Guess what, I think I’m going to become a Republican! Just kidding. But right now I’m in Nashville, TN for the first time ever, and in a red state for the first time since whatever it was that happened way back on 02 Nov. No time for a full-length entry right now, but a couple of observations: everybody is really freakin’ nice here and I actually get a really good vibe from the place. Also, last night we stayed in the Opryland Hotel which is like a little bit of Las Vegas served up with some Southern hospitality. It’s a hotel that aims to be a self-enclosed reality — when we checked in, they handed us a map to our room, and we followed the trail through faux roads, past tons of fauna, across a huge courtyard, and beneath a magnificently huge glass ceiling. It has a touch of absurdity to it, but it’s easy to forget (and dismiss) from the limited square-footage living of Manhattan that this is America too.