Saint Obama

Minutes after I filed my pictures I got an instant message from Preston on the picture desk. “Did you buy one?” Preston was referring to the religious style votive candles with an image of Barack Obama’s face on the body of St. Martin de Porres. Shortly after, I started to get messages about people wanting me to buy them for them.

The 10 inch candles have been flying off the shelves at a Noe Valley novelty shop and at the same time have angered local religious leaders. The folks at the St. Philip the Apostle Church see it as sacrilegious. Most people see it as just a funny candle.
It is kind of an interesting story about how these candles came to be. A local realtor was struggling to make ends meet and decided to enroll in a graphic design class. After learning a few tricks he came up with the candle design. Since December, the “Just For Fun” store in San Francisco has sold over 1,000 of the candles at $12.95 a pop. There is also a two foot tall option that retails for $395. They have yet to sell one of those.

44

It was hard to pull myself out of bed before 5am on Inauguration Day. My body felt battered. I have been walking all over DC since with a heavy bag of equipment since starting work on Saturday. Today will be a long one, at least 18 hours when all said and done.

I am staying at a friend’s house on Capitol Hill so I could avoid the massive crowds on the Metro. Had I stayed at the hotel in Alexandria, I would have had to be up and out the door by 3:30 to get on the first train at 4am. Every minute of sleep will help me get through this day.

After a mile walk, I arrived at the Capitol press check-in. There was supposed to be a point of entry that was open from 4-6am before being moved to another location. Of course, the cops claimed that didn't exist (even though it did) and the press would instead have to go through the Rayburn Building to be screened. So, me and a handful of other press folks went through there. When we tried to leave the building to go to the Capitol we were told that we could not go there. In the end, we all had to be re-screened to leave the building so we could go wait in another line to be screened again. I didn’t step foot on the Capitol grounds until after 7am.
I was in my position on the North riser by 8am. The program would begin a little after 11am. From my vantage point I could see the Mall filling in with people. The crowds were insane. There was also a ton of cops, hundreds lined the streets. The sun was out, which was great, but wind started to pick up and it got really cold. You really felt the chilly air being on top of that riser. We did our best to shield ourselves from the cold. People in crowd huddled together to keep warm.

We had 8 shooters for the swearing in. My position would look at Obama’s back as he was sworn in. In the end, this was fine since there was somewhat of a controversy about Justice Roberts’ flub when reciting the oath of office to Obama. Even some of the less desirable positions can often yield important and interesting photos. Every component of the team comes together for a solid final report.

The crowd started to get excited when the Presidential motorcade made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue to bring the incoming and outgoing presidents and VPs to the ceremony. I couldn’t wait to get this show on the road, it wasn’t getting any warmer. I’m so happy it wasn’t raining. That would have been bad.
The swearing in was quick and the speakers were limited. Cheney looked miserable in his wheelchair wearing his sinister black hat and puffy third grader gloves. I mean, he usually looks miserable but the wheelchair made him look even more so. After Obama was sworn in and gave his speech, Bush gave his a big hug and that was all she wrote. When it was over, still photographers had to hustle to an awaiting shuttle that would drop us off at spots along the parade route while others would be in front of the motorcade on a flatbed truck. As we assembled on the steps of the Capitol, a Marine helicopter flew overhead carrying the now former President George Bush. It was no longer called Marine One for his quick trip Andrew’s Air Force base and then home to Texas. I overheard a few unkind words as the chopper passed.
As we rode the shuttle down Pennsylvania Avenue, we all noticed the bleachers that lined the street were practically empty. It was like a ghost town. Where’d all those people go? Even as we approached my position in front of the White House, the seats were more than half empty. Apparently there was some kind of problem with the security checkpoints. I think people were just frozen from standing out on the Mall all day that they said screw it and went back to their hotel.
A small group of us waited on the roof of the press stand across the street from the White House. It was still breezy and getting colder by the minute. The parade was supposed to start at 2pm but ended up starting close to 2 hours late. We all watched the really nice light slowly disappear. When Obama finally made his way down the street on foot, we were for the most part blocked by the press trucks. It was a lot of waiting for very little.
I was able to choke down a hamburger before putting my suit on and heading to the Home States Ball - one of the 10 plus balls that the Obamas would attend. It was a mile or so trek to the convention center. My legs were holding up, but they were definitely tired. While walking, we passed Richard Branson on the street. He appeared to be struggling with his luggage. It was pretty random to see him there y himself. I later saw Ron Howard walking along by himself. Equally as random.
A cheesy cover band entertained us with Journey and Kool and the Gang songs as we waited for over two hours for the President and the First Lady to arrive at the ball. Shortly after 9, the President arrived. He and Michelle greeted the crowd, had a quick dance and were out the door in about 5 minutes. After filing, I was wiped, but needed a drink. I headed to a Burning Man type party with my pal Allison Shelley from the Washington Times. The party was fun. There were fire dancers (which we missed) belly dancers, a little mini rave room and plenty of art. It was an interesting end to a long and tiring day.

