Lewis Black, new art, and navigating the Blue Zone

One day til my convention gig. Last night, Scott and I headed downtown to see comedian Lewis Black in concert. There were a lot of Dems in the audience, and I don't think they loved it when he started laying into both political parties. I'll paraphrase badly here, but he said something along the lines of:

You guys are going to be swamped with these assholes starting tomorrow, and I'm glad I'm getting the f**k out of here. If you are excited and proud about being a member of the Republican or Democratic party after what they've done to the country in the last 16 years, then you're pathological on a level I can't begin to comprehend!

It was pretty funny, but I noticed that while folks like me were laughing and clapping, some people didn't like Lewis raining on their enthusiasm parade. It was my first sign that these out-of-town visitors are going to be zealous at a frightening level. I don't think this is a crowd in the mood to laugh at itself.

Meanwhile, I have to say that Denver is looking very spiffy. A fountain in City Park that has been dormant for 20 years got a $3 million makeover and now looks like something you'd see in front of a Vegas hotel. At the corner of 14th and Champa, I saw a new piece of modern public art that looks like a bunch of child's blocks stacked on top of each other. It spells out "All Together Now," which I thought was kind of cool.

I am a little bit intimidated about getting onto the Pepsi Center site tomorrow for my 1:00 pm "call time." They say security is going to be insane. Here are the instructions I was given last night.

I am parking in a specified garage and then I have to walk about 6 blocks to the Secret Service checkpoint. They have about a half-mile around the Pepsi Center blocked off -- no cars, no pedestrians, nothing. They call it "The Blue Zone."

Then I look through the madhouse that is the Secret Service outer perimeter for a woman named Elaina (sounds Russian, huh?) who will have a clipboard with names of TV crew personnel. The mysterious Elaina will give me my Secret Service credential (applied for two months ago) and I will enter the Blue Zone to "Checkpoint C." I have to walk along a yellow line without deviation for about three blocks.

At Checkpoint C, it's the magnetic checkpoint and bag search. Sort of like going through airport security, but with Secret Service agents and military dudes holding machine guns. No beverages, no liquids of any kind, no food, no jokes, no funny business. Once past all of that, I walk another six blocks inside the protected zone (not sure what color that's designated) to find the TV truck, meet my event supervisor, and get to work.

They advised me to leave 2 hours to get through security, which means I'm leaving my house three hours before my "call time."

I have been instructed that I cannot wear jeans or sneakers. I have to be in a collared shirt and khakis of some sort. God, I am going to be filthy and funky after a 12-hour shift. Whew! Thinking about taking a change of clothes.

Not sure if it will be too dorky to wear my Obama campaign button. Maybe I'll wait for Day Two and gauge that.

Woke up this morning to the Joe Biden for V.P. decision. I was really hoping for a surprising game changer, but then realized that Obama, at his core, is pretty conservative and the choice made good sense. He needs an attack dog right now, and Biden's up to it. But, I worry that Biden is going to end up being the bane of Obama's existence into the future. The guy is really arrogant and has a propensity to say stupid, stupid things.

Here's the latest shot of the stage that the Denver Post shared today. I'm excited to see it in person.