Service and commerce

Monday, January 19, Martin Luther King’s birthday, was designated as a day of service. In the D.C. area, there were dozens and dozens of opportunities to sign up to help. You could help paint a school, plant a tree, clean up the Anacostia river front. For one of the bigger operations, our mayor, Adrian Fenty, asked volunteers to sign up and come to RFK Stadium to help assemble care packages for the troops. The goal – 75,000 care packages and hand written letters from the volunteers.

At 1:30, I went to the stadium with my friends T & B, who flew in from Los Angeles for the inauguration. Once there we received a quick orientation and went inside the heated tents where we spent an hour walking along with bags ‘trick or treating’ as other volunteers dropped sunscreen, energy gel, pens, and pads into our bags. In less than an hour, we filled about 24 care packages, wrote three letters, and were finished. Simple, easy, well-organized. The final total for the event – 85,000 care packages filled by 12,000 volunteers.

And we still had time to look at the Obama goods being hawked outside the stadium by a gauntlet of vendors – Obama calendars, shirts, hats, buttons, posters, and air fresheners. As we walked by, one particularly enterprising vendor yelled, "They done put Barack Obama on an air freshener, y'all." We couldn't resist a pitch like that and bought three for $5.00.

Getting back to 'normal'

After three days of inaugural activities, it looks like the party is about over. In Washington, roads and bridges are again clear, commuters are commuting, and the Federal government is open for business. But what a couple of days!  I'll be doing a few posts to wrap up what I saw and heard from January 18 - 20.

For me, the festivities (and work) started with the Opening Ceremonies, a free concert, at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday. Earlier this month, I was one of 11,000 people selected from the 80,000 people who offered to volunteer during the inauguration. I was asked to work at the Opening Ceremonies concert, so I attended one training session, then arrived on the mall at 10:00 a.m. on January 18. By that time, thousands of people had already arrived, and they continued to pour in the gate where I was stationed until it was closed by Secret Service at 1:00. Scores of baffled people stood outside the gate on 17th Street until they realized they weren't getting in and moved across the street to watch the three jumbo screens facing the Washington Monument (one of the best vantage points, I thought).

With no work to do, I wandered the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial and found a spot where I could sit, hear, and watch the concert on a giant screen. (There were more than 10,000 invited guests up front, so the other 290,000 of us basically watched the show on the screens.) 

You've probably seen the concert or excerpts by now, so I'll just say from within the crowd the highlights seemed to be Bob Marley's "One Love" sung by Sheryl Crow and Will.i.am with Herbie Hancock, Garth Brooks (really!!) getting the crowd dancing with "American Pie" and "Shout," and U2 performing "Pride (in the Name of Love)," their majestic ode to Martin Luther King. As with everything Obama, the choreography was great. For the most part, speakers like Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington,and Jack Black (what??) did a fine job reading about important moments in American history and presidential actions in times of crisis over well-edited video segments.

Despite an odd segment with a bald eagle, the show moved along quickly though some people got restless and started to trickle out about 1/2 way through. I was surprised that some even left during Obama's short speech, but I'm sure they had something really important they needed to take care of at that exact moment.

Suddenly, a volunteer team leader found me and I was called back to work, forcing me to miss the "This Land is Your Land" finale with Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen and Beyonce's "America the Beautiful." But thanks to the wonder of youtube, I feel like I was almost there. 

Look Here Film Buffs -- Free Movies

From January 15 - February 27, on Thursday and Friday nights, the Royal Thai Embassy will be hosting a Thai Film Festival in the Multimedia Room on the ground floor of the embassy (Georgetown area between M and K Streets). The films are free and so are the Thai snacks, but you do need to R.S.V.P. Popcorn, soda, and beer will also available. For complete information, check out their Web site, http://www.thaiembdc.org/CalturalCalendar/event.aspx

Bruce, Bono, Stevie, Garth, Beyonce, and Renee at Lincoln Memorial

The Presidential Inaugural Committee has just announced the 'initial' lineup for the WE ARE ONE: THE OBAMA INAUGURAL CELEBRATION AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL on January 18. Here is the exact understated listing as it was released (in alphabetical order):

Musical performers scheduled for the event include 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 don't see Jimmy Buffet on this list, so the coast is clear - it should be a great show.)

What's missing here? Well, the time of the event for one, although I've heard it may be around noon. Also details about facilities, jumbo screens, entrance locations, security details, what you can bring, etc. Basically just about everything except the location and this initial list of performers.

On Sunday evening from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Eastern, HBO will broadcast the show using an open signal, meaning you can see it if you have cable or satellite TV. (Hey, that conflicts with the Ravens/Steelers game! I guess these folks aren't football fans).

More to come, we hope.

Rock the Vote concert just announced!

Here's another just-announced event on sale today. January 19 at the 9:30 Club.

Honky-tonkin at Iota, January 13

This just in from ‘our gal in Austin’ –

Next Tuesday, January 13, legendary singer/songwriter guitarist James Intveld will be at Iota. I remember years ago (that means the 80s) he played regularly around Los Angeles. It seemed like every week he was playing in one club or another. He's one of those hard-working and rare musicians who can and does play everything (guitar, bass, drums. . . ) and has a great voice. Roots rock, rockabilly, country, blues. Check ‘im out. Showtime 8:30.

http://www.jamesintveld.com/

Iota Club and Café
2832 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22201
703-522-8340

Reality and Rumor in Obamaland

Today we're getting a little bit of reality and a lot of rumors about inaugural events taking place between January 17 - January 20. The biggest rumor is that Bruce Springsteen will open the show on the 18th at the Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Post's inaugural blog reports that Springsteen has indeed been asked to play. This one could be true - Bruce did spend a good amount of time campaigning for Obama AND he does have a new CD coming out later this month. The 90-minute (what?! - it'll take us that long to get there) event will be broadcast live on HBO - Obama and Biden will both be there. No word on the start time yet. (Hey, as long as they don't invite Jimmy Buffet, this ought to be worth checking out.)

As you've probably seen by now, every organization, neighborhood, and interest group is having some sort of inaugural ball-Obama event that weekend. If you're willing to take at least a $100 chance, you have a lot of options. Some sound cool but pricey (The Green Ball, $500 a ticket, http://www.greeninauguralball.com/about.html), but most sound, ummm, a little less cool (Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party's Inaugural Celebration, $100).

Still, you may want to get out, so here are two options to keep you busy those cold winter nights: 

Obamarama: DC Blues Society's Pre-Inaugural Party with CW Harrington 

C.W. Harrington and his six-piece band perform blues, jazz, R&B and soul music at the DC Blues Society's pre-inauguration party Obamarama at Surf Club Live in Hyattsville. Veteran musician Harrington has worked with such legends as Lou Rawls and Wilson Pickett. 

Surf Club Live (Hyattsville, MD)
Saturday, Jan. 17 @ 8:30pm

$12.00

Dance You Can Believe In
Start the party early and let Moby kick-off your inaugural week the right way. I mean, how many times do you get to dance until dawn in DC?

9:30 Club
MOBY (dj set)
January 18, doors open at midnight, dancing until dawn

$35.00