Matthew O'Brien

The Browser interview

The literary website the Browser asked me to pick my five favorite Las Vegas books, focusing mostly on nonfiction titles. Here are my choices:

http://thebrowser.com/interviews/matthew-o’brien-on-las-vegas

Grad school update

So, I applied to six MFA creative writing programs: Iowa, Texas, UC Irvine, UNLV, Washington and Arizona. In the spring, I’ll know where I got in and what funding is available, and I’ll go from there. Very excited about the prospects!

I’ll keep you updated, of course.

Fade Sag Crumble makes top-10 list

A month after The Guardian included Fade Sag Crumble on its Ten of the Best Books Set in Las Vegas list, Chuck Twardy of the Las Vegas Weekly named it one of the top-ten books of 2011. Yeah, it’s number 10, but still …

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2011/dec/29/2011-year-review-books-strip-and-sports/

Quick Christmas follow-up

Spent a few hours in the underground flood channels on Christmas Day, giving out bottled water, clothes, gift cards, toiletries and other items, with the help of a former tunnel resident. The people we encountered were, as usual, polite and appreciative. Thanks to Ted at Lynn’s World consignment store, my sister Cathy, my friends David and Molly and my Facebook friend Karine Projean for their generous donations!

Christmas in the tunnels

I’m going to be in Vegas for the holidays and am planning a Christmas Day trip into the underground flood channels. Want to give out knit caps, socks, books, flashlights, AA and AAA batteries, blankets, canned goods, gift cards (Target, McDonald’s, Walmart), etc. If you’d like to contribute new or gently used items, please let me know.

Thanks and happy holidays!

Free shipping and no taxes!

If you’d like a copy of my books Beneath the Neon or My Week at the Blue Angel (www.beneaththeneon.com) or Fade Sag Crumble (www.fadesagcrumble.com), a new collection I contributed to, for yourself or to give as a gift, message me or send me an e-mail. I can sign or personalize the books and ship them for the list price: $20 for Beneath the Neon and $15 for My Week at the Blue Angel and Fade Sag Crumble.

Thanks!

KNPR interview

I was on KNPR this morning, with attorney/writer Dayvid Figler and CityLife Editor Scott Dickensheets, talking about the 40^th anniversary of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

http://www.knpr.org/son/archive/detail2.cfm?SegmentID=8391&ProgramID=2378

HP’s holiday catalog

My publisher’s 2011 holiday catalog:

http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/catalog2011.pdf

Fade Sag Crumble in The Guardian

Malcolm Burgess, writing for The Guardian, included Fade Sag Crumble in his Ten of the Best Books Set in Las Vegas list. True, he left out some worthy titles (e.g., How I Got Cultured and Lay the Favorite). And I disagree with some of his selections (The Desert Rose and The Cold Six Thousand). But it’s a nice acknowledgement, nonetheless, for the collection.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/nov/16/top-10-books-las-vegas

Fade Sag Crumble book info

More info on the book I contributed to, Fade Sag Crumble: Ten Las Vegas Writers Confront Decay.

http://fadesagcrumble.com/

Blue Angel Motel update

An update on possible changes at the Blue Angel Motel and surrounding area, with quotes from your favorite former Blue Angel tenant. I was worried that I came across as insensitive when quoted as saying, “There is clearly a market for that kind of clientele.” (Of course, if that’s how I worded it, I simply meant Hispanics.) Then I read the comments at the bottom of the story and was, once again, appalled by how ignorant and insensitive some folks can be.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/developer-has-plans-for-latino-music-venue-downtown-132873418.html

Hall of Fame and Silver Pen news release

Here’s the news release for this year’s Hall of Fame and Silver Pen Award ceremony (copy and paste the link, if necessary):

http://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2011/nevada-writers-hall-of-fame-honors-cowboy-poet-waddie-mitchell

Book launch follow-up

All-around solid event: well-attended, smoothly moderated and some great readings. Thanks to everyone who was there (and apparently missed one of the most exciting World Series games ever).

Fade Sag Crumble on the radio

The local NPR affiliate’s State of Nevada program featuring me, Fade Sag Crumble editor Scott Dickensheets and two other contributors, Lynnette Curtis and Andrew Kiraly:

http://www.knpr.org/son/archive/detail2.cfm?SegmentID=8291&ProgramID=2350

Short story writer for hire

My good friend (and one of my favorite writers from the old CityLife days) Saab Lofton is looking for work. Check out this description of what he does:

http://emilypothast.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/last-minute-holiday-gift-idea/

Fade Sag Crumble book launch

I contributed an essay to the book Fade Sag Crumble: Ten Las Vegas Writers Confront Decay. My essay, “The Sky’s the Limit,” tries to make some sense of the section of Las Vegas Boulevard between Sahara and Fremont, which I’ve long been fascinated with and where I’ve lived since the beginning of the year. The opening of the piece is posted below.

