Heading home...

(Aspen, CO, USA) - I haven’t had much to say recently. Been in TX, then TN, and now CO. Too busy getting ready for my conference I guess. I also didn’t have much motivation to write, but the moment I looked out the window on my flight to Phoenix out of San Antonio and saw the red rocks of the desert I had the strong urge to update my blog. But then I was busy. Perhaps travel and motion are my muse.

I am sitting now in the lobby of the Bandar bin Sultan center at Aspen Meadows of the ‘Aspen Institute’, waiting for my shuttle that will take me to DIA a 4 hour drive away. Attendees at my conference have been staying here on the campus of this conference center for the last 5 days. The conference itself was held at the Aspen Center for Physics, which is a short walk towards the former old mining town and now posh playground for glitterati of the jet set scene.

My conference was great and perhaps more importantly it DUMPED snow. All that rain falling in LA made for some tremendous powder when it hit the Rockies. My talk went well. Of course, I got hassled just a little, but it is to be expected in this business. Strong reaction from the audience is vastly preferred over polite silence.

And now I sit in the lounge of the institute’s magnificent Bauhausean lobby building waiting for my ride and flipping through the winter issue of ‘Aspen Institute Magazine’ and watch the big shots walk by. I didn’t have a feeling of where I was staying until now.

From the magazine:

“The Aspen Institute, founded in 1950, is an international nonprofit dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open minded dialogue on ….”. You get the idea. Or maybe you don’t.

Things I didn’t know until just now:

-Hunter S. Thompson signed autographs at the bar behind me last summer.

-Madeline Albright has sat on the very couch I am sitting on now.

-A major donor to the Center is Bandar bin Sultan whose eponymously named lobby building center I am sitting in now. This is as far as I can tell the same guy featured prominently in Fahrenheit 911.

-Walter Issacson (former head of CNN) is CEO and President of the Institute. I read this as CNN hums on the plasma screen in the lounge. (The text banner scrolling across the screen’s bottom informs us that Georgia zoo officials plan to increase the protein content of the male zoo pandas before the upcoming mating season. This seems like a good idea.)

The magazine is choc full o’ luminaries who have had high level conferences or symposia here over the last year. They’ve had Thomas Friedman, Bush 41, Chuck Hagel, Hank Kissenger, and now a gaggle of underdressed physicists. Amazing. And all for the low price of $80 a night. Nice of them to have us. The concierge has just asked me if I am waiting for a shuttle or private limo to take me to Denver. See? I laugh and let him know. This is what I am talking about.

My shuttle is now due in 15 minutes and seeing my opening I walk across the lobby to check out from my room with Provence, the nice little French clerk at the front desk, cursing myself the whole way for not having cracked my French book in a month.

Me: Vous etes francais?

Her: Mais oui! Vous parlez francais?!

Me : Non. Je parle un petite peu. Je suis americain, mais J’habite Geneve.

Her : Your accent is veeeery good.

Me: oh…no…Where are you from?

Her: Cote d’Azure. In the south.

Me: I see. So, you’re Provence from Provence.

She flitters a laugh and I feel clever. Certainly I am the first to have thought of this. She is good. Very good. Only the best in Aspen. Despite knowing this I still feel clever.

I return to my couch and magazine. I show my colleague the picture of Madeline Albright. He moves from the couch to the chair. Amazing how wrapped up together all these 'walkers of the corridors of power' are. Pictures in the magazine show Thom Friedman (op-ed columnist for NYtimes.com and critic of the Bush administration) at the same conference as Bush 41. They probably laugh over drinks in a building funded by a Saudi prince and play golf with the Time Inc. CEO. It makes me cynical and jealous at the same time.

My ride arrives and I start my long trip back to CH. 4 hours to Denver, overnight in a hotel, flight to Newark, then to Geneva. I am anxious to get back.