The President's address, and the response

All through Gov. Jindal's response, Julie kept saying, "Who is this guy reminding me of?" Luckily for us, many others solved the puzzle for us, and minutes after the speech there was a picture of Kenneth, the page on 30 Rock, at the top of Talking Points Memo.

verslaaft

You know what's bad? When I find myself checking my own blog to see if anything new has been posted...

Just to change something, I replaced the Inauguration Watch fromthe Washington Post (there hasn't been anything to watch for weeks) with the "Obama Meter" keeping track of promises kept, compromised, and broken. I only have about two days left on my trial version of video editing software, and then I'll have to switch or buy. It's been hard to find the motivation to spend the endless hours at it now that no one is looking for it.

Owen on the air--follow up

He was great, don't you think? And I don’t think I’m just being a proud papa when I point out that his comeback to the “soylent green” comment was especially good!

Owen on the radio

Owen H-D provided some live coverage of the Inauguration for the Northampton radio station WHMP when Bill Dwight, host of the creatively named “Bill Dwight Show,” called him on his cell phone. Bill is a big guy in local radio, but that’s mostly just because he’s a big guy… ba-dum bump. He's also a man of substance and talent, and since he knows just about everyone and everyone he knows thinks of him as “my friend Bill,” he gets some very funny and interesting guests on his show. Rachel Maddow has even tagged “her friend Bill” to fill in for her on Air America.
Now, having said some nice things about him, I hope Bill won’t mind that I’ve cut almost all of him and his show out of the clip below and left only the parts where my son is mentioned or is on. Truth is, I really enjoyed listening to Bill’s openng reflection on the Inauguration. I listened to it more than a week after the event, and it brought me right back—from 400 miles away, he did a pretty good job expressing the feelings we were sharing with a few million others in DC.
I encourage you to follow this link to the Bill Dwight Show and look for the 1/20/09 podcast on the right side (click on the triangle pointing right to play the show, or on the sergeant’s stripes to download it as an mp3). In the meantime, the clip below has a sort of choppy lead-in to the parts with Owen. Enjoy.

The Google Effect

Because the video that goes with the post "Reminiscing - Getting There" is tagged with the words "New York City," and "inauguration," the videos that YouTube recommends along the bottom when it ends include a very cute one of some guys in Harlem dancing on the sidewalk to the Barack Obama song. The song goes on and on, and nothing changes, so if you're tempted to watch a little don't feel like you need to watch it all.

Favorite Moments 3

One half of a cell phone converstation, 7:30 am: "What are we doing? We're watching the sun come up on a New Day!

Someone Else's Helicopter Moment

A neighbor tells me a story of a friend of hers who wasn't doing too well, but told his hospice attendent that he wanted to stick around for the Inauguration, but that he'd probably die after that. When the helicopter carrying Mr. Bush away came on the TV he raised a fist and said, "Mission accomplished." The next day he made good on his prediction and passed away.

Weird Moment

After the ceremony was over, and we joined the crowd flowing westward, the jumbotrons showed bland announcements about the exits on 7th St being closed, etc. but the sound was still on and the Mall was filled with a loud and unpleasant roaring. It went from loud to very loud when we were near a speaker tower. With the crowd opened up, the breeze could reach us and it was cold and it swirled the sheets of newspaper folks had been sitting on and the plastic wrappers from the chemical hand warmers around our feet. Joining thousands of others we hunched our shoulders and walked stiffly, (after standing so long, Julie's feet hurt a lot every time she put one down) silenced by this ominous drone. Apparently the microphone was following the new President as he escorted the ex-President to his helicopter, and I suppose we had guessed at this because when the sound lessened we knew to turn toward the Capital and watch the Marine Corp helicopter appear over it and head slowly up the length of the Mall. I don't remember there being too much crowd reaction... no one threw their shoes at it. We were glad that the ugly noise was gone, though.

Favorite Moments 2

When the man standing next to us suddenly turned and started shaking everyone's hand saying, "Thank you. Thank you for sharing history with me."

Comments?

There haven't been many. Any, really. Correction--there is one. But I've changed the setting so anyone can comment now, so it's a little bit easier than it was if that makes any difference.

Favorite Moments 1

When the Jumbotron switched from replaying the Sunday concert and announcements to a live feed and showed the crowd a picture of themselves. That's when we realized that in addition to being cold and squished we were fabulous!

