Matthew OBrien - My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas

And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas

Huntington Press | Las Vegas, Nevada

HUNTINGTON PRESS
3665 PROCYON STREET, LAS VEGAS, NV 89103
[702] 252-0655, [702] 252-0675 FAX

MY WEEK AT THE BLUE ANGEL
AND OTHER STORIES
FROM THE STORM DRAINS,
STRIP CLUBS, AND TRAILER PARKS OF LAS VEGAS

COPYRIGHT 2010, MATTHEW OBRIEN
ISBN: 978-1-935396-23-9
$5.98US

PHOTO OF JESSIE FOSTER COURTESY OF GLENDENE GRANTTHE PHOTOS ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES ORIGINALLY APPEARED INLAS VEGAS CITYLIFE: 7, 13, 41, 45, 106, 122, 125, 127, 131, 155, 163, 167, 197, AND 200.PHOTOS ON PAGES 139, 142, 157, AND 176 COPYRIGHT BY DANNY MOLLOHAN.
ALL OTHER PHOTOS COPYRIGHT BY BILL HUGHES.

VERSIONS OF THE FOLLOWING STORIES ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN LAS VEGAS CITYLIFE: WHERES JESSIE? [2/1/07]; HUNTING HUNTER [2/8/01]; THE LAST TEMPTATION OF LARRY [9/8/05]; OUT ON PAROLE [6/23/05]; DEATH OF THE DOUBLE-WIDE [10/20/05]; NOTES FROM VEGAS UNDERGROUND [6/27/02]; BELLY OF THE BEAST [8/8/2002]; AND WASTEWATER WORLD [6/15/06].

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE TRANSLATED, REPRODUCED, ORTRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC OR MECHNICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPYINGAND RECORDING, OR BY ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.

To Yolanda Smith and Hunter S. Thompson

The people interviewed in this book

Deke Castleman
and my dad Matt

My mom Liz
my sisters Cathy and Leslie
my brother Eric
my brothers-in-law Peter Gwin
and Tyler Gibbs
my sister-in-law Emily
my nieces Eliza and Julia
and my nephew Timothy

Joshua Ellis
Bill Hughes
Danny Mollohan
and Kat Topaz

Brian Paco Alvarez
H. Lee Barnes
Lindsay Berg
Becky Bosshart
Bill Branon
Su Kim Chung
Johanna Giebelhaus
Joel Gotler
Michael Green
Jarret Keene
Dennis McBride
Chip Mosher
Eric Olsen
Jim Palombo
Brian Rouff
Geoff Schumacher
Cathy Scott
and Chris Staros

and
Laurie Cabot
Anthony Curtis
Heidi Olson
Jessica Roe
and the rest of
the Huntington Press staff

This story collection was born in the storm drains of Vegas.

When my first book, Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas, was published in 2007, several people asked where they could read the two stories that served as background. The stories, co-written by me and Joshua Ellis and published in CityLife in 2002, can be found at the alt-weeklys website (www.lasvegascitylife.com), but not easily. The web versions are light on photos and heavy on broken lines. And though the stories are raw, scary, and funny, I wasnt entirely comfortable pointing people toward them.

But, I thought, if I rework the stories, incorporating some of the knowledge gained researching Beneath the Neon, they may sit well in a collection.

I thumbed through the archives of CityLife, where Id worked since 2000, searching for other stories to include in the collection. A behind-the-scents tour of the central sewage plant; after 13 years in prison, a convicted murderer tries to adjust to life in Las Vegas; trailer parks closing at a frightening rate, leaving behind broken bonds, promises, and dreamsthese stories were good and could be improved. (At CityLife, I often wished I had one more week to work on a story. Id soon get that week and more.) They also shared themes: off-the-beaten-path Vegas, beauty in unlikely places, a voice for the voiceless.

In short, they showed a side of the city rarely seen by visitors or locals.

In early 2008, I left CityLife to write more independently and creatively. The collection was one of my projects. When not freelancing, I re-researched and rewrote the stories. Then I researched and wrote two originals: Another Day on Paradise and My Week at the Blue Angel. (My Week at the Blue Angel blossomed to 19,000 words and became the centerpiece.)

Finally, I updated the stories in an epilogue and photographer Bill Hughes re-shot some of the CityLife stories and shot the originals.

The result is My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas. I hope the collection adds voices to the Vegas dialogue (which is dominated by casino executives, economic analysts, politicians, and tourists), shows a side of Sin City youve never seen, and makes you look at the fabulous and world-famous tourist destination differently.

MATTHEW OBRIEN | JUNE 24, 2010

AS THE PLANE TOOK OFF and banked to the south, the United States spread out before Glendene Grant. The Rocky Mountains of Montana. The Snake River and Yellowstone National Park in Idaho and Wyoming. The Great Salt Lake, the Wasatch Range, and Bryce Canyon in Utah.

From her window seat, Grant looked down on the sheet of darkness and thought one thing: Wheres Jessie?

Everyone and everything on the flight reminded her of Jessie. The man sitting next to her, who she handed a card with Jessies photo on it. The TV screen in the seat back, which aired footage of the recovery of two kidnapped boys in Kirkwood, Missouri. Her carry-on bag, containing a laptop, newspaper clippings, and missing-person posters.

The plane began its descent into Las Vegasthe bed of lights, the Monopoly houses, the neon river of the Strip.

Is Jessie somewhere beneath those lights, Grant wondered? Is she alive? Is she dead?

As the plane taxied to the gate, a flight attendant announced a birthday and the passengers sang Happy Birthday to You. Grant cringed. Jessie was missing on her own birthday. And on Mothers Day. And on Christmas.

So many days in a year. So many reminders.

They come to Las Vegas to drink and gamble and have fun, and it kind of bothered me that they just assumed everybody else on the plane was there to have fun, said Grant, who lives in Kamloops, British Columbia. I felt like standing up and saying, Excuse me, but Im not really here to have fun. I felt like saying, After singing Happy Birthday, lets say a prayer for my daughter.

Added Jessies father, Dwight Foster, who flew into Las Vegas from Calgary, Alberta, a few days after Grant, I saw how spread out the city was and how bright it was and the glitz and the glamour. Of course, the passengers flying in are very excited. Everyone on the plane is going there to have fun and make lots of money. Im sitting there and all Im feeling is apprehension and dread and hopelessness. Las Vegas represents a totally different head space for me.

Grant didnt stand up and say anything to the passengers. She doesnt want to be too cynical, she said. Shes just sad. Really sad.

She picked up her bag, shuffled off the plane, and made her way through McCarran International Airport.

I wish I thought that I was coming here to find Jessie, said Grant, her voice breaking. But I know Im not going home with her. I know that. Basically, Im just here to remind people that shes missing and to let more people know shes missing. I just want to bring her picture to light. I just want to try to get some media attention and let the police know were not giving up. Were not going to quit phoning them. Were not going to quit e-mailing them. We want some answers.

JESSICA EDITH LOUISE FOSTER was born in Calgary on May 27, 1984.