SFO - DCA

It was like a slap in the face the second I walked out of the terminal at National Airport. The cab driver told me that it was eight degrees – felt colder than that. It’s quite the contrast to the unseasonably high temperatures that I left behind in San Francisco. I hope it warms up before Tuesday.

After a quiet night and a late rise, I made my way to DC from my hotel in Alexandria. My boss booked us rooms in Virginia several months back as Washington hotels were becoming scarce and rates were skyrocketing. Even in Alexandria the rooms were fetching over $400 a night at the Holiday Inn that usually books for around $129. My first day was mellow, picking up credentials and doing a few features before covering a ball in the evening. There were people from all over the country on the Metro. Everyone was in a good mood and having fun despite the frigid weather.
The streets around the White House were clogged with people taking pictures and buying schwag from street vendors. You could buy just about anything with Obama’s face on it. There were dozens of shirts, ties, hats, plates, posters, buttons and even watches. Most of it was extremely tacky. T-shirts with an iron on rubber patch image of the “First Family” superimposed in front of the White House looked like an ad for a new sitcom. There was a button that showed Obama whispering into Michelle’s ear that could have easily been the cover of a cheesy soft core porn novel.
Sound checks were underway at the Lincoln Memorial for the big “We Are One” concert that was set for Sunday. When I arrived, John Mellencamp was onstage rehearsing “Pink Houses” and a crowd of people had gathered behind the security fence to watch. I showed my credential for the show to the Park Police officer and he let me into the secured area. I mingled around and shot a few frames of Mellencamp. I soon realized that I wasn’t supposed to be in the area since everyone had pre-event credentials. So, I hid my credentials and tried to keep a low profile until the crews broke for lunch. It was puzzling to me that I could get through all that security with the wrong pass.
I arrived at the People’s Inaugural Ball to discover that I was the first one there. When I say the first one, I’m not saying the first press person, I was pretty much the first person. Not a good sign. I asked the man at the press check-in if he was expecting any notable people to be in attendance. He kind of looked at me blankly for a second and then rattled off a short list of former NFL players. I took that as a no.
I wandered around the ball for close to 2 hours as a few dozen people filed in. It was a weird setup for a ball. They had a mini flea market in the lobby where you could buy custom made suits and art of Barack Obama. In the ballroom a wedding type band played jazz tunes and a crowd of elderly folks grazed on buffet food. It was dead. It was like a 50th wedding anniversary party at a senior citizen home in central Florida, but not as cool. After 2 hours I left and headed to Old Ebbits Grill for dinner with friends.

Some Good News

Amidst all the doom and gloom of late, a few positive things happened on Monday. I covered a somewhat positive story today and friend got himself a really sweet job.

My friend Pete Souza, a talented photographer and a super nice guy, was named as Barack Obama’s White House photographer. The White House if familiar territory for Pete, he served as Ronald Reagan’s photographer during his second term in office. Pete will do a great job documenting Obama’s historic presidency. Congratulations Pete, the position is well deserved. A story about Pete and the new job can be found here.
The second thing isn’t as exciting as that, but it was nice to cover something related to the economy that wasn’t bad news. Since people have all but stopped buying new cars, auto repair shops are seeing a surge in business. It makes sense, people would rather invest 600 or so dollars to maintain there aging car instead of dropping a bunch of cash and taking on a payment for a new one.
I visited a couple of repair shops, both were filled with cars. There were lots of cars in for tune ups and oil changes. Tires were also popular. Fred, one of the owner’s of San Rafael Firestone, apologized that the shop was a little messy. He said it had been too busy lately for the guys to give the shop a good cleaning. Seemed like a good excuse to me.

