So Over It
Toilet seats decoupaged with President Obama’s image. Jerseys’ with the number 44 emblazoned on the back and Obama in block letters across the front. Golf balls. Dinner Plates. Long Sleeve T-Shirts (3 for $10! the vendors shout) with the First Family across the front, outlined in gold sparkle-paint. Hats, hats and more hats eached more blinged out than whatever you saw the block before. Even the 7-11 in my neighborhood is selling president pens, coffee mugs and black lacquer wall-plaques emblazoned with President Obama’s image. Living in the DC area since the inauguration is like a perpetual trip through Graceland. I know that right now on a certain street corner in the district, a street vendor is selling a velvet painting of Barak Obama for $29.95.
Here’s the truth. God help me but here it is. The inauguration wasn’t that great. It was cold and there were a lot of people. Aretha Franklin wore a hat so gawd-awful that she has her own club on Facebook called, what else, Aretha Franklin’s Inauguratin Hat. There are 39,273 fans as I write this post and I’m not one of them. The quartet with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman went all Milli-Vanilli; thier fingers were moving but the music we heard was recorded two days prior. Save me, if you will the complaints that it was too cold for thier fingers or that the cold would cause their instuments to fall out of tune. I know how flippin’ cold it was because Toast and I were out there from before 8:00 am until after 1:00 pm and I can tell you that it was so cold that when we finally did start to thaw out, it was painful.
And justice Roberts flubbing the oath? Are you kidding me? On one of the most important days in modern history you fuck up the administering the Oath of Office?
And WHILE we were shivering and jostling for position into the one ray of sunshine cast across the Mall in front of the Washington Monument, we watched Puffy, Beyonce and Oprah snuggled under electric blankets. I’m not sure I can love on Oprah anymore. Not only did she not come through on my request to borrow a dress but she got to show up a few moments before Barak took the oath limiting her exposure to the temperatures.
There it is. THAT is the inaugural post that I wish I’d written a few days ago. I was happy to be there but happy when it was over and the two million tourists who don’t know to stand on the RIGHT of the metro escalators if they insist on riding the thing all the way down, were safely ensconced in the terminals at Regan National Airport.
Gosh, and I was going to ask you to send me a really cool Obama keepsake . . .
Hey, that velvet painting…keep an eye for when it goes to half price, ok?
Hey, Mickie! Velvet paintings always remind me of the one in Fred Yan…….y’s grungy garage apartment. Remember? It was a naked woman half out of the water with one breast floating. Am sure I remember the place better than you…
“Living in the DC area right now is like a perpetual trip through Graceland” – - great description! And so true, I walked through a good bit of the Mall area in DC yesterday and I was astonished with the number of gaudy trinkets of the type you describe. They weren’t flying off the shelves, so I think you might get that velvet painting at half price after all…
As you know, I have been a die hard Obama fan from the begining. I went and saw him in a hotel ballroom in KC before he spoke to thousands in outdoor venues…. and I am sad to admit… the inauguration itself was not that great. I think I had higher expectations. Don’t get me wrong, being there, and the act in and of itself was amazing, but as we both agreed, I think there were better momments from that weekend…. .and after reading your blog, I have to say I am really disappointed to learn that the quartet was fake playing while we listened to a recording. I am really disappointed by that.