Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration

The department chair rolled a computer hooked up to a projector out into the hall this morning, put up a screen, hooked the computer up to the CNN live-stream, and projected the inauguration for everyone to see. I spent most of the morning propped against a wall, watching. When it came time for the new president to take his oath, the hallway was packed. Instructors who had classes on that floor brought their students out to watch. Everyone watched raptly, in total silence, and applauded when it was over. The department chair cried. I got all choked up. It struck me as really wonderful that, as flawed as this country is, we were able to make a change like this peacefully and joyfully.

Other high points:
  • Aretha--voice and hat! :)
  • the wonderful quartet of Itzak Perlman, YoYo Ma, Anthony McGill, and Gabriela Montero
  • the Marine Corp Band playing Sousa marches
  • all those young, taut, serious servicemen in their dress uniforms
  • Sasha Obama's pink coat and orange scarf and mittens

Like most of female America, I guess, I'm waiting to see what Michelle Obama wears tonight. I thought her inaugural outfit was very on-pitch--she wears clothes well and knows exactly what looks good on her, and manages to combine sort of conservative elegance with a pop of surprise, without going over the top.

I don't have TV, so this was the first time I've seen Obama speak. There's an aura of Kennedy-esque Camelot over the Obamas, but watching the speech I thought there's also a big streak of Woodrow Wilson in the guy--it was easy to see he'd been a teacher!

Bless them. They have a lot of expectations to live up to.

2 comments:

Jane said...

I don't watch TV much either, but Obama is worth watching. If you ever want to watch speeches, etc. you can do what I do: go to nytimes.com. They have multimedia versions of lots of speeches--video, transcript, and an index of topics in the speech!

I love it!

T-Mom said...

Yeah, but I've got dial-up. I can't watch video at home. One of these days I'll get brave and ditch my landline and use the phone money for DSL instead.