A First Time For Everything

After two days of closed meetings, President-elect Obama made his first appearance. His highly anticipated first official press conference since being elected would follow a meeting with his economic advisory board. Finally, a chance to get a decent photo of this guy. We had been staking out his office for a couple of days with little luck.

The presser was being held in the basement of the Hilton Hotel, which is conveniently located across the street from where I am staying. An easy commute. The place was packed when I got there. There had to be a couple hundred people jammed into the room with many that couldn’t get in. There was media from all over the world, I heard French, Japanese and Spanish being spoken.

A podium was set up in front of flags with a placard that said “The Office of the President Elect”. Of course, everyone posed for pictures in front of that, including me. I’m such a dork.

It was a simple setup, main riser and a cut. I got the cut and Scott took the main. I set up a remote, which of course didn’t work very well. There was one good frame that would have been great if it was actually in focus.
Obama seemed surprised when the press corp came to their feet when he arrived at the press conference. I guess he was used to the press conferences on the trail where the press didn’t show that kind of respect. Biden and Rahm Emanuel were with him along with a dozen of his economic advisors. Biden didn’t say a word during the presser. I’m sure if Palin had been there she would have asked to give a speech, just like she asked to do before McCain gave his concession speech on Tuesday. Is she really that clueless or is that just the cowardly gotcha elite media makin stuff up again. Before taking a few questions from the press, Obama made a statement that he read directly from notes. It wasn’t like his stump speeches that he could rattle off from memory. It wasn’t the most eloquent of speeches. But, I don’t think anyone was expecting a great moment in presidential (elect) speeches. Maybe they were, what do I know?
The Q&A session was brief, nine questions in all. All of the questions were on important topics like the war and the economy. All except one which was about what kind of dog the first family was going to get. Forget about all those daunting issues that he faces, lets talk puppies. That’s when Obama called himself a mutt when referring to adopting a dog from the pound. And with that, 19 minutes after he started the presser, it was over.

History

I witnessed history last night. Barack Obama became the first African American to become President of the United States. It was one of the most amazing events that I have ever had the privilege of seeing with my own eyes – or in my case, through a lens. By far, the best part of my job is all the historic things I have been able to see. I feel very lucky.

I was one of 7 Getty photographers covering the election night party in Chicago. My day started out before the sun came up as me and my co-worker Scott Olson went to the polling site where Obama would be voting. Upon returning to the hotel, me and the rest of the team gathered our equipment and walked over to the site. We did final tweaking on our remotes and did final tests. And then we waited. We were hoping that we wouldn’t have a repeat of 2004 when we waited until 4:00 am only to be told that the election was too close to call and the event was canceled.

The day could not have been more perfect. A balmy seventy degree day cooled off to a comfortable evening. No freezing cold wind or rain. Were we really in Chicago? An estimated 240,000 filled Grant Park and the surrounding streets.
My position was a floor position, which meant I was shooting from the middle of the crowd at Grant Park. The small number of photographers that were given floor passes had to move fast to stake out positions as the general public flooded in. Me and my pals Shannon Stapleton (Reuters) and David Guttenfelder (AP) staked out a few spots and let the crowd fill in around us. We all had turtle stools so we stood a little taller than the crowd. The people were incredibly cool with us being there. We had feared an angry backlash and were pleasantly surprised with how accommodating people were.
I teetered on small platform of that turtle stool from about 6:30 p.m. until Obama came on stage at 11:00 p.m. My legs and knees started to hurt after the fourth hour. The weight of my cameras was brutal on my back. I couldn’t move with the crowd so tight. We watched election results roll in on a live feed of CNN. The crowd alternated between boos when McCain would win a state and thunderous cheers when Obama would win. Even though my body was aching, I was energized. This was a very cool moment in time.
It was a surprise to everyone in the crowd when CNN projected that Obama had won the election. It was close at that point and nobody was expecting it to be called to soon. The emotion that followed that announcement was unlike anything I had ever seen. People Cheered. People cried. They hugged each other and laughed. There wasn’t a face in the crowd that didn’t have a smile on it. One woman who had traveled from Columbia to be at the event stood there with tears running down her face saying “that’s my president, that’s our president.” Yes we can was being chanted and was soon changed to “Yes we did.”
Obama took to the stage at exactly 11 p.m. Barack was introduced with the new First Family. He and Michelle walked out with their two daughters to greet the crowd. It was a surreal moment. There was no music, just cheering. I kept expecting music to start blaring over the loudspeakers. It never did. Shooting from our position proved challenging as we were blocked by the thousands of small American flags that were passed out just prior to the speech. We knew this would be a tough spot to shoot from, but it all worked out in the end. It was amazing how fast the crowd thinned out once the short speech was over. Some stayed behind and danced in groups and waved campaign posters. It was like a scene out of the sixties. It is a day I will never forget.

