Can I just point out first of all that we're idiots because we live within walking distance of the Mall--we don't even have to take the metro--and we still didn't make it until exactly noon. Needless to say, by that point, it was challenging to find a place to stand as over 200,000 people had already shown up. But luckily we live behind the capitol so we were already at the front of the crowd when we showed up.
I know the first picture here does not quite convey the scale of this post-rally horde unleashing itself directly upon the city, but it stretches six blocks: from Constitution Ave. all the way to Chinatown, shoulder to shoulder. I've really never seen anything like it except for the inauguration, which was much colder and more somber (and did I mention colder?).
The Highlights:
1. Cat Stevens. The minute John Stewart introduced him, I started crying. I never thought I would hear him perform live. And to be honest, I never expected to have to boo Stephen Colbert for ruining my hippie-Cat-Stevens-Peace-train-euphoria, but I was quite displeased by the sudden interruption of Ozzy Osborn (as much as I love him, he's no Yusuf Islam).
4. The signs. People are so creative. Love it.
The lowlights:
1. Jeff Tweedy. No problem with Mavis Staples, but damn Jeff, way to bring everyone the hell down. Terrible. I actually preferred Kid Rock. Kid. Rock.
2. Not being able to see anything but people's heads--anywhere in the city. (And the guy in front of me smelled like he drank a bottle of vodka and then sweat it all out on his sweatshirt.) Amazingly, one of the drawbacks of "strength in numbers" is, as Sarte said that "hell is other people" (or at least it can be). That sounds awful, but consider this: Amazing three hour rally begins at 12 and ends at 3, many people arrive as early as 8:00 a.m. There are very few places to get food on the Mall, so what do these 200,000 people immediately do after the rally? They flood the restaurants. Tim and I went to our "secret" Chinese restaurant, which is usually empty, and the poor place was overwhelmed. It's usually so empty they don't even have a waiter--the host seats you, takes your order, brings your drink. The busboy brings your food. The host's wife brings your check. Now the dining room was full and the chef took our order 45 minutes after we sat down. The line was out the door.
But I have to say, I have never tasted such amazing sushi in my life. I will call it freedom sushi. After the rally and the awesomeness of being around people who just want everyone to be polite... we too were hungry and tired. And happy and hopeful. (But mostly hungry and tired--which is, I think, the point? When you're living you're own life, you're too busy doing that to be too insulted by how other people are living theirs.)
Hey Kiddo- the only thing that would have made my birthday better is to have spent the day with you! Thank you so much for the incredible 25-years-old(again)b-day presents!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you and Tim attended the rally, since the only way to get a true sense of what happened is to talk to someone who was actually there.
Great photos- sometimes I do hate pants!
Love you!!
Can I share this? I love you and I wish I could have been there. Happy Birthday, Anonymous!
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I think it's so amazing that you went to this! Glad to hear it was (mostly) great.
ReplyDeleteI loved being there. It's weird for us because we don't get an accurate picture of how it's portrayed in the outside world (did the news cover this at all?)--but here it was a major event. It seems like everyone in the city was there. I get the sense that unless you watched it live, people aren't really getting an accurate sense of what it was like (which doesn't surprise me). All in all, it really was awesome. We should all do that more often--whatever that was. (And yes Mom, you can share!)
ReplyDeleteI'm still so bummed we couldn't make it. J watched it on the tv though, and I got my hair done to make myself feel better. It didn't entirely work, and now we're in The War To End All Wars with American Airlines to try to get them to give our money back (because, of course, our tickets were nonrefundable). But eventually we will REALLY come there and visit, and I'll fold Haywood into a carryon shape and tell people he's a rug.
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