To launch the book, the editor (Scott Dickensheets) and contributors (Andrew Kiraly, Jarret Keene, Stacy Willis and others) are participating in a panel discussion at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, at the Clark County Library Theater (on Flamingo Road just east of Maryland Parkway). The event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing and reception.

See you there!

“The Sky’s the Limit”

1.

On this stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, a pawnshop is the star. Many of the buildings are “Available”—and so are many of the men and women. People, typically supported by cables, throw themselves off the Stratosphere tower. Heirlooms are passed down not to a son or daughter, but a silhouette at the night window.

For a few years, Helldorado was held on this stretch of the Boulevard; now, a much more somber parade marches up and down it. The procession has some baggage, literally and figuratively. It’s tough to tell who’s talking to their headsets and who’s talking to themselves. There’s crazy … and then there’s downtown crazy.

This street is “unique as a peacock,” said the EZPAWN salesman—and at least as colorful. It’s an outstretched arm reaching for modern Las Vegas, said journalist John L. Smith, but can’t quite touch it. It’s a reality check, said a man renting scooters to tourists just north of Sahara Avenue (the line of demarcation).

It’s the wrong side of Sahara. Our Land That Time Forgot. A blind spot of local historians. Terra incognita. This is where the 9/11 terrorists stayed. This is where underground gambling dens become dry cleaners, and wedding chapels become art galleries run by the disabled. This is where 100-year-old men marry 32-year-old women.

Here, you can meet the love of your life (Downtown Cocktail Room), buy a wedding ring (Ace Jewelers), propose (top of the Stratosphere), get a prenup (John Peter Lee Ltd.), marry (Little White Wedding Chapel), get his-and-her tattoos (Precious Slut), consummate the marriage (Oasis Motel), spice up your sex life (Talk of the Town) and, if all else fails, file for divorce (Callister + Associates).

Elvis scored drugs here (of course, that can be said of a lot of places in town). If there’s a Homeless Elvis—and I’m betting there is—he hustles on these swastika-scarred sidewalks. He wakes at 9:30 a.m. on a newspaper bed in a lot formerly occupied by an hourly motel, blue suede shoes tucked under a soiled pillow. He runs a comb through his hair, cracks a crooked smile, then falls back asleep.

Books and a guitar follow-up

We got the books to Mike awhile back. Finally got him the guitar. Special thanks to Alison in Kansas City for paying for the guitar, which Mike and I picked out at a pawnshop.

Nevada Review Q&A

Thanks, Rich!

On Twitter

Silver Pen Award

My books in French

Thanks!

Dear, Decatur Book Fest attendees: Thanks for making my homecoming and birthday weekend a very special one! Nice turnout at the talk, sold some books and drank some beer and caught up with friends and family. Good times! Much love!

Books and a guitar

Following the July floods, having lost everything but the clothes on their back, a few folks from a drain under the south Strip got in HELP of Southern Nevada’s program. One of them, Mike (mid-50s, chronically homeless, drug-addicted), is now clean and living in a one-bedroom apartment near UNLV. I dropped by yesterday and was impressed: a comfortable couch, static-free TV, and full-size bed (which beats the hell out of the chaise lounge he slept on in the tunnel for several months). The only things he really needs, he said, are some readable nonfiction or thriller titles and an acoustic guitar. (He’s a musician who used to play on the pedestrian overpasses for tips; no crazy costume necessary.)

If you have books you can spare or a guitar you can donate or that I can buy for cheap, and you can meet me downtown in the next few days, let me know. Thanks.

Book fest release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 2, 2011

Former Atlantan Shines a Light on the Darker Recesses of Las Vegas

Matthew O’Brien, who graduated from Decatur High School in 1988, is returning over Labor Day Weekend to participate in the 2011 Decatur Book Festival. Matt will read from and discuss his latest book, My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas (Huntington Press, 2010), a collection of creative-nonfiction stories set in the darker corners of Sin City that most visitors, and even Las Vegas locals, seldom see or hear about.

O’Brien, who played on Georgia State University's 1991 NCAA tournament basketball team, moved to Las Vegas in 1997 and quickly became one of the city's best-known journalists. In 2007 he authored his first book, Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas, which garnered international interest and acclaim for chronicling the city’s underground flood-channel culture, which he explored for more than four years after discovering a subterranean parallel universe co-existing beneath the bright lights of the famous Las Vegas Strip.

Matt is also founder of Shine a Light, a community project that provides housing, drug counseling, and other services to the hundreds of people who live in the drains. The project is a collaboration between O'Brien and charity organization HELP of Southern Nevada.

Matt’s reading and talk will take place from 11:15 a.m.-12 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, in the auditorium of Decatur High School. He will sign copies of both books immediately afterward.

For more information, visit www.beneaththeneon.com or contact Jessica Roe at 702-252-0655 or jessica@huntingtonpress.com.