RAGING   GLORY

*

*

The   D.C.  Dispatches
[Revised Edition]

*

1 – Jan. 14^th -   Barackstock on Sunday

2 – Jan 17^th –  We’re Gonna Sing

3 – Jan. 18^th – The Baltimore Report

4 – Jan 19^th –  Blissfully Ravaged In Democracy

5 – Jan 20^th –  The Day That Could Never Happen

6 – Jan 21^st – The Day Everything Changed

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Barackstock on Sunday

Hey Homies of the BrotherHood of all that is Good!

The “Mission Inauguration” — Shucks & Awww Ground Operation has Commenced.

Other than Tuesday’s 11:30 – 1:00 swearing-in coverage, this Sunday’s concert will be your best chance to enjoy the Inaugural jazz without being there.

Here’s what we know  . . .

2:30PM — The Welcoming Event -
“We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial”
Obama & family WILL be there.
HBO is producing.

The Official Line-up so far . . .

Bruce Springsteen
Stevie Wonder
Bono
Sheryl Crow
John Mellencamp
will.i.am
John Legend
Herbie Hancock
Beyonce
Shakira
Mary J. Blige
James Taylor
Garth Brooks
Usher
Josh Groban

Martin Luther King’s son, Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx, Denzel Washington and Samuel Jackson will be among those reading historical & inspirational passages.

More as it develops 

Brian O’Bama

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

We’re  Gonna  Sing

[#2  --  January 17^th]

Checkin in from Yasgur’s Farm,
Maggie’s Farm,
Obama’s Farm.

Just got the physical ticket in hand and’ll be right up front for the swearing-in on Tuesday.

Going On The Road in a few minutes to Baltimore for the Whistle Stop tour — the train tracks, Festival Express, my grandfather George the CPR engineer, the Dream Tracks Indian book with Teri McLuhan, the hopping trains in the Peg to get around town — all clicketty-clackin into one.

Barack and Joe ridin’ the rails,
from Constitution Hall in Philadelphia to Constitution Avenue in Washington,

and Brian & Mitch are Jack-&-Nealing in the salt-streaked Blue Bomber Cruiser
lookin like it’s burned white through re-entry
from driving like lightning through the salt-dusted blizzard roads,
chasing history’s trains
and America’s future.

*
The HBO stage at the Lincoln Memorial is just Gorgeous and HUGE!
This is SO Woodstock –
in the 21st Century.
It’s entirely custom designed and built for this one concert,
with camera booms swooping,
and dozens of Jumbotrons rippling the images across the Reflecting Pool
to America,
and the world,
this one, short, creative human fireworks celebration.

So right.

And now

Breaking News:

This musical spiritual moment will be beaming live into your eyes starting at 2:30 Sunday for free on every HBO station in North America!

This is a visual auditory novel — a large canvas that’s being painted by many of the greatest artists of our time, for one moment only.

As a species, we’ve done some things right.
And there’s Lots of work ahead,
But for a moment,
We’re gonna sing.

surreally,
on Christmas Eve in the Universe,

Brian O’Bamathon

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Baltimore Report  –  Bama Sightings and Concert Rehearsal

[#3  January 18^th]

I saw The Man in Baltimore today!   :-)
woo-woo!!  goo-goo ga’chooo-chooo!
He & Michelle and Joe & Jill all went up the steps at the small old-world town hall square in front of City Hall, maybe 30,000 people, we breezed right in.  You can watch the speech online but he was talking a lot about the history of America and how the great works that prior Americans did need to inspire us to rise to that in our own lives, and collectively as a nation.

*

He just came across as so comfortable — staying a long time afterwards shaking hands and just hanging and waving and being very calm and kind to people.

The guy’s in the middle of this Whistle Stop whirlwind and about to start the hardest job in the world in the middle of two wars and a depression, and he’s just buoyant.  He instills confidence.  And earnestness.  And honesty.  And a friendliness.

I talked to a couple different women who had gone to Martin Luther King’s “I Had a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in ‘63 — and one of them remembered that “scrawny nasal singer with a guitar“. 

Afterwards, the streets in every direction were like a Dead parking lot with happy people selling just about anything you could think of with some image of Obama on it — toy trains, toques, posters, postcards, baby clothes, flags, car window flags, every possible article of clothing from jackets to underwear, every type of glassware for the kitchen, wooden flutes, bobblehead dolls . . .