Getting Beat in Paradise

The somber looking Obama arrived at around 7:30 on Thursday night. He’s here in Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother. Many think it will be the last time that he sees her since she is gravely ill. Since it is highly unlikely that the traveling press pool will see him during his visit, we all blast him with our flashes as he walks off of his plane in the dark. Nothing like a direct flash picture. Pretty.
The traveling press pool is comprised of three stills, me AP and Reuters. Our coverage is primarily protective coverage, you know, just in case something major happens. There are no scheduled public events during this trip, he’s only here to see his grandmother.

From the airport, the motorcade went directly to his grandmother’s house and Obama’s car went down into an underground parking garage, eluding the line of TV cameras out front awaiting his arrival. There were a couple dozen people standing across the street, some with signs, others pointing up at the top floors of the apartment building where Obama’s grandma lives. Unfortunately for all of them, they wouldn’t be seeing Obama tonight.
Have you ever had one of those days at work when things just don’t go the way you wished they had? Well, that was my Friday.

Friday started out early with a 6:30 am call time for the pool. The motorcade went back to the apartment complex where we would sit out front for most of the day. We were informed after about 3 hours into the day that Obama would be going for a walk around his old neighborhood and we (the pool) would be able to follow him for a block or so. This was good, an unexpected surprise since we all thought that we wouldn’t see him until he got on his plane later today to fly back to the mainland.

Me, Alex Brandon of AP and Hugh Gentry of Reuters along with a pool reporter and pool TV camera were escorted by our press agent and staff to the underground garage where we would rendezvous with Obama. While we were holding there, one of his aides said that he had already left and was down the street. We all moved out to the street and sure enough, he was about 3 blocks away.

The pursuit began. It first started out as a fast walk and then escalated to an all out run as Dean (our press agent) prompted us to pick up the pace. We’re all running down the street, cameras dangling – full paparazzi mode. People in cars are laughing at us. I feel as if I am on assignment for TMZ and Paris Hilton just walked into a Starbucks. It was a little embarrassing.

After about four blocks we finally catch up to Obama. We’re across the street from him as he casually strolled through the residential neighborhood. He seemed to be caught off guard as we all came storming down the street. He actually looked a little pissed. He stopped walking and looked around before saying something to the agent that was shadowing him.
This is where things started to go wrong for me. Obama continued to walk and then started to cross the street towards us. Then he stopped, turned around and went back to the sidewalk. He stood there for a minute and then started heading back towards the apartment building. Alex and Hugh were about 25 feet behind me. I was snapping frames of Obama as he walked away and then started to move over to where the others were but I couldn’t get there fast enough and missed a really good picture. Obama had crossed a footpath in part of the neighborhood that was very representative of where he grew up. I had seen this little path when we were running by it earlier. It was a real bummer to not get that shot. Everything about it worked. He was wearing jeans and flip flops, walking in full stride past palm trees and homes in a lower-middle class neighborhood. It was painful to see. Wrong place, wrong time. Sometimes there isn’t much you can do about your timing. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

There is nothing worse than missing a gem like that, especially when it was the only opportunity of the day to photograph him. I certainly did beat myself up over it. But, you know, that’s the nature of this profession. Sometimes you get the shot and others are envious and vice versa. That is unless you’re some sort of perfect photo god. It’s a healthy competition between photographers that I like but at the same time can be tough when you don’t perform to your personal standards.

