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Category: Random Musings

Viva Las … oh, never mind

Published 16 October 2006 by Jason Crane

Sahara

It’s not that I hate Las Vegas, it’s more that … um … OK, it’s that I hate Las Vegas.

I’m writing this from the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Vegas, where I’ve come for a meeting of hotel union folks. Las Vegas is one of the power bases of my union, UNITE HERE, given that we represent hotel and gaming workers. Nearly every casino on The Strip is union, and this city is home to more than 50,000 of our members. Hotel and gaming jobs here are becoming middle-class jobs as a result.

For me, though, Vegas is everything I dislike about American culture — lit up. Commercialism, overindulgence, self-centeredness, neon. It’s all here in quantities that could make even the most calm and collected person lose their marbles. And as you’ve learned by now, I’m not the most calm and collected person.

I think I would have liked Vegas 50 years ago, when the Sahara was built. Back when the entertainers had last names like Sinatra, Martin, and Davis. Back when Count Basie backed Nat Cole and swing was the popular music of the day. These days, though, most of that history is buried under an enormous pyramid, a fake Eiffel Tower, and a make-believe New York City.

The popular wisdom about this town is that everything’s cheap because they want you to gamble. That may have been the case back in the day, but now Vegas is a tourist destination for the whole family, and even the most obscure magician or comedian charges $50 a ticket.

At least I’m staying in one of the last surviving hotels from the golden era of Vegas. The Sahara was built in 1952, and it looks it. It’s far down on The Strip — actually off the main part of The Strip, as far as I can tell. The only other hotels and casinos near here are the Las Vegas Hilton and the Stratosphere. Except for the color TV and the wireless Internet access, it’s easy to believe that this room was occupied by John and Mary from Wisconsin on their first big trip back in the late 50s.

To summarize: It’s fantastic that so many workers are able to build a life here with a good wage and decent healthcare. That’s a good thing, and I hope for their sake that this place keeps going strong. But for my sake, I hope the next one of these meetings is somewhere else.

For information on UNITE HERE Local 226 in Las Vegas, visit their Web site. For more about the Sahara, check out this interactive timeline.

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The Hagyard Building, circa 1920

Published 11 October 2006 by Jason Crane

The picture at the top of this site is a section of the Hagyard Building on Main Street in Lenox, Massachussetts. It’s the building in which my grandparents and great-uncle lived, and it’s the first place I lived, too. This building looms so large in my life that I chose it as the symbol of this site. I took that picture in 2003 or 2004. Well, tonight I found another photo of it, this time from some time between 1910 and 1920:

Hagyard Building

I found this photo here, at the Library of Congress’s American Memory collection. The collection is chock-full of amazing artifacts, so go take a look.

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Nietzsche Family Circus…

Published 10 October 2006 by Jason Crane

…pairs a random Family Circus cartoon with a random quote from Friederich Nietzsche. Enjoy!

You’re welcome.

And thanks to Norm at One Good Move for the tip.

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Giving credit where it’s due

Published 10 October 2006 by Jason Crane

Back in April, I posted this item alerting readers to shows by Tierney Sutton and Claudia Acuna. To illustrate the article, I used two photos, including this one:

It turns out this photo was taken by Seattle’s Bruce C. Moore, a fact I learned when he mentioned it on his blog, Hey, I took that!. Bruce’s blog is dedicated to finding his photos in use by people who haven’t asked his permission, paid him or credited him, and he really made me reflect on that practice. In this digital age, it’s easy to find a photo of almost anyone you choose to write about. The ease, however, has lowered the bar for attribution. The photo of Tierney Sutton is taken from her own Web site, where it is also uncredited.

My apologies, Bruce. Consider me on notice. I’ll work hard from now on to provide proper credit for the photos I use, and to seek permission where feasible. I can’t promise complete compliance, but I’ll do my absolute best. As I said to Bruce on his blog, I encourage Bruce and other photographers to contact bloggers and Web administrators directly and let them know about their use of uncredited photos. People deserve to be recognized for the work they do.

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Iron Man (no, not that one)

Published 8 October 2006 by Jason Crane

My good friend Stephanie Lovato sends this from down south:

For those of you who have the OLN network (actually, formerly OLN…it is now “Versus” network or something), Ironman Arizona is being televised tomorrow (Sunday, October 8th) at 3pm ET. It will be aired again on Monday at 4pm, and Wednesday at 5pm (all eastern times). I thought this might be of interest because my brother was the winner there this year (so I am quite proud), and usually they do a pretty good job of making the coverage interesting and fairly quick (a 9 hour race in less than an hour!) Anyway, I know it interferes with football tomorrow, but if you feel like flipping channels to check it out… do it!

Stephanie is very hip and so is her brother, seen below winning the race. So tune in!

Lovato

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Jerks (New Jersey, Part 2)

Published 24 September 2006 by Jason Crane

I was eating dinner in the hotel restaurant tonight, and a couple of event managers sat down near me. I’m not sure which event they were managing, although it wasn’t taking place at the hotel. They were the kind of folks who talk like they’re at the center of the universe, and like the rest of that universe is a series of concentric circles based on money and power.

At one point, the waiter came and took their drink order. The woman’s response: “I’ll have a margarita, and I hope it’s better than the one I had last night.”

What kind of a jerk do you have to be to say that to a hardworking person whom you don’t even know?

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The conversion

Published 22 September 2006 by Jason Crane

Maybe you should sit down for this one.

On Wednesday night, I was elected as leader of the Democratic Committee for the 24th Legislative District here in Monroe County, NY. Why should that be a shock? Because I was previously chair of the Green Party in this same county, a party that exists not only in support of progressive causes, but in opposition to what is often called the two-party duopoly of American politics. So the question is: Have I sold out?

To some, the answer will be an unequivocal “yes!” I ran for City Council and got more votes than any independent candidate has received. I did this on the Green line in a district that’s home to the president of City Council and one of the most respected Dems in the county. I got creamed, but I received more than 30% of the vote in the LD where I now serve as leader.

But here’s the deal: It’s not realistically possible to win in Rochester as a Green. And at the state and national level, it’s the Democrats who can most easily stand as the progressive party. They don’t often do that now, but they have a ready-made structure for creating change. If I’m going to spend some amount of the time taking part in politics — time that could otherwise be spent at home or anywhere else — then I want the fastest route to effective action. That is the Democratic Party. I decided a few years ago to set aside my dreams of ideological purity and focus on making people’s lives better. That’s why I do the job I do. Unions may not be perfect, but they’re a lot better than letting the market decide whether folks should have a living wage, health care and a pension. Similarly, the Dems aren’t perfect, but it’s a lot easier to create change through that structure than to first have to build an entire party from the ground up, and then start solving problems.

So here I am, on the left end of the Democratic Party, trying to remind folks that what’s considered “left” in our media discourse is actually at the center of the American electorate. Who doesn’t believe in health care for all, good educations for our kids, jobs that create middle class families, and dignity in retirement, to name just a few ideas? These are basic American values, and I’m going to do my part locally to make sure that these are the values championed by this party.

It’s never easy to make choices like this one, but I’m confident that working to move the Democrats forward is the surest path to the change I want to create.

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Worst. Mixtape. Ever.

Published 7 September 2006 by Jason Crane

Comedian Aziz Ansari had a contest to see who who in his apartment could create the worst mixtape of all time. Check out the results:

Thanks to Jeff Vrabel for the link. I think.

And here’s a bonus video from the same comedians:

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