to some of you guys, but Prince still played an important role in my life.

This weekend was surreal because there was just a general frustration that we don't get any more of him. No more shows, no more Timberlake shade, no more deadpans to the camera, no more insistence on trying to put on talented women, no more award show appearances with never ending ovations, no more displays of his Black pride. He's gone.

I'm not certain but I think Prince came into my life via Batdance. I took it for granted, this idea that a single artist can so competently create this groovy soundtrack for an entire action movie.

There's "Damn You" and how big a song that was for me in the 6th grade. He was talking about the person i had a crush on and created a soundtrack to my daydreams. He painted it perfectly.

After getting my learner's permit in highschool, I spent most of my first drives going to record stores. Accumulating Prince CDs.

After prom my best girlfriends and I rented a hotel room. We played truth or dare and listened to The Hits & B Sides on repeat all night long.

For New Year's '99 my bestfriends came over to my house. My parents agreed to order Prince's 1999 New Year's Eve Concert on pay-per-view for us. This was actually the first and only time my parents ever ordered anything on tv. It was Prince though, and they knew it was important to me.

In 2004 I saw him in concert for the Musicology tour. My car got a dead battery on the way to the show. My girlfriend at the time called her mom who came and stayed at my place and let us use her car so we could still make it to the show. Us seeing Prince was that important.

I couldn't get my head around how packed the arena was. All of those Prince fans lived in Dallas! The most awesome aspect of the show was just his general happiness. He smiled. He waved. He acted as if it was his duty to make sure we had a good time. Singing and playing looked fun to him. He wanted it to be genuinely fun for us. Till this day he's one of the only artists I've seen live who could do that. At the end of the show he announced he'd be back to do another show in a few weeks. I was dead broke but didn't hesitate to see him again. It was important and I didn't have a choice.

I keep having spontaneous moments of "god, i haven't thought about that song in a while, yet i still remember all of the lyrics" "let me repeat this song one more time" "those drums really were insane" "that song still gives me chills" "the last 2 minutes of Love 2 the 9s is so insane".

In concert he always said "Uh. Too many hits." He was damn right on that.

Not around here much but just wanted to share with you all. You all "get it".

Thanks to OKP for the bootlegs and live shows. Truly grateful.