Baltimore is the third city I’ve been to that was completely jazzed and transformed by the joy, pride and hope that this guy brings to people’s hearts (after New York and D.C.)  You could hear “O – ba -  ma” randomly hollered from car windows.  And groups of strangers starting to chant, “Yes we can,” for no particular reason, and then laughing that they’d all done it together.

*

We drove back from Baltimore (where we’d parked at the classic Camden Yards Ballpark) and went straight to The National Mall for the concert rehearsal, joining maybe a hundred people there in the cold sub-zero night.

And who should be playing as we walk (and then run) in but U2!    Priiiiiide, in the name of love.  And City of Blinding Lights, Obama’s campaign and favorite U2 song, and which the band also played (debuted?) outdoors at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.  Bono’s struttin around like Mick Jagger, and Clayton’s wearing this huge hooded parka that looks so ridiculous, like a Neil Young Road-eye.  : -)

Then James Taylor came out and did three takes of this beautiful, long Shower The People you love with love, with John Legend, Jennifer Nettles and others really stretching it out vocally into some transcendent channeling chant off the final refrain.  [and P.S. -- that 3^rd take was even better than the Sunday show!]

Then Garth Brooks ran though a couple takes of a 3-song medley that includes bye bye Miss American Pie, which is just gonna go over so freakin’ well!  The guy’s such a born entertainer.  He has this whole choir of kids that come out and just lift it. There were about a hundred of us in a space designed for millions, but he was just giving it like we were the world.

And then afterwards, I’ve never been much of a Garth Brooks guy, but he came over to where we were standing and talked to every single person, signed anything for them, posed for pictures.  I talked to him for bit, asked him how Don McLean was doing — he said, “He’s doing great.  He’s too stubborn to have it any other way.”    I told him I’d seen them duet at his show in Central Park, and he was, “Ah boy, you sure hit the big ones!”    After he’d talked to everybody and his handlers were sighing, “Thank gawd!  Let’s gooo!” just then this whole bus full of people suddenly arrive.  “Hey, Garth!  We’re from Texas!” they’re yelling as the whole herd of them runs up to him waving their cameras.   

Brian  (and Garth)

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy

[#4   --  January 19^th]     (post-concert)

“blissfully ravaged in democracy”

were the only words I was able to scribble down
after returning home from the wars,
eyelashes singed and clothes still smoldering
from celebrating this democracy and world we live in.

There was a joy that I’ve rarely felt before,
and it came after the concert
biking around the Washington Monument and the Capital Dome
with all the families of America,
whether they were foreigners just arrived,
or descendants of slaves,
whether in new full-length leather coats,
or mama’s cloth rag from the attic,
whether they squeezed the family in the car and drove up from Atlanta,
or flew in from Boston for the day,
everyone was united in their love passion for Democracy  –

and how it’s not something you have,
but something you DO.

And these people and this spirit
is what’s on display for the world to see in Washington DC right now.

Here’s kids running up the steps of the Capital
and jumping for joy that they are where they are,
trading off cameras to send pictures home.

Today, it was all about the kids
in each of us
being ignited.

It’s the families — the fathers and mothers shepherding their herds,
THAT was powerful.
Bono singing Pride, in the name of love,
from Martin Luther King’s stage,
or Will.I.Am’s riffing vocal rap and Sheryl Crow’s grooving on Bob Marley’s One Love,
or Stevie Wonder taking us to a Higher Ground in that climactic jam,
or John Mellencamp’s Ain’t that America? that I kept singing all afternoon
biking through the shining rainbow faces of America,
or the soulful duet of A Change Is Gonna Come by Bettye LaVette and Bon Jovi — that Stole the freakin show,         [click on any to see and hear]

{ The Prez  n  The Queen }

or of course Barack’s Amazing speech of beauty, strength and brevity.

All that was powerful . . .
But it all came down to families,

of relations or not,
of natural-born Americans
or not,
who recognize how great
voting
and voting for Hope can be.

And we’re all the living proof
we need.

Brian

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Day That Could Never Happen

[#5  January 20^th]     (pre-Ianug)

Brothers and Sisters of the Universe,

The final and official stage of our National Transformation is here –
And all of us are taking The Oath
to be more understanding of others
and to help each other as ourselves.

