Las Vegas Gambling

"The secret affinity between gambling and the desert: the intensity of gambling reinforced by the presence of the desert surrounding the town. The air-conditioned freshness of the gaming rooms, as opposed to the radiant heat outside.

The challenge of all the artificial lights to the violence of the sun rays. Night of gambling sunlit on all sides; the glittering darkness of these rooms in the middle of the desert. Gambling itself is a desert form, inhuman, uncultured, initiatory, a challenge to the natural economy of value, a crazed activity on the fringes of exchange. But it also has a strict limit and stops abruptly; its boundaries are exact, its passion knows no confusion.

Neither the desert nor gambling are open areas; their spaces are finite and concentric, increasing in intensity toward the interior, toward a central point, be it the spirit of gambling or the heart of the desert - a privileged, immemorial space, where things lose their shadow, where money loses its value, and where the extreme rarity of traces of what signals to us there leads men to seek the instantaneity of wealth."

Jean Baudrillard on Las Vegas

Selling milk on Wall street

Photo perso: "Occupy Wall Street" movement, NYC, Zuccotti Park, November 2011

Helicopters are occupying "my sky" next to magnificent Beekman tower by Frank Gehry and watching the park around the NY City Hall. Lower Manhattan is getting nervous, protestors are screaming, police officers everywhere...

No sunrise behind the Brooklyn Bridge, industrial colors and cloudy atmosphere making the lady "Liberty" depressed. No tourists in waiting line for water taxi. Barricades everywhere. No more clients at my favorite fresh milk mini-shop on Wall Street. Bankruptcy of the old farmer first. Pedestrian traffic control killed the traffic and his business.

Quiet evening at the NY Press Club yesterday before midnight, supporting "Occupy Wall Street" movement. And an aggressive clean up of Zuccotti Park from sleeping protestors last night. Reports say: "Sanitation issue". Is democracy becoming unsanitary and dangerous? Law Professor Robert Hockett is the only one screaming "Shame on you Mayor Bloomberg!".

In the time of solar storm

The Sun. Hot plasma that never sleeps. "Magnetic Dynamo theory" describes the process through which a rotating, converting, and electrically conducting fluid acts to maintain a magnetic field. It uses magnetohydrodynamic equations to investigate how the fluid can continuously regenerate the magnetic field.

According to NASA, a giant solar flare leapt from the face of the sun on Monday, February 14th, and sent masses of charged particles outward into space, including toward Earth... Media hysteria in the US. But in Europe it brings up these delicious memories of making love to Olafur Eliasson sun in The Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in London. Exceptional art exhibit. For American public: Happy Valentine's Day in the time of solar storm radiation.

Vandalized silence of The Pacific Ocean

From the fresh coast deep into dry, salty and earthy continent... Distinctive boundaries of The Mojave Desert. You can hear noisy sizzle of morning dryness of the air, bored to death. Divine carcasses of pre-September 11 airplanes entering the scrapheap... Great business deal though.

Local teenagers are getting ready for Junkyard Mega Wars at the bar. Who wants cheap but ice cold Corona beer? Blond American lolitas are giggling in queue for push up bras with gelatinous boobs mini-implants, heavy makeup and fake long eyelashes. All excited for the last desert race tonight. Perpetual search for being high on sugar, on drugs, on porn. America - mega sugar-cult in the noisy sizzle of the desert...

The Cure playing in my mind, Prayers For Rain?

Polish Parliament prays for rain occasionally and I don’t look at it as a synonym of hopelessness anymore. After several years spent in other exotic countries, those spectacular prayers of Polish political elite during parliamentary sessions became joyful to me. Over 94% of the entire population declares itself Catholic. Polish hotel in Warsaw or Cracow will never put on the pillow the same note as I find in New York City, Dubai, London or Shanghai:

“This hotel respects the religious background of all of our guests. We invite you to call out Guest Services department at any time during your stay to request your preferred book of worship:

Buddhism: The Dhammapada
Christianity: The Holy Bible (King James Version)
Judaism: The Torah
Hinduism: The Bhagavad Gita
Islam: The Koran
Confucianism: The Analects by Confucius
Taoism: The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu."

Temporary dictatorship of The Urgency

The fast devours the slow... This mastery of short-term-ism and unnecessary agitation around all kind of activities might be efficient in gaining power, for sure...

Tyranny of the clocks in today's daily human routine, contemporary politics and business of emergency procedures are getting boring.

Who will take over the challenging position of "master clock"?