XL

Much like, the more you learn...The more I see in the taxi, the more I realize that I haven't seen anything. Just when experiences are realized and the looming clouds of mundaneness cross my mind, something happens that completely takes me by surprise.

The doorman at the Mirage blew his whistle and I pulled up the 25 feet or so to find him waiting to open the door for a young and attractive brunette wearing a formal black dress and high heeled shoes. She held her sequence laden purse with both hands. Our eyes met before I even came to a stop and it was clear to me that there was something wrong. I brought the cab to a stop and the doorman grabbed the handle of the rear door to assist the young lady in. Just as she was about to place her left foot in the cab and begin to climb in she asked the whistle toting man:

Actually, is it ok if I sit in the front?

The doorman asked me if it was and of course, I have no problems with that. Not for of any ulterior reason. Just the simple truth that, I have no problems with that. In fact with my depleted hearing these days, I find conversing much easier when you're sitting right next to me anyway. The doorman opened the other door and I threw my carry on bag that usually rests on the seat in the back and pulled the other arm rest down.

She sat down and told me her destination as the doorman closed the door. I jotted the information on my tripsheet, engaged the meter and we began our way off the Mirage property to head Southbound on the BLVD. We sat at the light exiting the Mirage, patiently waiting for the light to change and the pedestrians to clear the way. As easy as it would have been to start things with small talk, for some reason or another I had yet to say a single word to the girl. Her only words to me were "Luxor please". Anything more just didn't seem right at the time.

Finally making our way onto the crowded strip, I decided it was time to break the silence. Or perhaps it just took me that long to find the words.

Do you want to talk about it?

I said as I looked at her. She returned the glance but contradicted her face with her reply:

No.

I suppose if the tides were turned, I wouldn't want to talk to me about it either. Whatever in the world it was. Her one word reply as she turned her eyes away and returned them to the ground was a good enough clue to deduct that trying to form any kind of false conversation thereafter would have been as pointless as it was classless. So I chose another method. I decided to break the silence by turning up just a little, the James Taylor Greatest Hits CD that I had brought along with me that evening. I've found that I like something mellow every now and again. A minute or so passed and from her continued silence, I concluded that I had made the right decision.

We finally made it to the stoplight at Flamingo at about the same time Country Road filled our ears. That was when I felt her hand on top of mine. To reserved, nervous or anxious to open her mouth, she made moving her left hand over from her armrest to mine seem effortless.

Startled is the right word but thankfully that lasted for just an instant. I turned to look at her. Her head pulled up slightly and after her eyes slowly made their way to mine, they asked for my permission. We looked at each other. I pulled my hand and my eyes away, but just long enough to push my arm underneath hers and interlock my right fingers with her left ones firmly. I looked at her again. This is ok.

The Flamingo light changed to green and the brunette and I held hands the rest of the way. I only removed my hand from hers twice briefly simply to ensure that we heard my two favorite James Taylor songs along the way, Walking Man & There's Something In The Way She Moves. They seemed alright. It seemed alright too.

We pulled up the front door of the Luxor, still having said basically nothing to one another. She reached in her purse, found a twenty dollar bill and placed it on my dashboard. She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and whispered after a lips pressed, forced grin:

Thank you.

She left me and I watched her every step toward the front door of the hotel. She never turned back. You Can Close Your Eyes played on the radio, and it filled my depleted ears.

LVCC gets published. Kind of.

They're invited to every restaurant opening, pick up at every bar and they talk to everyone. Wherever you are in the world, the person who knows best is sat upfront, behind the wheel. We asked cabbies around the globe for tips on the best venues their city has to offer.

Earlier this year I was contacted by The Guardian, the leading news publication in London. Freelance writer Paul Smith sent an email requesting an interview. Smith was amidst a piece entitled "The Knowledge", a reference to the training Cabbies in London must complete prior to obtaining their permits. "The Knowledge", focuses on the idea that Cabbies are the best people to ask for recommendations regarding food & beverage, regardless of the city or even continent for that matter. Naturally while attempting an article on this topic, he knew Las Vegas was a city he should attempt to include.