And masses of Hopesters and Democracy-loving Americans have made it to the mountaintop, running like water through the streets, which are all closed to cars this glorious day.  There’s t-shirt and button vendors lining every riverbank;  giant rows of port-o-potties are winding through the trees like a giant Christo installation;  and packs of police and fatigue-wearing National Guard everywhere are — but never a single arrest is ever made.

The High temperature tomorrow is predicted to be maybe 32 degrees -
so, feel that freeze when you sees
those couple million standing there in majestic dignity (as MLK called it).

After it’s over, Obama and everyone on stage will walk back inside the Capital Building where the new President has lunch with the members of Congress.

As usual for this kind of moment, I highly recommend hitting “mute” as soon as it’s over so you can let it sink in and form Your Own opinions – You saw it for yourself;  the talking heads will still be babbling about it years from now.

At 1:20-ish,  a large helicopter will rise up from the other side of the Capital building and ex-President Bush will fly the hell out of our lives.  It’s a very cool visual moment — the peaceful hand-off of the leadership of the most powerful country in the world.

3:45-ish   the parade begins — as President Obama rides in his new tank Caddy from the Capital Building along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

Live it or lose it.

scrumptiously & surreally,

Brian

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Day Everything Changed

[#6  --  January  21^st]        (post Inaug)

There’ll never be anything like this in my lifetime.

The greatest moment of my life?  Probably.

And I got to spend it all with my best poli-warrior buddy, Mitch!

He always “got it”, and we fully lived Clinton’s election and inauguration – but as great as all that was . . . this was transcendent, beyond words.

It’s changing history –  besides eveverything else, a major nation electing a minority to lead it — and as it was happening, every single one of the 2 million people I met were Beaming with joy.  In terms of a crowd euphoric, the only thing I ever heard of that was like this was Woodstock in ‘69.  And that changed a lot, but this was Woodstock in the seat of power.  Jimi’s Star-Spangled Banner was the prelude, and a scant 40 years later, here’s that scorching soul of new thinking actually overtaking the reigns of government.  As Barack put it in his speech, roughly, “That a man who not long ago might not have been served at a local restaurant could now stand before you to take the most sacred oath in this nation shows how far we have come.”

Rollin in after 9 hours of sub-zero frost I looked like a guy stumbling down off Everest — white parched lips, face scorched red from freezing, but liquid eyes blazing.  And the thing I miss most in the tranquil heat of home are the screams of joy I heard all day long.

So, please excuse if this isn’t polished sculpture — but the levee’s broken and emotions runneth over.  I know you have our own wonderful memories of this day and what it all meant, but here’s a tale of the day everything changed from someone who was there  . . .

*

I left the apt. in Virginia at 9:30 by bike.  It was 22 degrees — without riding into the wind.  Starting out in the carless streets of Rossyln and crossing the scary-empty bridge it was like living through one of those end-of-the-world movies.  Not only were there no cars, but all the people were already at “the show” and it was just me and the wind.  I finally got to the last point they’d let me ride by about 10:15, worked the miles of snaking security line, and was inside the gates by 10:45.

My ticket was for the Blue South field which was off center, but after seeing the freeform mayhem once you were inside the security zone, I figured I could wing it, and weaved and excuse-me’d toward the center, and in no time I was right in front of the stage!

And then the whole show goes down, which you saw on TV.  Part of the fun of being there was all the running commentary everyone was making, like me yelling, “Dr. Strangelove” at Dick Cheney in his wheelchair, the comical booing of Bush, the “Na-na, na-na-na-na, hey hey, good bye” chants.  It was all in good fun.  And of course I just loved Aretha singing, “Let freedom ring!“  And that beautiful orchestral piece by John Williams, with Yo-Yo, Itzhak & company elevating us like wind into heaven.   And my new-favorite Reverend Lowery closing the show with the poetry of Amen.  And of course Barack’s speech.  But you saw all that for yourself.

{That’s Barack delivering his Address, looking to his left.}

*

THE PARTY AT THE PODIUM

When the official program was over, the fun started.    Just as I figured, everyone started to leave.  Once again I was happy I grew up in Winnipeg and could handle a little cold, and I just stepped over the green fence and walked straight to the podium.  Security was over.  The new President and all the ex’s were back inside the Capital building — there was nothing to “secure” anymore.  So I just breezed right the heck up there and started the party.

