Archive for January 19th, 2009
January 19th, 2009
The papers and blogs are chock full o’ nuts with columnists giving advice to Barack Obama about what he should say in his Inaugural address Tuesday at high noon. The Washignton Post even has a piece entitled “What Obama can learn from Moses.” Didn’t Martin Luther King already use the Moses theme in a big speech?
Well, yours truly has been thinking about what Obama can use as inspiration, and I’ve come up with something that fits nicely with Obama’s “we’re all in this together” theme.
It’s a song by the The Hollies.. That’s right. Obama can inspire the multitudes with words built around this theme:
“It’s a long, long road, From which there is no return,
While we’re on the way, to there, why not share?
And the load doesn’t weigh me down, at all,
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”
January 19th, 2009
The kickoff inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday was wonderful, especially because the musicians were able to play so well in freezing temperatures. As a musician I know first hand that strange things happen to instruments and fingers in the cold. It isn’t and it isn’t pleasant, either for the musician or for the audience who has to listen.
But these people played with such precision you would have thought they were doing a concert in Jamaica, which is where Will-i-am and Sheryl Crow thought they were during one reggae-inspired number.
For sheer energy, you couldn’t beat Garth Brooks, who did a shortened but rousing version of “American Pie,” followed by “You make me want to SHOUT.” I also enjoyed John Mellencamp’s Little Pink Houses, done with a gospel choir, and the U2 stuff, although Bono takes himself entirely too seriously.
Beyonce Knowles crowned the concert with a soulful rendition of America the Beautiful, performed with help by military and children’s choruses and a military orchestra.
Another highlight was Tom Hanks reading Lincoln passages while the orchestra played a tribute to the 16th president composed by Aaron Copland.
Altogether, HBO pulled off a masterful presentation in less than perfect weather conditions. Every once in awhile the camera showed the Obama family swaying or clapping to the music. But Barack was careful to keep his famous reserve. No dancing around like George W. Bush, who was famous for boogieing — and looking rather silly — with the locals while on foreign trips.
The only thing that bummed me out was that I couldn’t find this HBO free concert on my cable TV. HBO urged cable companies to carry the feed free. Never mind, though. I watched the concert later on my laptop, plugged into my Altec Lansing sound system. Marvelous.
I can’t wait for the day when cable is obsolete and I can watch TV on my computer.
January 19th, 2009
What’s in a name? Plenty if your middle name is Hussein. Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president Tuesday, and he will use his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.
Of course, he’s named after his father, a secular Kenyan government official who was technically Muslim but didn’t practice his religion. That middle name was both the talk and the “word you can’t say on TV” of Campaign 2008. When rightwing talk show host Bill Cunningham called Obama by his full name while warming up a crowd at a John McCain rally, the Republican candidate later rebuked Cunningham for using the dreaded “Hussein” word.
What I wonder is why “Hussein” is such a verboten word if Chief Justice John Roberts and Obama are both going to be using it Tuesday at high noon?
“Repeat after me, I, Barack Hussein Obama, solemly swear …” Roberts will say, and Obama will respond, “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemly swear.”
A couple of billion people will hear that.
Yes, we all know that Hussein has become a dirty word because of Saddam Hussein was the dreaded butcher of Baghdad, deposed in the 2002 invasion of Iraq, then tried in a circus-like court and hanged, the latter event captured on video via cel phone.
But it was not all that long ago that the word “Hussein” denoted friendship with America. You all remember the late King Hussein of Jordan. He was a benevolent monarch, did well by his people, and he was even married to an American woman.
Fact is, there aren’t as many names people can use in Arabic as in English. So there are a lot of Husseins. Some are bad guys like Saddam, some are good guys like the late king.
We have more important things to worry about than the president-elect’s middle name. Story over.