Reminiscing - Getting There

"President Obama."

Are you used to saying that yet? It's been more than a week, and it's time to reminisce. Here, then, is the first installment of a video (shaky) presentation wherein every single part of our excellent adventure is rendered in exact detail with nothing whatsoever left out!

First stop - Manhattan!... Manhattan? Yes, we stopped over and saw South Pacific.


[Further installments will come soon, I hope, but I'm not happy with the way the software messed up the sound on this (noticeable at the Bryant Park skating rink) and learning a new program may delay the rest a little.]

Purple Tunnel of Doom Do-over

A very loyal reader of the Excellent Inauguration Adventure has pointed out to me that the video below has nothing to do with the Purple Tunnel of Doom. She's right, so here is a photo of some PT Doomers in their tunnel (lifted from Huffington Post), and a link to the Facebook group page that is getting all the news lately.
I think it would be nice if the President at some point could do something to get these folks into an event at some point--they deserve a do-over too.

Boston Globe Photo Album

The Globe had the best album of photos of Obama's election campaign, and now they have the best collection of photos from Inauguration Day.
Click here to have a look.

Purple Tunnel of Doom

Neighbors teased us when we told them we hadn't tried to get tickets and didn't really want them. But the fact is, we realized that 240,000 tickets meant you would still be squished into an enormous crowd, and that there would be advantages to not having to go through any particular gate to get to any particular place.
Still, our (my) original plan was to take the Metro further into the city, and use the rt.395 tunnel to walk from the north side of the Mall to the south side. It sounded cool to walk through a tunnel and be close, if underground, to the Capital. Luckily for us we ditched that plan when we realized how crowded the trains were already at 5:30 and went with plan B--walking for miles around the White House and entering the Mall from behind the Washington Monument.
This slightly heartbreaking video shows the experience of the people who got stuck around 3rd St and the tunnel:

do u txt ?

I’m new to texting, and have a pretty disorganized contact list. In hindsight, I should have created some sort of “group” to send all the messages to, but in reality I scrolled through my contacts and selected some each time I sent something out. So, if you’d like to use your imagination and think back to Tuesday, here’s a transcript of my text traffic:

7:27 Welcome to DC!
7:32 Received--Thx is very cold
8:14 Audio poor. Need Ben.
9:19 Inauguration Update: If you are still in transit to the Mall, we suggest you head west of 14th Street. Thanks for participating in this historic day.
9:25 On the Mall since 630. Standing in the exaat same place. Snipers have appeard on all bldg roofs.
9:32 Jumbotrons showing Sunday concert- Usher, StevieW, and Shakira. Cold, but not too cold.
9:44 Portable toilets irrelevant-noone can move! Extra helicopters and roof watchers must mean VIPs are here now
9:47 Received--Wowthats crazy. Keep me posted
9:53 Prerecordeded part over. Crowd got to see ourselves-wild!
9:58 Received--Just saw o and mrs arrive at white house. Dang have to go to work do lost two hours
10:19 Received--Crazy stuff, were gonna watch it in the auditorium. Keep updating me
10:44 TKennedy gets a big cheer
10:44 Received--Got ur call & the texts! We r all very excited! Going 2 watch as a whole school! Keep us posted!
10:45 Received--Keep it coming
10:50 Lieberman on big screen draws big boos. Oprah and Colin Powell cheers.
11:03 Received--Where exactly are u. Whats the croud like.
11:09 Were a about ½ way between capitalamd Washington mon. Crowdis really warming up.Sun is out. Al Gore gets a big cheer.
11:20 Best laugh line-big voice says Ladies n gentlemen please be seated
11:38 Received--OMG sooo exciting OX
12:24 Received--Our live feed has been interrupted! We cant watch right now!
12:35 Inauguration Update—Barack Obama is now the 44th President of the United States. Please stay & watch the parade on the jumbotrons. Encourage your neighbors to exit the Mall slowly.
1:03 Received--Yipee! You re part of history
1:08 Received--John Julie! must be amazing!

What did you think?

I'd like to watch again or read some of what was said, but at first blush I liked Diane Feinstein's comments a lot, thought Rev. Warren was ok, and was so happy to hear at least some of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" make it into the first part of Rev. Lowry's benediction. Obama, again, stressed the difficult work ahead instead of just letting us party. He's a serious guy.

What was it Like?

