THOUGHTS FROM THE ROAD…AND FROM THE AIR!

The hotel I'm at has free wireless. Sweet. Now to see what I wrote during my layover!

I love the Denver airport. It’s not my favorite place for a layover (Dallas is Heaven for anyone who knows their layovers, and Chicago’s also pretty great), but Denver has a pretty significant advantage in their restaurant selection. Ordinarily I go for the Colorado Sports Bar & Grill for way a way overpriced burger and fries, but today I actually got here before lunchtime, so I stuck with Quizno’s, which always serves lunch, God bless ‘em. Then topped it off with a cinnamon sugar pretzel from Auntie Anne’s. And if those didn’t suit my fancy, there’s a Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza, Wolfgang Puck, McDonald’s, a few bar-and-grills, and a cinnamon roll place that I almost hit instead of Auntie Anne’s. And that’s all in this concourse (B).

Last night I went on a bit of a music binge, hitting Everyday Music at 11 PM (on a Thursday no less…just like a junkie) and the iTunes store for Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection, Blitzen Trapper’s Wild Mountain Nation, The Hollies’ Greatest Hits (one of them anyway...the most underrated pop group of all time), and Peter Gabriel’s So. Listening to Blitzen Trapper right now, and damn are they great. I also downloaded a single off their Field Rexx album called “Country Rain,” which I’m fairly sure is the song that, when we (read: Me and Rachel…all you other bums had yet to show) saw them open for The Hold Steady, convinced me they were indeed awesome. At the very least, it’s equally as good as my memory of whatever song they did play. And that’s good enough for me.

I didn’t sleep at ALL last night. And I tried. I literally laid in my bed from 1 AM until 3:30 AM (I was due to get up at 3:45 or 4) hoping I’d get some sleep. None came to me. I did get about 22 Joni Mitchell songs worth of sleep on the flight to Denver, though. And because of the way my Joni Mitchell collection is structured and the fact that I’m too dumb to get rid of repeats, I both fell asleep to and woke up to “California.” It was trippy.

DAMN IT. Two guys just passed me carrying Pizza from Pizzeria Uno…if I knew that place was here too…like gold in my hands.

The news is on (as it always is), and apparently Hillary was on Letterman doing a Top 10 campaign promises, and one of them was that you could roll against the IRS for double or nothing on your taxes. If she actually made this promise, she’d have my vote without any other concern. It’s not because I would actually do it, I just want to see it put into practice. This is America, dammit! I should be able to gamble with my taxes. Besides, in the end, the house always wins.

I don’t think my small Pepsi and cinnamon sugar pretzel are gonna allow for much sleep on this next flight. Hopefully they have some sort of electrical outlet, because I came stocked with an adapter and movies for just such an occasion, and I didn’t bring a whole lot else (just a book – Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, which is the shit so far – and the iPod). The last flight didn’t have ‘em, though, so hope is thin.

BOARDING!

Hey so I’m on the plane now about…an hour and a half into a nearly four-hour flight. Bored already! Good times. Anyway, whenever I end up getting Internet access, you can expect a massive update with photos, etc., detailing all that will certainly be great and terrible about trying to run my own life with only the help of two other dudes whose lifestyles are drastically similar to my own.

Aaaaaannnnnnnnd no more Internet for a few days!

P.S. People who sing to themselves to whatever’s on the airplane’s radio station should not be allowed in public, much less to sit next to me.

P.P.S. Just listened to Peter Gabriel's So while walking around Boston, and it's amazing. Take a break from whatever cutting-edge artist you're illegally downloading and listen to just pure beauty.

P.P.P.S. There wasn't an electrical outlet. I killed time eating a crappy sandwich they gave me, writing that essay on Wes Anderson, and listening to a mix of The Rick Emerson Show, The Hollies, and The Cure.