Flamingo Wash: The Era of Electromagnetic Radiation in Small Las Vegas

An Interview with author Anthony Bondi

If you’re lucky enough to have Anthony Bondi materialize in front of you, consider yourself a winner! You, my friend, hit the jackpot and will not be going home empty-handed.

Anthony Bondi, known by friends as Tony, is a Las Vegas native, born and raised. His digital collages and staged photography have been widely shown throughout multiple Nevada galleries. For many years he was known for large-scale surreal interactive sculptures at Burning Man. In 2014, Tony was a featured correspondent on the Las Vegas episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. Now, in 2025, Tony has written his long anticipated memoir, Flamingo Wash: The Era of Electromagnetic Radiation In Small Las Vegas. An in-depth  narrative of his life, as well as a subcultural chronicle of a constantly evolving Las Vegas. A unique, yet to be told experience perceived through the eyes of an artist who continues to explore everything artistic Sin City has to offer.

There are very few legends left in this world, and even fewer you can befriend. Artists and raconteurs have crawled out from under their red rocks, their rainforest roots, and their warehouse rubble, seeking the historical stories Tony gives out freely. His stories rumble from his chest with all the force of a monsoon, roaring and crackling in surround sound. Stories that have been collected, curated and told to not only entertain, but deliver a bit of knowledge, dare I say it, enlightenment. But enlightenment is like a high desert mirage. It ripples and shimmers so you can see it, but to reach it is a delusion. Nonetheless, Tony has seen it all and has kept pretty damn good notes. Generations of DIY artists, avant-garde psychonauts, passionate poets, gutter punk philosophers, and coffee shop activists, all those who dance on the outer limits and graffiti the establishment, consider Tony Bondi a legend. 

His ability to weave sentences together with threads of history, surrealism, comedy and a thick cord of sarcastic criticism is unmatched. He can spin a tale to an enthralled group of people, while at the same time mumbling and giggling a completely different story to himself. Sometimes pulling it off like a ventriloquist, other times fooling no one, which only entertains him more. But where Tony goes above and beyond mere mortals, and why he is so revered by those in the know, is because of his uncontrollable ability to spread kindness.

When Tony materialized in my bookstore, my life changed forever. Tony loves to read and has been doing so feverishly from the day he could pick up a book. He can talk about every art movement known to civilization and at the same time, give you a history lesson as to why the movement was happening and what the political scene was like at the time. Whether it’s cult movies or cults, outlaws or corrupt politicians, revolutionaries or heroines, Tony Bondi has a story to share. As someone who not only loves to tell stories but also hear them, I was immediately enthralled by Tony. Every week or so Tony would pop by and we would drift away into whatever current affair or latest craziness the world was dishing out. Laughing at the insanity until a customer or two would come in. Then Tony would slip out and be gone with the wind.

One day Tony invited me and my wife to his home and gave us the grand tour. Outside, we inspected his interactive Burning Man installations in the back years. Inside, he pulled out unbelievable books to show us and opened draws upon draws full of art. Decades of work that he made and collected. Every book, every work of art, every corner of Tony’s home has a story that goes with it, and if you have the time, Tony will happily share. We sat in his living room, drinking beers, puffing on a joint from time to time, and talking. That was the first of many visits that I have made to sit and talk with Tony, and I plan on having many, many more.

When hard times hit the bookstore, Tony donated boxes of books and magazines. But these weren’t just any books and magazines, these were rare, counter culture, art, and unique books and magazines that happy collectors were more than happy to take off our hands, and pay a premium. This was at a time when we really needed a financial boost, and these books helped keep the doors open. To this day, Tony continues to donate unbelievable books to us.

Tony and I hung out a few nights together at the bookstore murdering books, too. We sat at a table with stacks of books filled with illustrations and photographs in front of us and one by one; we ripped them from their spines and pulled out their paper limbs, discarding their covers like bones and piling up their pretty pictures to be used later at a collage event. Being the collage king, I thought Tony might want to come to the event, or even lead the event, but the only thing Tony wanted to do was murder the books, the rest was beyond him. So murder we committed and let me tell you, it was a massacre. In each book, Tony would find something that would spin him off into a fascinating story about the person, place, or thing. I would find myself laughing hysterically or just sitting in awe as his words roared like a tractor digging up history for me to consume.

When you spend a certain amount of time with someone you thoroughly enjoy, someone who has filled your mind with information and set fire to your imagination, there are so many questions that have been answered. But for this interview, there was really only three questions that I had….

Shwa: So Tony, what inspired you to write Flamingo Wash?

Tony: Why write Flamingo Wash? With few stories told about Las Vegas between the 1940s and 2000, people who live here now can't be faulted for assuming that old Vegas was much like any small US town. But Vegas was an oddity of a town that doubled in size over and over, decade after decade. And what kind of people saw hundreds of atom bombs go off up the road, and never ran away? Shall we assume that their kids never caught some of the fever those people had, or their kids' kids? We may not know where it came from anymore but that oddity is still here. Also true is that anyone with experience of those days could write a story such as I have and their stories would have no overlap with mine.

Shwa: You shared your memories and personal experiences in this book. Was writing Flamingo Wash a cathartic experience?

Tony: The revelation for me was in thinking for the first time about the oddity that as a child I was surrounded by deception. I was taught to trust crooks. I knew it but never thought about it before. The dramatic arc for me in the writing was becoming ever more doubtful about my own memories.

Shwa: What do you foresee being the next underground immersive cultural happenings for the future of Las Vegas art community?

Tony: Underground immersive... The go-to principle here is mucous. Skidoo, miasma. Skedaddle. 

Thank you, Tony. This is the answer I was hoping for from a surreal radiated artist who has spent more time under the High Desert sun than the rest of us. 

You can purchase Flamingo Wash: The Era of Electromagnetic Radiation In Small Las Vegas by Anthony Bondi at avantpopbooks.com/flamingowash