I watched Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration yesterday via an internet connection in Brixton. I was the only American in the room, and couldn’t help but crack jokes about Dianne Feinstein’s hair and the strange pit orchestra they assembled for the event (Watching the event live, Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman seemed bored and under-used to me. It was later reported that they weren’t in fact playing).
One young woman in the room noted that Aretha Franklin’s best singing days had probably passed (it was difficult not to agree, but hey, that was a hell of a hat she had on). The full blog post at INTELLIGENT LIFE
Categories: Blogs
Tagged: aretha franklin, barack obama, inauguration, nation, obama, politics
Just before midnight on election night 2008 I’m scolded by a Starbucks manager for attempting to interview one of his employees–a Latvian teen wearing a plastic Uncle Sam top hat and a red, white, and blue lei around his neck. People are eating free Subway sandwiches and Burger King fries and whoppers and dancing to a cover band belting out Johnny Cash songs.
A young guy with a mohawk and an American flag painted on the side of his head bumps into me and spills my coffee at around 1am. I turn to ask Chris, a guy in his early 60s married to a woman from Manhattan, how important he thinks this election is for Brits. “The US is like a video game that we Brits like to watch”, he tells me. “We don’t understand it one bit, but we’re fascinated.”
The full story at Intelligent Life
Categories: Blogs · My articles
Tagged: barack obama, election, news, obama, politics