The crowd was more tightly packed than any other day this week and it was hard at times to hang onto the 12 inch by 12 inch plot you had staked as your own. Still, everyone understood that everyone wanted to see the big screen, and everyone understood that some people had to move through the crowd to get to a bathroom or whatever.

Mmmm, cocoa...

We're in Owen's dorm room being fed hot chocolate and pasta, and stretching our legs--it's not that easy standing in one place in the cold for 5+hours.

It's History

There's video... not great, but the moment.

Watch it Live

I really, really should go to bed, but instead I'm just getting excited. I was just double checking road closures and walking routes. It looks like we will be walking through a half mile of the route 395 tunnel to get from the North side of theMall to the South.
Watch the swearing in live (at work) here.
And watch the Mall fill up at the Post's live web cam.

Chronological Order

Just a reminder that to read posts from earliest to latest you have to start from the bottom. Some of tonight's posts are already on the second page.

Video Insight

The most striking thing so far this weekend is how warm and friendly everyone is. Everything is crowded, but crowded with folks who came for the same reason--to celebrate a big change in the government, the candidate they supported, and a historic first in american history. Conversations pop up easily between people of all types and from all different places. Julie and I have been taking pictures of things, but we've also been doing mini interviews with just about anyone we happen to start talking with. I don't know whether these interviews are going to be very interesting to watch, but they've been a lot of fun to do. Another striking thing is how many people are walking around with cameras going all the time.
Anyway, this evening Julie had a remarkable insight into all this "home videoing." She pointed out that on the one hand people who were taking video of an event tended to experience less of the event--their hands are full so they don't clap, thier eyes are on a little screen instead of on the real scene. On the other hand, our little interviews are adding to our experience because these are conversations that we might not have if we weren't trying to record things for our friends and for my elementary school.
The result is a warning, of sorts, that tomorrow I'm not going to be taking many (or any) pictures of the swearing in. We'll all be able to that on tv. Instead we're going to spend our battery's energy and memory space on crowd stuff before and after the event. Good Night, .

Monday Round Up

Coffee with Owen and Naomi, community service at RFK, then we headed to Ben's Chili Bowl where we were glad that we had already been inside on other days and knew that we didn't have to feel compelled to wait in a line that stretched around the corner and was clearly going to take at least a couple of hours to get through. We saw protestors at the White House--Code Pink against the war in Iraq, and Progressive Democrats of America campaigning for the new Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor and "arrest Bush." Then, walking to the train from Ben's we bumped into a Gay and Lesbian rally at DuPont Circle. I'm not sure if it was part of the same rally or not, but at the edge of the park there was a 15ft high inflatable effigy of George Bush that people were throwing shoes at.

U St. 5:30 pm Monday

Without comment.

RFK

RFK stadium hosts a lot of US National team soccer matches, and so it was fun for Julie and I to get down on the field, and also to check out the view from different places to see which seats we would like best if we ever get to see a game there.
Also, there are still some seats painted white in the upper decks... could they possibly still be marking the seats that Frank Howard's home run balls hit back when the Washington Senators played baseball here? And Ray, do you remember the ball that we saw him hit? I seem to remember it still going up when it hit the upper deck.

Writing to Soldiers

"It's an incredible scene here in Washington this weekend--thousands, maybe millions of people crowding the city, getting along with each other, celebrating democracy. Please know that none of us will forget your willingness to serve or be able to ever thank you enough. Be careful, be well, come home."

--for Kenneth, my sons age, serving in Iraq

Making MLK Day a "Day On"

Michelle Obama sent out an email advertising the opportunity for people attending the inauguration to do some community service at Washington's Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. Julie and I were 2 of several thousand volunteers who packed care packages and writing letters to troops serving overseas. Michelle, Sasha, and Malia were there earlier in the morning. folks told us it was very exciting, but also that it took an hour in line to get in then. Nancy Pelosi was there while we were, but we only knew that because it was announced.

Security Fence

[added 1/30] I'm sorry that the audio track includes a lone crank protester ranting against American soldiers. I'm wondering if he was from the virulently anti gay mini church/family from Kansas that made the news for ranting away at soldiers funerals.

Monday

Hi Owen! Hi Naomi!

