The lure of NO TAXES.

Wear this, and odds are you’ll be a winner.

As it is wont to do, Las Vegas is renovating part of its showy landscape. Projected to be complete by New Year’s Eve 2019, the re-do of the Viva Vision light canopy on Fremont Street will be the world’s largest single video screen. Go big or go home, said Las Vegas. Arrayed with nearly 50,000,000 LED lights, the screen’s planned light shows will mesmerize onlookers. The experience of Fremont Street is peculiarly loaded with all manner of incoming stimulus. Some of it sketchy as can be. Distractions galore bombard the droves of pedestrians. It’s quite a bodacious scene. On Fremont there’s something for everyone, especially if that someone has questionable standards. So when the show begins, and you stop to look up in amazement and dazzlement, I say: watch the show and watch your wallet.

The local grocery store pharmacy pretty much struck out if its mission was to create a welcoming waiting area. Plagued by woozy interior design choices in the vein of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, this nook imparts a bad feeling. Imagine waiting for your prescription to be filled, possibly under the weather, marooned in the corner of a poorly lit grocery store. You’d likely break out in a severe case of the blahs.

Many rules of harmony and design are broken to create a low-grade fever dream here. Notice an even number of chairs are flanked by two dreary dried floral arrangements. This vignette demonstrates why designers tend to use uneven numbers of objects to create dynamic balance. Behold the convex mirror looming overhead which adds no charm. Furthermore, I ask: Is there healing or harm in a cheerless color scheme? Exactly.

Somebody needs to triage the joint. Pity the poor, patient customers who languish in this sickly corner! Here’s hoping the store offers free samples of Dramamine.

Nevada is known as the Silver State. Silver is an excellent reflector of light, thus it’s used to great effect to make mirrors. Perfect for Las Vegas, the smoke and mirrors capital of the world!

Visitors flock to the Bellagio Hotel Conservatory garden to feast their eyes on showy seasonal floral exhibits. The Conservatory is an oasis adjacent to a casino in the midst of a desert. The exhibits are creative and vivd hat-tips to varied themes. The current colorful showcase, La Dolce Vita, is a tribute to Italy. Seen here, these resplendent hydrangeas are merely a border in the latest scheme. The good life, indeed.

Last time I checked, a Fortune Teller predicts the future. In Nevada, a Fortune Teller sees one’s past, present and future. So there. You want a do-over on something? Mosey over to Reno and plunk down the cash for a soothsayer to be your mystical fixer. Gamblers and high rollers welcome.

In Reno, Nevada, the Peppermill grinds out glamour. The Peppermill is fancy. Extra fancy. It is swagged out in ornament and artifice with marble, velvet, gilding, glass and crystals. Showy scintillates on every available surface. Flamboyant light fixtures decorate the hotel/casino from end to end. All manner of lighted glitz competes with the flashing slot machines and the massive luminous pixel screens in the Sports Book. Gambling versus glow? My money is on the glow. Even set into a high ceiling, competing with manic debauchery, this fancy fixture wins every time.

Casinos are trending toward wild-patterned carpet. The crazy-quilt patterns are most likely chosen to camouflage the effects of spilled drinks, nicotine residue and the debris from constant foot traffic. The awful patterns and clashing colors make me woozy. “Don’t look down” is my mantra. But, once in a while a foreign object contrasts with the wall-to-wall to catch the eye. In this case a used Band-Aid, sore-side up, sends skeevy shivers down my spine. There it is, a puny biohazard lying in wait to adhere itself to a gambler shuffling by in house slippers. Or in skimpy flip-flops. Chances are no one even sees it. Ignorance is bliss. The slot machines distract most of the passers-by who exist in a state of distraction. But, it’s there so beware. Hiding in plain sight.