Las Vegas
The ‘idiot Disneyland’ of Sin City
With his marriage to Joan Didion in difficulties, John Gregory Dunne decamps to Nevada in the early 1970s to capture the dying days of Vegas sleaze
A road trip like no other – crossing America by Greyhound bus
Joanna Pocock made the journey in 2006, then again 17 years later – and was shocked by the environmental changes she witnessed
The road trip from hell: Elegy, Southwest, by Madeleine Watts, reviewed
Watts skilfully conjures a sense of impending doom as a young couple’s expedition to the American Southwest is threatened by deadly fires sweeping through California
At Las Vegas’s Sphere I saw the future of live arts
Does Elon Musk have a good eye for the aesthetic? Earlier this month, the Tesla magnate took a break from…
Turf wars in Las Vegas: City in Ruins, by Don Winslow, reviewed
The concluding volume of the Danny Ryan trilogy sees the gangster hero involved in a bitter feud over the purchase of a crumbling property on the Las Vegas Strip
What if Bernie actually wins the nomination?
Bernie Sanders has a long way to go yet before he locks up the Democratic nomination. He fell short of…
Bloomberg isn’t beaten
The sub-tweeters and thumb-twitchers are writing Michael Bloomberg’s political obituary after his admittedly less than thrilling turn in Las Vegas,…
What is the relationship between truth and accuracy? The Lifespan of a Fact reviewed
At the time, I’m sure it all seemed absolutely hilarious. It was in 2012 that W.W. Norton first published The…
Geoff Dyer on the poetry of motels
It’s to be expected. You take photographs in order to document things — Paris in the case of Eugène Atget…
Calling Paddock a ‘lone wolf’ isn’t racist
It’s been nearly two weeks since Stephen Paddock committed mass murder in Las Vegas and the FBI is still casting…
Gaudy! Bright! Loud! Fun!
Best of postmodernism: is that an oxymoron? Jonathan Meades thinks not
Chance would be a fine thing
If I prang your car, we can swap insurance details. In the past, it would have been necessary for you…
Calling the shots
Amid the hunters, urban cowboys and trigger-happy heroes at the world’s biggest gun show
Alice in cyberspace
Damon Albarn and Rufus Norris present a musical version of Alice in Wonderland. A challenging enterprise even if they’d stuck…
The oldest sport in the world
This is the best book you’ll ever read about mixed martial arts fighting; and this will still be the case…
No man is an island
Bit of Kant, bit of Kierkegaard, bit of motorcycle maintenance. That’s one take on The World Beyond Your Head, Matthew…
Qatar’s bid for Canary Wharf fills me with foreboding, even if they deserve each other
I’ve written before of a ‘curse of Qatar’ that might explain misfortunes attending the Gulf state’s UK investments, of which…
What happens in Vegas… and why I’m happy it doesn’t happen at home
I didn’t realise that the Rialto Bridge has a moving walkway and muzak, that the gondolas beneath it float on…
Fear and libertarianism in Las Vegas
Great God, Vegas is an awful place. I realised this the moment I arrived. My cab driver — who’d been…
