I wanted to know a hooker. I live in Nevada; there are prostitutes everywhere! And yet I don't know any. Just sluts, junkies and alcoholics.

Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington

I was at the DMV the other day because I needed to get a smog waiver (long story... my car is always broken in really lame ways) and as I was leaving there was a Hells Angel pulling out of the parking lot. When did they become so law-abiding? I mean, I wasn't all that surprised to see a Hells Angel because we have this Hells Angel house where a lot of them live or hang out or something, so there's quite a few of them in Reno. But at the DMV? Really? The DMV is the ultimate manifestation of The Man. Well, maybe the IRS is. I don't know. But still, a Hells Angel has no business at the DMV. 

Home means Nevada

Happy Halloween/Nevada Day!

Nevada Day is the greatest holiday in the world because it means we get the day off of school (and work, depending where you work) but we still get mail. And it's an extra day for Halloween shenanigans and, in my case, eating breakfast with near strangers at Super Burrito after sleeping at a strange house with four cats in it and then getting stranded downtown at about 1 pm in your Halloween costume and having to call your roommate for a ride. On top of bars open 24/7, the abundance of strip clubs and porno theatres and the ability to buy hard liquor and play slot machines in the grocery store, it is one of the best things about Nevada.