suffice it to say i’m in the grand hyatt in downtown denver, staying in a suite, and about ready to collapse.

i had an interesting conversation regarding race relations in the US with the taxi driver on the way in from the airport, but i’ll have to address it later.

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb…

Last session complete. Back in the hotel room for a bit, then off to Denver.

I managed a first class upgrade for that leg of the trip — God, do I need it.

More from Denver later.

and figure I might as well stay up now…

Scanning the headlines, this little item caught my eye:

Seminole Nation of Florida to buy Hard Rock Cafe and Casino Chain

That’s a lot of money. Considering that at one point the whole island of Manhattan went for about 40 dollars worth of blankets and beads, I’d say that the state of Native American business affairs has changed a lot.

(NOTE: add sarcasm to taste.)

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I’m missing a sock. Anyone see it?

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I’m listening to my local (Boston) NPR affiliate while sitting in Dallas, thanks to the magic of Internet streaming.

In my car, I’ve got XM radio so I can listen to the same national stations wherever I am in the country.

I like my streaming radio, I like my satellite radio — but I do wonder sometimes whether or not there’s a diminishment of the sense of place inherent in all these technological breakthroughs.

It’s just like the sense of time. I used to be able to tell time by what TV show was on, and the idea of “appointment TV” was understood. We don’t have that anymore, what with TiVO, DVR, DVDs of series, etc.

Do you think the rise of reality TV and its live finales is related to the idea of trying to salvage appointment TV? The idea that people will stay home and tune in to see the final result?

XM has a slogan: “Everything, all the time.” I’m not sure what that concept means to us these days, even as it becomes more and more of a reality.

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I think I’ll go take a shower and get dressed.

Like the subject line says…

The open mike was excellent. There’s a cat there named Sh-Boom who does some fun wordplay stuff — don’t always love the subject matter, but it’s well done and usually pretty funny.

A guy named Javier did a love poem that had hearts melting all over the audience, including mine.

Corbet Dean was the feature, and his two sets were great. His love poem trilogy was a nice departure. He’s a hell of a performer, of course, and tonight it shone through.

I read one piece in the open mike, doing “The Radioactive Artist” by request. I was struck and amazed, as always, by finding people in the audience who knew the poem before hearing me read it. I’ll never get used to that.

The slam was also quite good, and was won by Colin Gilbert who completely deserved the win. His MS poem is a new favorite of mine.

At the end of the night, I did “Mission Statement” which fulfilled a dream of mine. The Dallas slam has used the poem often in the past and pretty much everyone in the room knew it, so getting to read it in a room that’s made it a staple was a humbling and wonderful experience. It’s nice to know that you’ve touched people with your work, especially people you’ve never met.

Now to bed — got to train in the AM (setting up the room at 6AM!) and then off to Denver in the PM to do it all again. Whee!

God, I miss being home.