Word: neon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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What do artists want? To live and work cheaply in a free-and-easy atmosphere. At the dawn of the 20th century Paris was the place for them. It was fun: it had cabarets, cafés, dance halls, bars, brothels, an underground railway, even neon lights. The artists gathered in steep and semi-rural Montmartre and later in Montparnasse, St. Germain des Près and the Latin Quarter. Groups of friends evolved into artistic movements, each with an "-ism" of its own. Even World War I couldn't cramp the city's style. "Paris, Capital of the Arts...
...relative affluence and sophistication that they enjoy today," writes Tenzing. A Sherpa, working as a high-altitude climber, can make four times the average annual wage of a Nepali. Namche Bazaar, the trading capital of the Khumbu Valley, once comprising a few dozen mud houses, now features neon lights, sophisticated communications systems and blaring rock music. The Khumbu is dotted with medical clinics and schools. But the climbing and trekking industry has brought with it the erosion of the traditional trading and farming life and the ills of rapid growth: drugs, inflation, deforestation...
...think Las Vegas is a quicksand of tasteless glitz and shameless spectacle. So does Dave Hickey, who figures that makes it the perfect place for art. Visual thrills are a local industry, mile-high neon and fake pyramids just part of the scenery. "Vegas aspires to visibility," he says. "Art is an extension and refinement of what Vegas is about...
...Shibuya district of Tokyo is a teen mecca by day, by night a neon-signed playground of drinking holes and sex clubs for adult men looking for a good time. Mai and Rika hang here round the clock, part of a new fad sweeping up very young Japanese girls. It's called puchi iede, or "petite runaway." Home is what they're running from. Shibuya, with its 24-7 excitements and black-lit havens, is freedom central. "Petite" refers not to the size of the runaway, though many are mere wisps on the cusp of puberty, but to the short...
...decent after-hours bite to eat? As Joe wonders around the Square he becomes increasingly desperate; the nacho cheese hot dog rolls at 7-11 are beginning to look appealing. As his search for sustanence continues, Joe notices a bright blue and red neon sign piercing through the darkness...