Heres a report on my second day at the Celebration. I got to the Park a little before 10:00 to hear the Rainbow Children. Ater a short wait we were escorted into the NPG Music Club (Formerly the L4OA) room. We were handed lyric booklets and it began. I think that musically it is the best thing hes done in years! It has wild, electric guitar in parts, jazzy stuff, funk, its all over the place. This one is gonna take a long time and many listens to digest. A lot of talk and debate has and will go on about the lyrics and I won't get into that too much except to say that among the religious lyrics there is some sex )"Can I sing 2 u whike u bring urself 2 joy? I'll go slow at first, while u quench ur thirst. Wet circles round the joy. While u bring urself 2 joy" and some humor (towards the end of the CD a weird voice says "U know this is funky but I wish he'd play like he used 2, old scragglyhead..." Anyway, this CD is where its AT as far as the music goes!!!

After listening to the CD (which runs 70 minutes) we were told that thee would be a discussion filmed by a film crew and not everyone could fit but those who wished could line up and would have to sign a release form. I was the last person to get in before the cut off. About 25 of us were escorted to the atrium and sat around on chairs, couches, the floor. The discussion went on for about 45 minutes or so with a lot of talk and debate about whether this album was coming from a Jehovah's Witness perspective or not, what is it trying to say etc...

I was watching someone speak and the guy who was hosting the session said "what do you think sir?" and all of a sudden there was Prince leaning against the wall!!! He ended up sitting down on his piano bench right in the midle of us all (The black piano, same one used in the Rave show was in the atrium there) He sat around, talked with us, answered questions for at least a half hour!! It would be hard to remember everything he said, but I think part of it was that whatever your beliefs, you can get something from the album, you don't have to be a follower of a particular religion or whatever.... He talked about how the album would come out. He said "are you all members of the music club?" He would like to put it out that way. Someone said "what about people who don't have a computer?" He said "You'll just have to burn it for them!" When asked if he was worried that that would steal from profits or whatever he said "I'm not real worried about that. This is not a commercial album. I just want people to hear it.." He talked about when he had #1 hits he was a part of the system, had the right publicist, manager, etc.... He doesn't care about doing things like that anymore. "If I was still under contract and gave this to a record company, what do you thik they would do. They would put it out and let it die like Lovesexy.." It sounded like he might be willing to get it into some stores on CD sometime but who knows. He talked about so many things! Somtime I'll have to try to remember all of it! One guy said he lives in the Middle East and would Prince ever tour there "He just kinda smiled and said "Well....I hear its a little dicey there now.." My only regret is that I did not ask him a question myself or speak to him directly while I had the chance! Y'know, tougne tied and all that! I was gonna comment on the music (how after hearing all the music club tracks, including the Work I was expecting an album of funky songs and once again he astounded me by giving me something much more, much better, much more interesting than that!

After awhile he got up and said "wanna come to rehearsal? I just gotta wait till the band gets here" Prety soon we were at the soundstage and I thought we were gonna get to se him jam but after a few minutes he walked up on stage and said "my band ain't here yet so Fonky Baldheads gonna jam" And we got about a half hour jam from the onky Baldheads.

Once I realized he wasn't gonna play I checked out the rest of the open house. This year instead of a tour the Park is open to just wander around at your own pace! So you can just go in and look around any of the studios, go upstairs, check out the game room, conference room, Paisley doves, etc. Pretty cool. i could take as much time to look at stuff we were rushed through last year.

I went back home to spend some time with my wife and son before going back for the Time. We decided to have dinner at one of our favorite vegetarian restaurants (Mud Pie in south Minneapolis in case any visitors wanna check it out.) Before dinner though we stopped at Hair Police, a wild hair salon that specializes in extentions, dreds etc. My wife ran up to make an apointment. I was with my three year old walking up the stairs. A guy was behind us and I said "you can go around" and he said "oh no, take your time" I was wering my celebration shirt and he said "You like Prince?" I told him I had been hanging out at Paisley and he said "yea, I want to get out there. I'm doing George Clinton's hair any minute, he was suposed to be here 15 minutes ago!" We get up there and my wife is making her appointment and sure enough about three minutes later in walks George!! He was smiling and friendly and was escourted to a chair to get his hair worked on!!! That was kinda cool!!

Back at the Park... Got there about 10:45 just in time to see a couple of Fonky Baldhead songs. The break was not very long at all and out comes The Time about 11:15 or so. Someone else may give a detailed review but they were pretty great!! Prince jammed on keyboards and Terry Lewis on bass during "Cool" A little later George Clinton comes out with his new hair I saw him ariving to get done just a few hours earlier. He kinda took over for awhile at first just saying "What time is it?" But then getting nto some of his own stuff "Booty!!! Stone Cold Knockin Butts!" He was in great spirits roming around the stage screaming. It was great fun!" The Time took it back over and jammed until about 1:00. Prince came back and Played some Rhythm guitar with them at the end. A great time!!! I left then, missing the chance of another potential late jam but I needed some sleep and the discussion with Prince earlier was certainly the days highlight. I know I'll se Prince Friday (third row center!) so even if I missed something else, I've been having a good time! I'll be back 2nite for Erikah Badu!

Peace and be wild y'all!!!!