Those who were really touched by what happened were still sitting there aglow.  A few others, like me, had shimmied up on the energy waves.  I just kept riding it till I was right below the podium with the music stands and walls of cameras on either side.  It was just a gorgeous party — and it went on for hours.  People from all over the country and all over the world were handing each other their cameras, laughing, and ouing and awing.  And looking out at the crowd from the Capital hill and seeing people all the way to the horizon — what a sight!  What a moment.  There was no one there who’ll ever forget it.

And then of course when the Marine One helicopter rose up from behind the Capital with the now-former President on board, and once again without a shot being fired, the most powerful nation on earth changed it’s leader — and elected a member of a minority “race”.  We gotta be doing something right.

*

I could’ve lived in that party for the rest of my life.  And in fact I think I will.  Everyone was SO happy, beaming, radiating, loving, friendly.  Any which way you turned was another amazing picture.  Straight up at the glowing Capital Dome.  Looking out at the masses of people as far as you could see.  Looking into the blissful faces right next to you.  Looking up at the deep rich red, white & blue flags draping the brilliant white Capital.  The sun coming out from behind occasional clouds in the bright blue sky with the flags flapping against it.  Just overwhelming beauty.

Cell phone access was way-intermittent — messages coming in from Canada, New York City, Pennsylvania, California, and friends in the crowd trying to find me.  So I head on down outta the party to the now vacant Mall, and go to my favorite General’s monument, Ulysses S. Grant majestically on a horse right at the foot of the Capital, looking straight down the Mall — I was just communing with the big guy.  And right in front, the Capital Reflecting Pool is frozen, there’s one person skating on it, and scads of kids running and sliding on the first ice surface they’ve ever seen.

It’s a grounding spot for people to find me, and Democracy-loving road warrior Nadette from New York (the only person I know who made both the election night at Barackefeller Center in NYC and the Inauguration in D.C.) pulls it off, and so up we ramble back to the Podium Party, and Lord knows it’s still goin on.

*

And after another hour of New Years Eve hugging and doing unto others, I walked over a few feet to where you could actually look all the way from the Capital down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House — all cleared off and waiting for a parade.  And then Boom ! — suddenly there’s a roaring stream of blue motorcycle cops to my right.  A loud cheer go up from a crowd far away.  Some flags are marching past.  A band is playing.  “The parade’s starting!”

Everybody said you can’t do both.  It’s either the parade or the Inaug.
But I’m walkin forward.
I ask a cop, “Was that Obama that went by right in front?”
“No, there’s a couple of bands first, then him.”

Oh my God, really?

The whole thing is — I’m still inside the Capital grounds.  Everyone coming for the parade is on the other side of the Avenue.  So I just start walking towards it, skip over a few fences, la dee-dah across a grass field, and I’m right at the point where the cars are pulling out of the Capital!

And there’s the press trucks shooting backwards behind them — there’s Andrea Mitchell reporting from the back of one of them.

“They’re coming!” I realize.  “I’m right here!”

And then Boom! — there he is!  There’s “the Beast” — the new nuclear-proof Cadillac — and there’s Michelle 20 feet in front of me, there’s the kids sitting facing their parents and all waving and beaming out the windows, and there’s Barack on the other side!  I’m right freakin here!  This is the whole Big Parade Moment that people have lined up for since 7AM.

Not only did I see the swearing-in beginning of this Presidency right up front, but I’m standing on the curb as our new President Obama drives by on his Inaugural trip to the White House!

*

This was God’s gift.  I had put so much into doing the Inaug right, I had no plans or hope of seeing the parade — and here I am a few feet from the family sedan!

All sorts of other amazing, touching, life-giving moments happened with people of every age and color, it would take a long night of beers just to scratch the surface, but this was The Moment — God’s glowing gold bow on the gift of the Inauguration, after a day of freezing, weeks of planning, months of campaigning, and a lifetime of volunteering in Democracy — and this is the thanks I get!

*

Take what You’ve gathered from the day, or let contemporary historians nudge you, but I just wanted to share one person’s experience of participating in Democracy the day history changed.

This will be on postage stamps and dollar bills a hundred years from now.  And no matter where you were, you lived to see it.  Thank your spirit source.

And now the rest is up to us.

Brian O’Bamathon

karmacoupon@gmail.com

BrianHassett.com