Tomorrow will be another day with more opportunities to redeem myself. Hopefully I will have better timing and luck.

Hawaii 5-0

I have a really erratic work schedule. The first two days of this week started with an early morning assignment followed by another assignment in the early evening. In between my three assignments on Tuesday I found out that I was going to Hawaii the next morning. Do I have any clean underwear? I love that part of my job. The going places, not the worrying about underwear.

Anyway, Obama is heading to Honolulu to see his ailing grandmother. I will join the traveling press pool for two days.

I’ve never been to Hawaii, so this is a good opportunity to see what I have been missing all these years. It is also great that I will be able to cross off another state on my quest to visit every state in the United States. Only five more to go.

Upon my arrival in Honolulu I heard a very familiar sound as I walked out of the airport terminal - the distinctive ringing of a San Francisco cable car bell. Sure enough, there was one of those motorized cable car replicas driving by. That’s a little out of place. The funny thing is, I have probably seen more cable car type vehicles in the past few days than I have seen in the past month in San Francisco. I don’t quite understand. Did they get some sort of deal on these things or something?
My first day on the island was spent reliving the life of Barack Obama. I drove all around in my Ford Mustang convertible visiting things from his past. No, I didn't put the top down. Didn't want to mess up my hair. On my journey, I photographed his old school, his grandmother’s house, the place he spread his mother’s ashes and the place beach where he used to bodysurf. This place is beautiful. I’m not too wild about the touristy downtown area, but it isn’t hard to escape that by driving 20 minutes outside of town.

I rolled the dice on a hotel that I found online called Celebrity Resort. Yeah, I know, cheesy name. It was pretty low rent. I might even go so far as to say that the Final Stay in Denver was a little bit nicer. My room was pretty funny. Bad early eighties white furniture and really bad art. It had a little balcony that overlooked a courtyard with a pool. When I pulled back the curtains the first thing I saw was two really large women on lounge chairs by the pool. I never opened the curtain again. The TV was the polar opposite of my TV at the Final Stay. If you remember, the TV in that room had a picture but the sound would not turn up past 4. Well, this one had sound, but no picture. I am obviously not meant to watch TV.
I met up with Honolulu Star Bulletin photographer Jamm Aquino and his girlfriend Erica for a beer. I think every photographer that comes through this town ends up hanging with Jamm. Super cool guy. I thank him for all of his recommendations of places for me to eat at. Not like I need to eat anymore than I do, but how could I pass up sushi in Hawaii.

Round Two - Gloves Off....Not Really

I thought the people in Minnesota were nice, but man, the folks in Nashville are over the top with their niceness. Everywhere you go, people are saying hi to you and reminding you to have a good day. Restaurant workers and bartenders actually engage in conversation with you. A bartender the night before described a bunch of local beers to us, even gave samples, and never seemed annoyed.

Today we had lunch at a good Jewish style deli called Noshville before heading to the debate hall. The food was good, at least my pastrami sandwich was. Scott didn’t seem to impressed with his Reuben. It did look a little greasy. A woman and her husband at the next table overheard us talking about the debate and struck up a conversation with us. They were talking about how they were Obama supporters and wished they could be at the debate. The woman was impressed by how we all came from different parts of the country to take pictures at the event. She asked to shake my hand when we left. Damn nice people here.

We got to debate hall at Belmont University close to 2pm. We would have arrived earlier if we hadn’t been delayed by a multi street closure for McCain’s motorcade. We must have been sitting for 15 minutes while Tennessee troopers locked down a half mile section of road in the pouring rain to accommodate his motorcade. Haven’t these cops ever heard of leapfrog intersection control?

With close to 6 hours to kill before the debate started, we did a few final tests on the cameras. The four Getty photographers would all be shooting tethered into 2 editor’s computers. When everything checked out, a few of us went to the food tent to grab a snack. The food and beverages at the debate has been sponsored by Budweiser and when we walked into the tent at about 4pm, the beer was already flowing. First of all, I don’t remember any media event over my career where there was free beer BEFORE the event started. I’ve seen a few where they might have some beer after, but never before. People were drinking cups of beer as they munched on snacks before the main meal was served. Don’t these people have to work?

