Notes on Session Two

There are several points to register in this pair of readings ( a particularly good one in my opinion, for the sum is far greater than the two parts). The first is to realise that while Dave Hickey doesn't think he's writing theory, he is espousing one, and meanwhile in his enjoyment of simple pleasures; 'walking down the street in your own choice of attire' or the move 'from food to cocktail' at first we can hardly disagree with him. His presentation of Las Vegas as the epitome of the American Dream is hence reasonable; surely a much better place to reside, if you are a bit rock n' roll, than 'fucking Ithaca'.
And Hickey is very rock n' roll. I illustrated that if you read around his work, you will discover he has become more candid about his past with age; he's done a lot in more ways than one, and survived. He also couldn't give a damn what other people think, and this is a laudable quality that seems to come with age. Further reading around Hickey also tells us he left Las Vegas when the corporations took over, and when his maverick status became untenable at the university. So there lies the question; was Las Vegas as good as he said it was, and what has it become now and where has the American Dream gone?
If Hickey enjoys the old American Dream, Mike Davis clearly doesn't. He dislikes Las Vegas as much as he dislikes Dubai, and is happy to compare the two in a way that, if we follow Hickey (and Trotsky for that matter as quoted by Davis) is impossible. This brings up a the question of 'content' in architecture (see Zaha) and the vacuity we tend to see in Dubai, where a feudal government has appended a modernity without the associated principles. The fact that Diarmuid Gavin, famous for his love of plants, was hired to promote the city of sand on UK TV, says it all.
Unfortunately Davis can write less well about either Las Vegas or Dubai than Hickey might, and we can learn from that too. His opening paragraphs, for starters, a science fiction parody, are rather cumbersome (look and see where, precisely, they are cumbersome). However, Davis provides us with useful information, good facts, and we are greatful for that, because Dubai not a pleasant scenario, or is it? Perhaps it's difficult to care? Tell me.