Sunday

It's not much, mostly we took video (double click to see them bigger):

Technical Difficulties

I brought the wrong cable to take pictures off of the still camera, and the video software I have (and am just learning how to use) won't let me edit together clips, and, the internet availability at my aunt's house is limited.  I will get some raw footage posted soon, and hope to have a slideshow of stills up in the next few minutes.

Monopod 2

The monopod was a huge hit.  If we only had a nickel for every time someone said it was brilliant when they saw me holding my camera above the crowd.

 

Not Like 1961

The snow tapered off by the time got out of New York.  the rest of the drive was smooth, and we've arrived in time to rush down to the Mall for the second half of the big concert.

Snow

Yikes! It's snowing for our drive to DC, just like it was for my parents in 1961.

Inauguration Web Cam

A live view of the Mall.
From the Washington Post

Speaking of signs

What do you think my sign should say?

Monopod

We bought one so we could lift our cute, new, little video camera above the crowd a get really good shots. It’s light weight, and collapsible, and this morning I’m nervous that we’re going to have it taken away by security. At least for the ticketed areas, I know that you’re not allowed to have “supports for signs.”

Lift Every Voice and Sing,

‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

The dictionary defines harmony as two or more notes blending together to make a pleasant new sound. In a successful democracy, all the noisiness of election contests rarely sounds very pleasant. The sounds of each side saying “I’m right, you’re wrong” just seem to clash. But we’ve had 43 presidents so far without one refusing to leave, and we’ve engaged in long and difficult struggles without completely tearing the country apart. I think we have to count even the political nonsense as the sound of free people governing themselves.

Let Our Rejoicing Rise

High as the listening skies,
Let it resound, loud as the rolling sea.

One million people? Two million people? We are going to BE a rolling sea!
The streets will be closed to cars; the city’s going to be a flowing ocean of people. Less poetically: Owen reports that portable toilets have been delivered to every street corner. A friend of Julie’s reports that there are portable toilets in long lines down the whole length of both sides of the Mall. A neighbor tells us they read that was going to only be one toilet for every 18,000 people.

Sing a Song…

Full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

It case it isn’t already clear, I should say plainly that I was not neutral in this election. I consider the past eight years dark times for this country. The 2004 election was the low point, when voters knew that our government was torturing prisoners, tapping phones without warrants, and holding at least one U.S. citizen in a secret prison without charges and without access to any outside help.
Read more about Jose Padilla. Also here.

Sing a Song…

Full of the hope that the present has brought us!

No matter how far you've gone in the wrong direction, you can always turn around.

The Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (PDF)Dec. 10, 1964.

I promised some people more backround information on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and more pictures and stories about Martin Luther King Jr. and I apologize for not posting more. Here, at least, are a few links:

Martin Luther King (also: "An unjust law is no law at all")
Martin Luther King a more complex overview

American Presidents

45 Today

Happy Birthday Michelle Obama, (and Benjamin Franklin (1706)).

Nervousness

It's too early in the morning, but I'm studying the maps of what parts of the city will be closed and lists of what restaurants might be open, and it's starting to freak me out!

You can see a map here. The thing about looking at maps of DC is that it's easy to forget how big the place is. The streets are wide and the blocks are big...

(It's not as early as the "posted at" time says--I don't know how the blog clock works.)

More Chili Bowl

This is what the sign looked like last year, but they've added the Obama family.

If you watch the video, though, you see that he pays.

So Bill can relax.

Bill Cosby

On Meet the Press... the good part starts around 47 seconds in.

From the Washington Post

Here's a tidbit from the Washington Post online as an example of what you can get to by clicking on the links over on the right side of the page:
Barack Obama met with the Washington Post's top editors and reporters yesterday, ... Though Inauguration Watch was not present during the interview, we have gotten ahold of a transcript.
"What is the central message you want African-Americans to take from your Inauguration?," a reporter asked.
Replied Obama: "I am not going to spill the beans. No, no, no. Look, look, I think you have to open your Christmas present on Christmas. You can't shake the box. So we're not going to give you a preview of the inauguration speech. You're not getting that."
When the reporter followed up by asking to whether it would be okay to ask a follow up question, Obama fell back on his famous catch phrase: "Yes, you can." (Okay, close enough.)

The Mall, part 2

(If you're new to blogs, part 1 is below this post. That's the way blogs work.)

Surrounded by memorials, monuments, museums, and the offices of the most important leaders in the country, not to mention the actual halls of power, the Mall is the place to go if you and a few thousand of your friends have a complaint or want to make a point. It's a big place, a big canvas for people--the people--to paint their arguments on.