The second weird thing about the beer in the media tent is the fact that since 1951, Belmont University has been a dry campus. No Alcohol. The University made a one day exception for the campus to serve booze to media mob. That was very kind of the University to be so accommodating. I felt cheated though. I never got to have a beer on the historic day. Damn.
The debate itself was pretty good for pictures. The “Town Hall” setting is much more photogenic than the kind where they stand behind podiums. I was shooting from a ridiculously small cut riser with 7 other photographers. It worked, but it was pretty tight. With both candidates moving around to speak directly to the audience, you had many opportunities to get both guys in the frame.
I usually don’t hear too much of what people are saying when I am shooting so I only caught bits and pieces of the debate. The one thing I did hear was when McCain referred to Obama as “That One” when trying to point out that Obama had voted for some Senate bill. Nice one, Maverick. Obama shut him down later with his reminder to McCain of his “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” tune. The look on McCain’s face was priceless.
Both sides must have said "fundamental" a few dozen times. I'm sure people who were partaking in drinking games while watching the debate got sloshed with the frequency of that word. But, in the end, there didn’t appear to be many fireworks or below the belt jabs. McCain actually looked at Obama this time. William Ayers was never mentioned, I guess that's Palin's deal. McCain won't touch it. With the exception of Tom Brokaw getting testy when the two would go over their time limit and not follow the format of the debate, the event was pretty tame.

When the debate ended the candidate’s wives joined their husbands on the stage and greeted members of the audience. McCain left within 5 minutes while Obama and his wife stayed for over 20 minutes. Many members of the audience (who were said to be undecided voters) stayed the entire time. Obama shook hands, took pictures and spoke one on one with several people. McCain must have not wanted to shmooze those undecided voters. Such a Maverick move.

The Historic Money Shot - DNC Finale

It’s a little after midnight and we just got back to the Final Stay. It was nice and quiet in my room so I cranked up my TV to 4 and was watching CNN. At about 1:15 I heard my neighbor walk into his room with a giggling girl in tow. I can hear everything through the paper thin walls. The radio turned on. I know where this is going. All I can say is that guy had stamina. They must have been going at it for over an hour. “Ooooooh, oooooh, yes baby” The tacky gold framed water color painting above my bed was bouncing at one point. If only my TV volume could go past four. I eventually fell asleep and missed the magic moment, the so-called "money shot." This made my stay at the Final Stay complete.

Today is the big finale of the convention, the much anticipated Obama acceptance speech. The event is so big that we have moved out of the Pepsi Center to the neighboring Invesco Field. This move was a logistical nightmare for the Getty technical staff and field editors. At the conclusion of Biden’s speech on Wednesday, they had to completely tear down the network of computers and spoolers to move the operation over. Our chief photographer Win McNamee also had to move tons of lenses and camera equipment over as well to avoid having to have it all swept the next day. He hung remote cameras and took care of other things until the wee hours of the morning. The move to Invesco was not welcomed by many in the media, especially TV.

The day started out early for us and would go late. We got to Invesco at 10 a.m. for a speech that was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Despite the early start, the shuttle ride from the Pepsi Center and the extra security, this was going to an historic day. This is why I love my job. I get to experience some amazing things.
It’s warm out, but not too warm. The day would have been tough if it was as hot as it had been all week. People began to stream in at noon. By three o’clock the stadium was nearing capacity. Eight Getty photographers were in place around the stadium when the speakers began shortly after three. For the most part, they were pretty dull until the five o’clock hour when Will.i.am and John Legend performed. Shortly after Sheryl Crow did a quick three song set. Stevie Wonder came later. He wanted me to tell you that he loves you.
Al Gore brought the crowd of flag waving democrats to their feet as he took the stage. His speech had a few of those funny Al Gore one liners which the crowd loved. His best one was when he took a swipe at John McCain’s failed policies that mimic the Bush administration. Gore said “Hey, I believe in recycling, but that’s ridiculous.”
The big moment came a little bit after eight. Obama took the stage and 84,000 people came to their feet in a roar. Lights flashed, flags waved. Invesco was alive. Obama walked to the podium, waving to the crowd. He is not one to really ham it up to the crowd like some politicians do. I don’t think I have ever seen him do that pointing thing that Hillary does or the fist pump thumbs-up thing. I like that about him. At the podium, he repeatedly said thank you to the crowd. So far, the pictures weren’t that great. His speech was close to an hour long. From my side position, the photos were limited. The money shot was supposed to come at the end when fireworks, confetti and streamers were to be launched from the top of the stadium. Rumors were going around that the fireworks show would be very Beijing-like. When it all went down, it was pathetic. The families came out on the stage, did the wave thing, but the fireworks and confetti never came. When it did, after they had left the runway stage, the fireworks were wimpy, the confetti was intermittent and the streamers were launched into the wires of the Skycam. I hope they enhanced the fireworks for the TV viewers at home just as they did for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Still, it was history and very cool.

