Posted

Jan 19th 2009

Mood

Happy

Music

Kamelot - "Edge of Paradise"

So today (Sunday) I found myself out in the cold weather crammed shoulder to shoulder with about half a million strangers to hear and see a grab-bag of famous people get up on stage sing and speak. And damn if it wasn't an awesome experience.

I live just a 15 minute drive west of Washington DC, a 30 minute metro ride to the mall, so it wasn't exactly a massive journey to get to the Lincoln Memorial for the event, even so, the lines were long and the metro rail system was close to being overwhelmed. If it wasn't for my having a smartrip card to just sail on past the ticket buyers I'd have been waiting for a very long time just to get onto the subway.

The "concert" itself was incredible. I was no where near the font and quite near the back (I only got there an hour ahead of time so I didn't expect much and was happy with what I got), but jumbo-tron screens and speaker setups meant that even though everyone was just a tiny speck across the reflecting pool, I could see everything important. Everyone from Bon Jovi to U2 to Shakira, Usher, Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, John Mellencamp, Tiger Woods, Queen Latifah, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, MLK III, and oh, a couple of guys named Barack Obama and Joe Biden were on the stage in one two hour period.

I'll have some pictures up in a day or so of the scenes around me. I wasn't planning on going to the inauguration itself and after seeing just how jammed the DC area was with 1/4 of the expected crowd of the 20th I'm sure as hell not going and not even leaving my apartment. Getting to go to this much more accessible event and hear Obama speak live along with the incredible combinations of people on stage was something that I'll remember for a very long time.

I could have just watched it on tv this evening, but being a part of it was so much more fun.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7836723.stm