This Bloody Mary

          At the Aladdin you could rent a suite on the tenth floor for $35 a night. Thirty years previously when the Aladdin was the fashionable Vegas place, these were the high-rollers' suites. My suite had a dark red glow like the Beckett. The breakfast bar was chipped and stained, the red carpet was frayed and the lock on the door rattled flimsily, but you could still imagine what it used to be like. From the tenth floor you could sit watching the whole of Vegas.
                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       Out on the pavement i wove through the staggering downtown bums until i reached the bar of Binyon's Horseshoe. I sat down at the bar. A man opposite said 'You think you got problems ? This Bloody Mary is the last thing i own.'

This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own
Jonathan Rendell
1997

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Dice 1950
Stan Douglas/ David Zwirner
reblogged from Newyorker