After a few brief email exchanges, I ultimately conducted a phone interview with Smith in the wee hours, business hours London time. Here are the fruits of Smiths' efforts. I like the idea for the story and it ended up being pretty good I thought, albeit containing an unusually large amount of typographical errors. For what it's worth, I've since learned that The Guardian seems to have a reputation in this regard. Sure I've had my share of fuckups so I'm not trying to go there, but I don't have the backing of a global newspaper or even college degree so I think I'm alright if a few slip threw the cracks.

Why did I not share this with you before you ask? Well, my full name appears in the published piece, misspelled mind you, and at the time I was still interested in remaining largely anonymous.

The Knowledge

Cabbies in the news.

A well organized demonstration against the constant influx of medallions the Taxicab Authority grants (and its subsequent negative impact on drivers' income) took place yesterday. Drivers numbering in the hundreds wished to be heard and parked their cabs blocking lanes of traffic on Las Vegas Blvd and Fashion Show Lane in front of the old Frontier site.



Generally, these movements don't really get very far. To call it an uphill battle would be the biggest understatement of the year. Drivers are just pawns in a much bigger money game that stretches from the Governors office to the TaxiCab Authority. From the Don to the soldier. With odds like these stacked against you, you'd be a fool for taking the flag and running with it. I mean talk about all time wastes of time. However if drivers do decide to take on the powers that be with the limited resources that they have, it requires a little bit of gorilla warfare. One Battle of Puebla at a time.

However I for one, did not participate in the demonstration.

I've actually never participated in such an event. My problem is with the unions as much as it is with the TA and the medallion owners. The owners want more cabs...Of course. That's their best interest. Obviously, that's exactly the opposite of what the drivers want to see happen. More cabs + same number of passengers = less rides per cab. But the unions, who claim to represent the drivers and speak on their behalf at the medallion allocation hearings (and other pertinent TA/Drivers meetings), actually have a glaring conflict of interest in my mind....

Like anything of the sort, unions simply want your money. Their loyalty towards you runs dry quickly thereafter. Religion, government...unions. Realize that the union, who supposedly is arguing for you against more medallions, actually stands to benefit from the opposite. You read that right. Think about it. More medallions for the owners means more drivers they have to staff, the more drivers they have to staff means the MORE POTENTIAL UNION MEMBERS there are. I find it really hard to believe that an origination who purchased a billboard in town to encourage (more)membership, as well as other advertising methods with the same purpose, are really speaking as loudly as they should against more medallions.

We're actually paying these people to fuck us. Am I the only one that sees this? Pay those dues buddy, and don't drop the soap.

That said, kudos to the drivers that did take the time out of their night to stand up for all of us. You were as undermanned as you were underfunded but perhaps you've helped us to fend off those French bastards for one more night.

CABBY RALLY: Cabbies say tips dwindling

I loaded a Mom and her four kids at the MGM the other night...

...they were going out to Sam's Town. If you don't know, Sam's Town is located out on Boulder Highway & Flamingo. It's right by the Silver Bowl if you know where that is. The Dead played some hot shows out there back in the stadium tour days, UNLV wins a football game there every other sesquicentennial. It's about a $25 cab ride from the strip. Anyway, the mom and one of the little girls sat up front with me, the other three in the backseat. Somewhere along our conversation the lady made some off the cuff referral to something crazy she had seen the night before while out on the Strip with her friends. Well, I too have seen some crazy things I thought, so I said that she should divulge the story. I like to hear stories too. Besides, you can't give me that buildup and then not deliver. Right? She laughed and replied saying that she would, but the kids were in the car so she couldn't. It wasn't appropriate. Fair enough. I can respect that. A moment of silence passed and the very next thing out of her mouth took me up until now to fully appreciate the hypocrisy:

Is it ok if I smoke in your cab?

My first blog entry eva!

...I can't believe I'm doing this right now. Lol. You see what I did right there? I used an "LOL". All of the great authors of our time use those. Everyone knows this.

