They say it is not nice to name drop. So I won't.

But nobody said anything about numbers, so I will drop 535. I have had many big days on this project and for this small town boy, yesterday was among the biggest of the big. After 3 years at this, yours truly was fortunate to get a one-on-one audience in the nerve center of the conductor that waves his baton to orchestrate the symphony at 535.

It was a once in a lifetime experience and a huge boost to my two projects.

I sat there in that extraordinary office at the very table you have seen in those pictures that floated around the internet. Don't ask me to describe it however. Truth of the matter is if I close my eyes, all I can see of it is a blank page.

You see as the conductor graciously and warmly ushered me in there, he was already talking about the business we had at hand in the short time allotted to me in his busy day's schedule. For 37 minutes, we went back and forth, my two recorders lying between just the two of us, my eyes riveted on the conductor and what he was saying, my brain hanging on his every word and its meaning. It was great stuff. When his secretary popped her head in to remind him our 30 minutes of allotted time was up and that he had to take a call, he told her to "tell those people if they call that we need five more minutes here." I got seven more.

Insightful. Profound. Enlightening. Revering. Gracious. Wise. Those would all be words to describe what I got on tape. Beyond that, well, if you want to know you are going to have to wait for me to finish both of the books I am working on. There will be some of it in each one.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to The Leader of The Band for taking time to fit me into his busy schedule. And if you haven't yet figured out whose name I am not dropping, well, type 535 Irving Schottenstein Drive into Google Maps.