ITunes just delivered me “Stairway To Heaven” (yes, the Zep version–no cracks) followed by “Pope” by Prince.

Hmmmm.

And it just flipped into “The Immigrant Song.” Is it possible that Shuffle is telling me to get the Led out?

And how does Prince fit into that?

I just had a vision of Prince doing “Stairway.” With that pistolero microphone and the Pegasus guitar.

As if to reinforce the Freakiness Factor…I am now listening to The Pixies’ “There Goes My Gun.”

Hmmmm. Again.

ETA: pinata has posted that Prince is performing at the Super Bowl halftime. Let’s take bets: What songs will he be performing? I suggest we choose three.

I’ll start: “Darling Nikki,” “Housequake,” “Head.” Gotta go with the classics in order to make sure the crowd knows them.

Your turn.

AND, for the record: I took the MBTI test that’s going around as a meme…it said I was an INTP, which is what’s it’s said everytime I’ve taken it in the last 15 years. It also said I’m a “Loser” and they’re wrong…I prefer to think of myself as “success-challenged.”

I’m home and in the process of sorting out clothes and receipts from the trip.

Denver was a cool city, what little I saw of it. The conference room where I did the training had two full walls of windows and was on the 35th floor of a downtown building — I had a full view of the Rockies for the entire session, and it was hard to concentrate. Gotta get back some time and spend a few hours or more with friends like oni_express.

The taxcicab conversation I alluded to earlier was with a distinguished and learned gentleman from Ethiopia who’d been in the country since 1972. We discussed the world situation, the conflicts between Islam and the West, and the state of race relations in the US and how they’ve changed in his view. We were stuck in traffic for a bit so we could really talk. I love getting drivers with whom you can have a great conversation. Our best discussion was about his (and my) concerns that the overlooked variable in Iraq is the Kurdish situation — how Kurdish autonomy and the PKK werre viewed as a threat by Tukey, Iran, and others, and have the potential to be a slow burning fuse to ignite a far more widespread conflict.

Flights were uneventful, even if connections were a bit hurried. I did a lot of fast walking on already tired feet.

More later, gang — I’ve got paperwork to do if I want to get paid on time. 🙂

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.

The Myspace page now has a new MP3 on it.

It’s a hotel room recording of “Punk.” I need a good live version of it, but this will hold y’all, I think. Enjoy.

Thus ends my marathon posting day. Beddy bye now…

Some of you may recall that last year, just about this time, I ended up doing a meeting at the most overwhelming hotel/resort/convention center/monument to excess I’d ever been in.

Sumbitch, I’m there again.

http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylordtexan/facts/

Click around the site to truly appreciate the, um, grandeur.

1. Leave for Dallas Tuesday @ noon.

2. Train in Dallas Wednesday and Thursday — replacing trainer whose father died

3. Dallas slam visit Wednesday night

4. Thursday PM fly to Denver — trainer replacement as above

5. Train in Denver Friday AM

6. Fly home Friday PM

Busy, but finally getting paid. 🙂

I haven’t done a Zero Point Zero column for a while, and am not sure if I will again — it doesn’t seem to me to add anything else to the Gotpoetry site beyond what Scott Woods, Victor Infante, and Deb Powers are bringing with their columns.

Do you think it’s worth it to bring it back? Be honest — I’m looking for real feedback here, not stroking.