LIB Part 1: Food is Beautiful
The Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas during the last weekend of October was a celebration of much more than just music. It highlighted so many of the riches in its name, Life: art, rock and roll, social entrepreneurship, community, and best of all...
One of the best parts of Chelsea's and my weekend in Las Vegas during LIB was all of the amazing eating, snacking and drinking we did throughout the Festival. It all began with our decision to stay in on Friday night, in preparation for the two straights days of debauchery and music-intake that we had ahead of us. We settled on ordering pizza and hydrating - with water only - because we thought we had a valid excuse to carbo-load. Pop-Up Pizza, circa LV, brought us two individual (yet definitely 12") pan pizzas that night, mine with spinach, soft white cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted POTATOES. What?!
Some of the local places we tried included Nacho Daddy on Friday-day, the hip Tex-Mex bar and grill (that also provides noms on the go, as seen at LIB) which was started by Downtown mogul and Zappos visionary, Tony Hsieh. I had a delicious and ranch-y chipotle salad, afterward regretting that I hadn't gone with a classic burrito, like Chelsea's roommate Leah. Then there was Pop-Up Pizza. At the Festival on Saturday, we tried trendy, gourmet snacks like pretzel bites with provolone fondue - so to-die-for that we got them first thing upon arriving Sunday - and rock shrimp macaroni and cheese, served in paper Solo bowls as the perfect evening snack as the sun went down during Festival, Day 1.
Then, Sunday: we drank everything under the sun, from Grapefruit and Elderberry ale from Original Sin (with our new lover-boys from Utah) to iced mochas from the cafe & smoothie tent manned by new best friends we had met Saturday during our afternoon pick-me-up (see below). We switched to sit-down cocktails at Atomic Liquor that evening, this mostly rundown hole-in-the-wall which the Festival staff had transformed for press and VIP only for the weekend; they were even providing WiFi! Before our Instagram binge after two days of LTE-deprivation, we chose fresh strawberry & gin fizzes, that thankfully the bartender gladly helped transfer into plastic cups so that we could enjoy them while anxiously awaiting the on-stage arrival of Janelle Monae... who ultimately appeared in a somehow-sexy, all-white straightjacket. She was wheeled on-stage like a forcefully paralyzed maniac. A maniac she ended up being!
One of the highlights of our time together at Life is Beautiful was the second evening, Sunday, as Chels and I rested our butts against the chain-link fence that guarded the glowing Ferris Wheel aside the Ambassador Stage. Zedd himself was spinning a few of our current faves, Clarity and Stay the Night included, and we were indulging in nothing more than two, mid-sized and seven-dollars-each slices of veggie pizza. This was at the peak of our hunger, bliss and fatigue. As we sat there beneath our straw fedora [hers] and sock monkey [mine] hats, quietly relishing in the ridiculousness of our weekend as well as the clarity in that peaceful moment, Chelsea seemingly read my mind. She said something to the likes of:
My thoughts exactly.
I guess this is why Aristotle said that "best friends are a single soul dwelling in two bodies." Our single soul dwells in two, shamelessly easy-to-please stomachs, too.
FOOD.
One of the best parts of Chelsea's and my weekend in Las Vegas during LIB was all of the amazing eating, snacking and drinking we did throughout the Festival. It all began with our decision to stay in on Friday night, in preparation for the two straights days of debauchery and music-intake that we had ahead of us. We settled on ordering pizza and hydrating - with water only - because we thought we had a valid excuse to carbo-load. Pop-Up Pizza, circa LV, brought us two individual (yet definitely 12") pan pizzas that night, mine with spinach, soft white cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted POTATOES. What?!
Then, Sunday: we drank everything under the sun, from Grapefruit and Elderberry ale from Original Sin (with our new lover-boys from Utah) to iced mochas from the cafe & smoothie tent manned by new best friends we had met Saturday during our afternoon pick-me-up (see below). We switched to sit-down cocktails at Atomic Liquor that evening, this mostly rundown hole-in-the-wall which the Festival staff had transformed for press and VIP only for the weekend; they were even providing WiFi! Before our Instagram binge after two days of LTE-deprivation, we chose fresh strawberry & gin fizzes, that thankfully the bartender gladly helped transfer into plastic cups so that we could enjoy them while anxiously awaiting the on-stage arrival of Janelle Monae... who ultimately appeared in a somehow-sexy, all-white straightjacket. She was wheeled on-stage like a forcefully paralyzed maniac. A maniac she ended up being!
One of the highlights of our time together at Life is Beautiful was the second evening, Sunday, as Chels and I rested our butts against the chain-link fence that guarded the glowing Ferris Wheel aside the Ambassador Stage. Zedd himself was spinning a few of our current faves, Clarity and Stay the Night included, and we were indulging in nothing more than two, mid-sized and seven-dollars-each slices of veggie pizza. This was at the peak of our hunger, bliss and fatigue. As we sat there beneath our straw fedora [hers] and sock monkey [mine] hats, quietly relishing in the ridiculousness of our weekend as well as the clarity in that peaceful moment, Chelsea seemingly read my mind. She said something to the likes of:
"Cory. We are sitting on asphalt eating a fucking slice of pizza, and I could not be happier."
My thoughts exactly.
I guess this is why Aristotle said that "best friends are a single soul dwelling in two bodies." Our single soul dwells in two, shamelessly easy-to-please stomachs, too.
To eating beautifully!
The two of us, post-pizza and pre-Empire of the Sun! #ecstatic
I seriously love this post so much, Cor. I know it's only part 1 of (hopefully!) many, but it was the perfect post to begin our epic weekend recap. I'm not as brave as you right now to write down all my feelings from the weekend - I'm afraid it might bring me to tears that it's over. But your post has inspired me to get off my ass and face the emotions head-on. Love you so much.
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