Field+Trip+to+Sandia+Casino

Map, Directions: On 1-25 take exit 234, and proceed East (turn right). The casino is visible to the North. just past the first light Here is a link to the Sandia Casino Website - look it over: http://www.sandiacasino.com/default.asp

We meet at six at the Kiva Coffee shop which is in the Hotel Lobby. My phone number is 505-573-1656

// Your job is to explore and experience The Casino/Resore deciding how to create a story setting that is accurate and compelling. Do some of the exercises below. The coffee shop is a place where you can sit and write. We will use it as a staging area for explorations. //

Here are some exploration possibilities (obviously no one can do all of these - look over the list and follow your inclinations in your explorations:
 * In the parking lot note what you can about the automobiles (ie preponderance of new vs old cars, NM licenses vs licenses from elsewhere, bumper stickers, etc.)
 * Do a systematic exploration of the facility or a section of the facility noting the arrangement and utilization of space.
 * Talk to an employee about his/her job. Find out what you would have to do to get a job at the casino/resort,
 * The casino is, for most of us, a cultural novelty. There are plenty of aspects of the setting, however, that are familiar. List several of these:
 * List Several aspects of the setting that are novel to you.
 * Imagine the casino, the hotel or the golf course as the setting for a story or story segment. What aspects of the casino would you choose to mention if the story had as a topic or approach:
 * Native American Reservation economics
 * Gambling addiction
 * The place of gambling in the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Community
 * Promotional Jackpot winners - life after the big win
 * Casino Culture, New Mexico style
 * A Romance in the Romance literary genre
 * International intrigue
 * Adult relationships as explored in literary fiction
 * The setting as a model for an intergalactic recreation station (Think of the Creature Cantina from Star Wars)
 * Tragedy (as in the unavoidable relentless downward spiral with a fatal flaw at the center)
 * Comedy (in the classic sense - with misadventures misunderstandings and missed opportunities finally resolved in marriage)
 * Light Humor
 * Gambling and organized crime.
 * The pressures on marriages in the 21st century
 * The resort as an entertaining, affordable and convenient weekend type get-away for Albuquerqueans
 * The casino as a cultural crossroads
 * Note the arrangement of the games and the sorts of people playing the various games - any patterns?
 * Learn the rules of a game you do not know by watching it (as best you can, of course)
 * Note what people do when they win and when they lose - any patterns?
 * Note the play of your emotions and the situations that seem to move them. What arouses
 * anger
 * pity
 * disgust
 * amusement
 * empathy
 * envy
 * respect
 * admiration
 * curiousity

Occasionally touch bases with me and your peers in the seminar (Change phone numbers and stay in contact). Compare notes, share stories, note comparisons and contrasts in terms of what you noticed and how you focus your attention.

Homework: Begin a fictitious or non-fiction story with the casino as the setting or backdrop. Write at least 200 words into the story, developing at least one character, and specifying the situation the story would explore if continued.