If you’re not much into gambling while in Las Vegas, then find a table, enjoy the view and people-watch. From prime locations just off the boulevard, grab a refreshing drink, some hot salsa and chips and enjoy the scene from Diablos Cantina 2-story Mexican restaurant located at the Monte Carlo Resort; down a cold brew at Nine Fine Irishmen, located at New York New York. These two joints will give you plenty of time to scrutinize the crowd below. Las Vegas’s central strip has Planet Hollywood, which offers 2 fantastic views of the Fountains of Bellagio and the City Center complex next to the MGM Mirage. While there, grab a fresh Pina Colada at Hawaiian Tropic Zone and people watch from the outdoor patio, you’ll be impressed with watching the servers as well.

If you’ve had enough people watching, then travel the world and enjoy the scrumptious French cuisine at Mon Ami Gabi inside Paris Las Vegas, or at Paris, go to Ah Sin, which serves unique Pacific Rim dishes as you sit at the foot of the Eiffel Tower . Across and down the street is Caesars Palace, which just opened its newest dining restaurant, Serendipity 3, offering award-winning cuisine and fantastic desserts. But, if you’re looking for a private dining experience with that special someone, you must try any of Wynn’s Las Vegas’s Bartolotta, SW Steakhouse and Okada, which all overlook a private lake and all feature award-winning cuisine.

Night time shines a whole new light on Las Vegas, even the hotel in Las Vegas you’re staying at will transform into a hot-spot, especially if you’re staying at Caesars Palace, Wynn’s or Treasure Island. In Vegas, it just doesn’t matter if you don’t gamble, because people watching, outdoor dining and the astounding nightlife will guarantee that you have the best time ever and remember ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’.

Florida is a fantastic place to go to get away from it all.  You can find yourself alone with the ocean in a number of places, and you can also get involved in some lively local scenes.  There are places that are very secluded, with exotic natural settings that speak to the quiet part of the soul, but there are also places that are just buzzing with human activity.  The bigger cities have a lot to offer, just as much as the quiet spots on the beach.  It’s one thing to come here to become part of a scene, however, and quite another if you’re coming here to do research for a part you’re playing when the part is an old man who is sort of a lot like Hemingway or whatever.

I found a place to get hotels here that my friend recommended, and I decided to go right into Miami, because I knew I’d be spending a lot of time alone, but I also wanted to have the option to be around people if I started to feel crazy.  I’m trained in the old-school way of acting, where you have to inhabit the character from the inside.  So that if I’m playing the part of an old man, I have to understand what it’s like to be old.  So I spend part of the morning meditating on gravity until I feel really heavy, and I try to have as many memories as I can so my head is full and I can’t remember much more than what my head is already full of.

Then I put on a fake beard and talk with a raspy voice and I am almost ready.  The day was much easier than the night because I could get an inner image of Robert Duvall, and what would he do if he were me playing this part, in my head.  And I also tried to think about peanuts, because that’s all my grandfather talks about.  I am not so sure why, but I think something might be wrong.  The day is great because I can hang at the beach and no one’s asking too much, but then at night I’m so bored and I go out to the club and someone is approaching me and wants to know what’s with the beard.  I don’t want to talk about it, because an old man wouldn’t want to talk about the beard, because he is above such things.  Before the night is out, I am not very popular, but tomorrow night I might go to the senior center and see if bingo is better than techno for meeting people, in my state.

These are the moments when the world seems out of balance just enough that things might get interesting again.  If it were not for Marlon Brando sending Sasheen Littlefeather to accept his Oscar in 1973, we wouldn’t have the precedent.  But interrupted award speeches making news faster than brilliant award speeches, and that’s just further proof that the public is easily amused, or that there is something in the water here that makes us naturally like rebellion in most any form.

With rises to fame as sudden and as sure as Taylor Swift, rank systems are necessary to keep track of just how famous can someone be in a life.  There are no good methods for quantifying fame or success, because the money never indicates more than luck or some well-considered initial investments.  It could be that the best indicator would be a scale of complete unknown to Muhammad Ali.  He can walk into any city or town on the planet and be instantly recognized by enough people that he can draw a crowd everywhere.  Taylor Swift may not have the same capacity, and maybe never will, but at this particular moment there are few places she can go without being a superstar.

It’s an interesting and precarious position, but at the moment, things seem to be moving in her direction very nicely.  It would also seem that this level of fame can bring some interesting twists, if she and her posse decide to take the challenge seriously.  As it was evident on the awards show, she didn’t have to do anything but be interrupted and her numbers increased.  With a little bit of attention, she and Kanye can move some spectacular mountains in their corner of reality, a corner which is increasingly interesting to the world at large.