January 23rd, 2009 // comments (0)

Inauguration Performance Was Fake

I knew that music sounded a little too crisp…:

WASHINGTON — The classical music played for millions of people watching President Barack Obama’s inauguration was not the live performance it appeared to be.

Unless you were one of the fortunate few sitting within earshot of the celebrated performers, what you heard was a recording made two days earlier.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill made

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January 22nd, 2009 // comments (0)

More On That Inaugural Trash…

The historic crowd seems to have left an equally historic mess:

Washington trash trucks hauled away at least 130 tons of garbage after the inauguration of President Obama, with more to go. National Park Service workers picked up almost 100 tons on the Mall and near the White House.

Because most trash cans had been removed for security reasons and a record-breaking crowd gathered downtown, the mountain of rubbish left behind was

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January 21st, 2009 // comments (0)

Obama Wore ‘Bullet-Proof’ Suit?

According to some reports, he wore a suit made by a clothier specializing in bullet-resistant clothing during the inauguration ceremonies.

While no one from the U.S. Secret Service have yet to mention any details about the garment’s structure, some are speculating it may have come from the line by Colombian designer Miguel Caballero. As we noted last year, Caballero is well known for his super tough but flexible and business appropriate clothing,

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January 21st, 2009 // comments (0)

WTF?: CNN.com’s Ridiculous Headline

Needless to say, this was changed just minutes later…:

January 21st, 2009 // comments (0)

Snapshot: Full Inauguration Crowd

Check out this satellite image from GeoEye. Click to enlarge…:

January 21st, 2009 // comments (0)

Washington Mall Now Covered In Trash

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inaugural revelers are lucky they didn’t get fined for littering.

As crowds cleared the city Tuesday, their trash covered the National Mall and Washington Monument grounds after President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

They left behind plastic bottles, newspapers, food wrappers, gloves and even American flags they had been waving. Trash bins overflowed with items people tossed.

Twenty-one-year-old Laura Wiesner of Youngstown, Ohio, was on the cluttered Mall near the Smithsonian’s

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January 21st, 2009 // comments (0)

China Censors Obama Inaugural Speech

Chinese officials clearly not so warm to our new President’s rhetoric:

Even as the speech was being broadcast, his reference to the defeat of “fascism and communism” seemed too much for the state’s central broadcaster, CCTV.

It cut away to a flustered presenter, who quickly and nervously had to come up with a question for an unprepared commentator.

Some, but not all, of the major news websites quickly followed suit, posting the

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January 21st, 2009 // comments (0)

Inauguration Crowd Estimates Drop

From 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 million — to maybe not even a record at all?:

More than a million giddy spectators convened on the national mall to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office today, but it is unclear if the crowd surpassed the record believed to have been set three and half decades ago at Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 inauguration.

Though early estimates Tuesday ranged as high

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January 20th, 2009 // comments (0)

Inauguration Watch: Party Time

Signed, Sealed, Delivered | 8:44 p.m. We didn’t get to see much of the first dance, but we are watching Jamie Foxx tell the crowd at the Neighborhood ball: “You can tell that was a black president by the way he was moving.”

Mr. and Mrs. Obama are now group dancing to Stevie Wonder singing, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” (And lots of other are joining them.)

At Last … | 8:37 p.m. It’s

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January 20th, 2009 // comments (0)

Inauguration Watch: In Kogelo

Barack Obama’s ancestral village celebrates in a different way:

In Kogelo, Obama’s ancestral village, cows and chickens were slaughtered and people beat on goatskin drums. Men in black and white colobus monkey wigs hollered the new president’s name. From now on, village elders declared, every January 20 will be Barack Obama Day.

January 20th, 2009 // comments (0)

Inauguration Watch: Inmates Tune In

Inmates at the Donald Price Medium Security Facility at the Adult Correctional Institutions watch the inauguration of President Barak Obama today. They are left to right, seated: Israel Briggs, Jose Riviera, and Craig Benford, all of Providence. Standing: Thomas Caouette of Providence, Boysie Fortes Jr. of Providence and Matthew Card of Charlestown. Providence Journal photo / Mary Murphy

We won’t have a handle on the TV audience until tomorrow but my…

January 20th, 2009 // comments (0)

Inauguration Watch: Obama Walks

President Obama hops out of the limo for a wave…:

January 20th, 2009 // comments (0)

Inauguration Watch: Rahm Emanuel

Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel gestures prior to the inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, in Washington, January 20, 2009.

REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES)

A bit tacky, no?

January 20th, 2009 // comments (0)

Inauguration Watch: More Drama

Another sexy piece of backstage drama from Politico…:

Hillary Clinton and John Cornyn, who’s delaying her floor confirmation vote have been having a fairly heated discussion just out of earshot under the Washington statue in the rotunda. Lots of hand gestures, back and forth and her squeezing his forearm.

Two feet away Chelsea Clinton is joking with John McCain and wife Cindy.

John Cornyn is blocking Clinton’s confirmation hearing because of

January 20th, 2009 // comments (0)

Inauguration Watch: Rev. Lowery

Drudge has the quote up… I’m working on the video:

Benediction at Obama ’s inauguration, Rev. Joseph Lowery: ‘Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around… when the red man can get ahead, man; and

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