First off I wanted to say thanks for all of the responses. The people have spoken. It's great for me to hear what you guys really think. It's refreshing. I'd like to address some of the comments now if I may.

Yes Dr. Pauly, you'll find ample amounts of Phish references on this site. I drop them all the time. Some more subtle than others. Actually I drop vague references about all kinds of things. I love the idea that only a select few will get something. When you are one of those that gets it, you feel like your in some special club or something. As I said, I had no intentions of contemplating quiting prior to the Christmas story, but after it was finally done, it felt like how the boys said they felt about Big Cypress.

The advertising thing....Have been very much against it from the outset. This much is known. More recently though I've been hearing a lot more how dumb I am by not having ads. Maybe so. This thing was never about making money though. That said, if it gets to a point where I am actually passing up decent money by not monetizing this thing I may just have to take that plunge. I mean there is a point where you do actually do become a dumb ass. I just can't believe we are anywhere close to it. As far as the "tip your cabbie" thing: I've seen those on a few other cabbie blogs and I have nothing against them, I just personally find it in poor taste. I compare this to the guy who hangs a picture of his kids right next to the meter. It's like, c'mon bro, we know why you do that. It's cheap. I don't like to ask for things like that. The internet is a different medium however, and assuming people actually did tip their driver from time to time, it's a hell of an idea, it's just not my style.


ellopez said: "and whether you think they are interesting or not, they are interesting to me..."

This is an idea that I think all bloggers have to tackle. I don't think it's possible to be a good story teller without having a good sense as to what someone is or isn't going to find interesting. However it is no easy task. In fact, it appears I may have failed in this regard. I simply lived by the rule before that if I was going to err it would be on the side of saying nothing. What's that saying? "Better to say nothing and be thought a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt". Something like that. But, now as it's been shown, it may be time to hang loose a little bit.

Eric/Esub said: "Maybe you're talking about your own personal expectations, but I know I don't read new stories hoping it one will be better than the previous, I'm just hoping for something new..."

Well I wasn't at the time but it has since become clear that I actually was unknowingly, talking about my own personal expectations. Strange. As you and a few others have pointed out, you never thought of it in terms of the new one needing to be better than the last one. Apparently that only existed in my mind.

However I stopped you on the "new" for a reason. This one is a little less subjective. Reason being that through my time hacking, I've had many incidents that are so similar, that after you tell it once it's hard to make a similar version of it different enough to warrant another story. I've found that people who can't pay, and really any story involving tips fall into this category. They are all kind of the same.

Speaking of tips, perhaps you noticed already but I seldom even mention them. And rarely, if ever(?)complain about a lack of them. From the onset, I didn't want to come across as the complainer guy. (This is also why I avoided all the cabbie issues and the business bullshit) For many reasons, but mostly because it's just not entertaining in my opinion. Nobody cares if I got shafted on a tip. I don't even care, why the fuck would you? This kind of goes back to the TaxiCab Confessions show and the "between the doors" storytelling concept. That said, I do have some good tip stories that I am going to share at some point I think.

David said: "Glad to see you found your muse again."

I for one am not really into Greek Mythology but I suppose that's as good a word as any. The fact is, that I only write well when the mood strikes. This whole LVCC jazz odyssey thing is going to challenge this problem immensely I have little doubt.

Tom said: "I enjoy reading your blog because you are a good writer.... So I am pretty sure whatever topics you choose will be worth reading."

This kind of goes after another idea I had from the start which was...I wanted to take an outstanding event, and try and make it better with good writing. Not start with something dull, and try and make it interesting with good writing. In reality I think it might simply come back to capability. Which I'm not sure that I have. I mean, if you can take something uninteresting, and make it interesting simply with good writing, than you're a helluva writer I'd say.

Christina said:"You know, I've heard exactly the opposite advice about blogging: Write every day, even if it's just to say that you have nothing to write about."

