Normally I’m kind of depressed on Mondays because, well, it’s Monday. But not today, because I have to day off to honor some guy who thought he was taking a shortcut to India, only to be not the first non-native person to ever arrive on this continent. Whatever. A day off is a day off (which is why I don’t understand why so many bigot-types had such a problem with MLK day; shut up and take the day off, ferchrissakes). Anyhow, having the day off isn’t the only exciting thing going on around here, as the Dalai Lama is in town for the “Common Ground for Peace” Symposium at SU.

It’s a two day thing with panels of folks (including former CIA director James Woolsey, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young and Martin Luther King III) moderated by Ann Curry. If you’re so inclined, you can watch the live webcast of the two days of panels.

Then, tomorrow night, the “One World” concert will start off with a talk by the Dalai Lama, and then a concert emceed by Whoopi Goldberg (under the musical direction of Phil Ramone). There’s quite a lineup of musicians, including Don Was, Dave Matthews, David Crosby, Counting Crows, Roberta Flack, Nelly Furtado, Engelbert Humperdinck (yes, he is apparently still around), David Sanborn, Joanne Shenandoah, Voices of Afghanistan and a whole bunch of other people I’ve never heard of because I’m old and from the US of A. So, as you might imagine, it’s a pretty big deal around here, where we don’t typically have all that much going on. And a nice thing to replace the headlines about Romney’s “bump” and all that.

That’s odd – the sun seems to be out. I should probably go do something.