March on Washington, 1968

Bonus Army, 1932

Million Man March, 1995

Aids Quilt, 1987

The Mall--Not the One in Holyoke

Washington is different than most cities and most (maybe all) other capital citites because it was all planned out before it was built. Instead of taking a city that was already big and busy and making it into the capital, the location of the American capital all planned out before it was built. George Washington oversaw the selection of the site and hired Pierre L'Enfant to design the city, and Andrew Ellicott and his amzing African American assisstant to survey the land. What's amazing to me is to think about men in 1791 imaging that the capital of this little struggling republic still on the frontier of Western civilization should be built on such a huge scale as Washington DC is.

The Mall is the long (really long) open, grassy space stretching from the Capital building to the Lincoln Memorial. I think it's almost two miles long, but I can't seem to find the exact size any where at the moment.

This picture from August looks from what they call the West front of the Capital toward the Washington Monument and you can see just little bit of the Lincoln Memorial peeking out on the right. The swearing in will happen a little to the left of where this picture was taken, a few hundred thousand people will have seats in the first grassy area and a few more hundred thousand people with tickets will satnd just beyond the reflecting pool.
The parade will head right down the long road that heads off to the right--Pennsylvania Avenue--to the White House.

Mr. H-D gets a chili half-smoke

Actually, I think I had a turkey burger and chili fries, but this is me at Ben's Chili Bowl this past August.

Look further down the page if you don't understand why there's a picture of me eating at a greasy lunch joint.

The Kickoff Show

The first event put on by the inaugural committee will be on Sunday afternoon. It’s going to be a big concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial. HBO is going to broadcast the show between 7:00 and 9:00pm on Sunday and supposedly they are going to unscramble their signal so even if you don’t subscribe to HBO you will be able to get that channel during those two hours.
The bad news is that Julie and I will be arriving in DC sometime in the early afternoon on Sunday and we probably won’t be there early enough to go to see the show. (I’m holding out hope that we will make it, but probably we won’t.)
Here’s who we’re going to miss (or see!):

Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks,
Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban,
Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend,
Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher,
Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen,
James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder.
Among those reading historical passages will be Jamie Foxx,
Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington.

I know Bono, Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock, John Legend, John Mellencamp, and of course Bruce and James and Stevie. I’ve been told that the special people I should be looking forward to seeing are Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, and Jennifer Nettles, but I guess I’m too old to know that.
Will.i.am holds a special place in my thoughts about this election because his “Yes We Can” video came out just before the Massachusetts primary and cemented my decision of who to vote for.

will.i.am

When you are asked to write a persuasive essay in school such as “Why I like Playstation,” or “I should be allowed to have a pet python because…” the teacher usually tells you that you CANNOT use the argument: “Because it’s cool.”
That’s because, if you can really and truly say that something is cool, there’s no way anyone can argue against you—the discussion is over.
Will.i.am is cool. And even if you have seen this before, click on it and watch it again.

Obama Gets a Chili Half-Smoke

It's not easy for the president, or the president-elect, to move around in a city. They can't just go out some place on their own. At the end of this video clip you see how the Secret Sevice and DC police have cleared the whole street in front of Ben's Chili Bowl so that Obama can safely get from the restaurant to his big, armored limousine. But listen to the crowd that's just outside the cleared area! Over 60% of the residents of DC are African American, and the neighborhood around U St and 14th has only started to rebound in the last few years from the devastating riots and fires that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King jr. in 1968. I think the people who live in the District are going to go nuts for Barack Obama.

Ben's Chili Bowl

Ben's Chili Bowl has been around for 50 years. I know because I happened to be there during their 5oth anniversary weekend celebration this past summer. Ben's is a hot dog and chili place that has been an important part of the neighborhood around U and 14th street. The place doesn't have the best food, but it has a long history of being an important social center. The walls are covered with photos of famous African Americans visiting, hanging out, and even eating at Ben's. Julie and I are planning to visit on Monday the 19th but Ben's is riding high at the moment--the neighborhood is doing better and better, and Ben's has become more and more famous, so I think that maybe a lot of the million or so people who are coming to DC for the inauguaration may make try to get a "chili half-smoke" at Ben's.

Wednesday Morning

Just seven days (counting today) until a new president is sworn in.