I would agree with the writing everyday...publishing everyday is another beast entirely I think. Obviously, this represents the opposite of my blog being thus far.

highonpoker said: "Andrew, I started reading your blog a month or so ago, from the beginning. I read a couple of stories a day and print out a bunch to read on my train ride home. I recently read the story about the 2hr. 30min. wedding trip and liked it so much I printed it out for my wife. She read it on her commute and sent me a text message, "I want more cabbie stories!""

Awesome. Somebody telling me a story like this, that they got something from something here...that means a lot thank you. The image of a person, on the other side of the country, sitting in a train on their way to work. This person presumably hating life because they ARE on their way to work. But they are not. They are completely transported by an otherwise meaningless tale about a cab driver that helped a couple get married in Vegas. Nothing else in their mind. Just this story.....That sort of thing is light years better than any monthly ad-sense check I could be receiving.

And I guess I can say that because I can relate. I read a lot in the cab, and sometimes when it's really good, and the story is just right, and the words are just right, and the mood is just right you're kind of transported into this other world. Even if it's only for a second or two. I actually have a word for it. I call it, "the moment". These moments in life, are few are far between. The moment, and the search for it, are the reason myself and millions of others like sports, the reason you go to concerts, and the reason you read. You won't experience one every time. In fact, you seldom will. But I've found that these are the best places to find them. Unless of course you're lucky enough to find love. Then you're bound to have a few....

Lucky327 said: "Seems like the more readers one gets, the more one worries about what they owe the reader."

Certainly seems like a natural progression. When I started I didn't have any readers so this wasn't a problem. But yeah, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel like I owed something to readers. Of course, I don't. But I feel that way anyway.

..and that was a copy Lucky327....you're loud and clear over here good buddy.


Lastly I wanted to address an idea that was expressed via email.

Sully said: "One thing to consider is perhaps expanding what constitutes "your" stories. How would you feel about incorporating some interesting stories of your fellow cab drivers? I don't want you to go James Frey on us but, seeing as how the blog is about "Las Vegas Cabbies," I don't think it would be disingenuous to go this route."

I'll try and explain to you guys what I tried to explain to Sully. Although he was the first to bring it up here, this is not a new idea. This was mentioned about two years before the blog was even started, when I was just passing the stories on to e-friends. One of those people brought it up (sorry can't remember who). It's a great idea though. I've thought about it many times and dismissed it every time. There are many reasons for this...

The main one I will cite here is anonymity. Believe it or not, none of my co-workers are aware of this blog. I never told a soul about it. Save a few message boards the stories were getting posted on, my email contact list and whomever I handed a business card to, I never told anyone about the blog. I purposely wanted to remain anonymous at the yard and on the road in general. For many reasons. Mainly because I think I can write better like that. The idea of posting something and then a whole bunch of people at the yard asking me about it the next day irks me. I think for me, being lost in the crowd lends itself to being an honest teller.

That said, my anonymous days are numbered. I've already been outed once. Three months ago, by my boss of all people. Thankfully he seemed cool about it. In this vein you may have noticed that I have removed one of the few pictures on this blog and the crash videos also. These efforts are futile because it won't be long until the cat is out of the bag. To date, the desire to remain private makes it hard to ask other drivers to contribute stories. And I don't want to steal shit that I've overheard or whatever. That said, I had a "sit down" with the boss who outed me before two days ago. I requested the meeting specifically to discuss this blog and any potential problems I may run into from the companies perspective during the new LVCC free-form jazz odyssey approach. Plus I wanted to see if he had told anyone. ...The specifics of that meeting will be the topic of my next post so we'll save that.

I will say to close on this for now however, I have heard and overheard some really great fuckin stories over the years that I've thought many times that I would love to tell. I mean, a few tweaks here and there and there could be some quality stuff around here.


And always keep in mind folks that we're in the midst of a free-form jazz odyssey here. Sometimes it is going to suck. It just won't be right for some reason. The groove, it won't be happening. But there are other times. Sometimes the bass and the drums are going to get hooked up and the band is going to be so hot, the lights just perfect, and the buzz just beautiful. Hell, we may even have a moment or two.