Bring on the RNC and the Tiny Fey lookalike VP candidate. See you in Minnesota.

Billy Joe - DNC Day 3

It is Arctic cold in the Pepsi Center this morning. They crank up the AC so when the crowd comes in the body temperature will balance out the cold and everyone will be comfortable. At 10 in the morning when nobody is in the hall, it is not comfortable. I’m filling in for my co-worker Mark Wilson on the main riser, better known as the “Cadillac” riser. I sat there for close to 3 hours waiting for an unexpected guest to do their walk through and sound check. Melissa Etheridge came out to rehearse her one song performance. She’s doing a medley of Americana songs, like Born in the U.S.A. and God Bless America. Very Patriotic.

Many things are happening today. The first big event was the convention roll call. The delegates officially cast their votes for who will be the party’s presidential nominee. It’s a long drawn out process, kind of boring actually. Both Obama and Hillary are in the running. There was plenty of excitement surrounding the New York delegation. Hillary was slated to announce New York’s votes and the scrum of all scrums surrounded the microphone in the delegation’s area. It was packed tight. I am so glad I wasn’t in the middle of that.

When New York was called to vote, Hillary walked out from the bowels of the Pepsi Center with New York Governor David Paterson and U.S. Senator Chuck Shumer. Hillary asked the convention chairman to cease the voting process and name Barack the nominee. No shenanigans from ol’ Hill as some thought there might be. How is that for unity? The crowd went nuts, people were breaking down and crying. It was quite the scene.

The day dragged on until Bill Clinton took the stage. The convention floor erupted at first site of Bubba. Democrats LOVE Bill Clinton. It was by far the loudest that hall had been since the convention started. The most surprising thing was that he was actually on time. Bill is NEVER on time. The standing ovation lasted so long that Bill actually said that people should sit down, he wanted to keep things moving. The crowd pretty much ignored him and kept cheering. He responded by saying “I really like this.” A typically stellar Bill Clinton speech followed. This is turning into the Clinton Show. People are now jammed in every open area of the convention floor waiting for the Buh-Buh-Biden to deliver is acceptance speech. The fire marshal isn’t happy. Red signs with “Biden” on them are distributed amongst the crowd. Biden’s son Beau announced his father who came out to thunderous cheers (not as loud as Bill’s though) and hugged his son which appeared to bring tears to the senator’s eyes as he slyly pulled a tissue from his pocket to wipe his eye. The speech itself wasn’t bad. He didn’t stutter, although I wish he would have, just to hear what that sounds like.

The speech ended in normal political speech fashion. His wife came out, they waved. It was cute. But that wasn’t it. Just like Steve Jobs always says at MacWorld. There was one more thing. I got the email from the campaign before the start of Biden’s speech that Obama would be joining his new running mate on stage. I think this was the only thing that could trump Bill Clinton’s adoration from the crowd. It was insane. Arm in arm, they waved to the crowd. Kind of weird move to have them both together a day before Obama makes his acceptance speech. Sort of like the groom seeing the bride on wedding day. After the long day with little food, we were going to try and find somewhere to eat. It was pretty late, around 10:30 so our options were limited. We ended up giving our freelancer Max Whittaker a ride to his hotel about 20 minutes south of downtown. He said he knew of a good Mexican place near where he was staying which piqued the interest of Spencer and Sandy. When we got there, it was closed. Max asked a worker if he knew of any thing that was open nearby and he responded immediately with “there is an Old Chicago about two blocks away.” Determined to not eat at another Old Chicago, we settled for a Perkins.