The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear

This will be pretty picture-heavy; be forewarned.

In The Beginning...

This past weekend was Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert's Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear. I suppose you could consider it a parody of Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally, except with less tea bagging and more unadulterated awesome. Let me begin by saying it was a very long, exhausting day of essentially standing still. We got up around three in the morning to leave at four. The bed was pretty stiff which, combined with the fact that we were a bit sick, basically meant that neither of us slept very well; I think I slept for, at most, a few hours. Four a.m. hits, and it's time to hit the road; two and a half hours later and we arrived at the metro station just outside of D.C Thankfully, there are 3,400 parking spaces and we were able to park and wait for the trains to show up at 7:00. I was excited seeing the people around who were headed to the rally; 'twas refreshing seeing older people going and not just young people looking for a free show.


After settling in, we were greeted by various games and videos on the Jumbotron, which made it less painful to wait for the show to start. All in all. waiting went by fairly quicker than I'd have thought. There were all kinds of people with all sorts of signs all similarly excited for whatever it was that we were all about to witness/ It was exhilarating/

Our Surroundings...

Settled in for a long day, we found a place to stand (and stand, and stand...). We were actually surprisingly close. If I had to guess, I'd say we were maybe one hundred feet away or so. Alas, neither Krissy nor myself are very tall, so without the perfect conditions, seeing stages can be tough. The media pit was in front of us and to the left; one of the comedy central cameras was in front of us; and a tent, which I think was another media tent (for viewing and such) was in front of us and to the right.

Some fellow rally goers in our surrounding area


Unfortunately, to say Krissy's view was obstructed would be an understatement


There was an older lady sitting behind us (this was before the rally, some people had brought chairs so they weren't standing for 8+ hours). Personally, I really liked her sign.


This Sikh gentleman was next to me. He was on camera a lot (probably the turban and beard). He was nice. He was pretty patient with a girl who insisted on everyone surrounding him putting towels on their heads in an effort to get on tv.


This guy was to our right.


This one, too.


This girl was to our left


This was our view. You can see the edge of the media pit to the left (note the stairs), the tent to the right, and the cameraman (and his damned ladder!) basically right in front of us.


Even Jeffrey came along for the trip! Here he is in our free noisemaker/megaphone type thing.

The Media Comes Calling...

Here is one of the anchors giving a report during the rally. I'm not sure who he is but hes older and looked distinguished, ergo I liked him.


Then there's these two (from CNN). The woman was taking notes, asking people questions, etc. She seemed so bored and uninterested, though. Then there's the hotshot in the aviators and leather jacket. He seemed pretty happy with himself hopping about; he seems like a douchebag to me.


A cameraman from NBC News


Before the rally began, one of the cameramen (I think) was carrying his son around on his shoulders. I feel weird taking pictures of kids in public sometimes. Not that I don't want to. I always want to. But I know adults, and I don't need some errant parent going apeshit on me because they take offense, so this is the picture I got.


I liked this photographer. In a sea of telephoto lenses and ultramodern digital cameras here he was taking a photo with a panoramic camera. It looks like his other camera might be a Leica, too, but I can't tell (and, truth be told, have never seen one in person)

Let The Games Begin...

Jon Stewart singing was an interesting experience. The song was exceptionally funny.


Sheryl Crow performing with Kid Rock backed by The Roots (who are actually kind of awesome)


Mick Foley (who is awesome) accepting his award


The O'Jay's performing Love Train


Papier Mache puppet Steven Colbert: The fear monster


John Oliver (dressed as Peter Pan) coming out to help Jon Stewart slay the fear monster


Tony Bennett performing America, The Beautiful, which was awesome/ The picture is a bit low quality though.


The end performance. Mavis Staples, Tony Bennett, Ozzy, Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), Jeff Tweedy, Sheryl Crow, The Roots, The Mythbusters, and many more!


I like John Oliver's expression in this picture


A better picture showing more of the people on stage than the previous pictures


Headed home (tired, achy feet)! At this point we still had a two hour drive back to Delaware. I liked these advertisements set out by Media Matters though. Very nice tie-in to the rally. I'm not sure if they were only in the metro or not, since we didn't explore too much of D.C. but there were banners inside the metro stations, too. Very cool. I approve.

These Are Not End Times

The rally was amazing, and awe-inspiring. It's hard to fathom 250,000 people, but one can't help but feel flooded by all sorts of emotions. I can't express how happy I am that we attended the rally; it was amazing feeling a part of something. The experience was absolutely amazing and I hope that people will learn from it, and that the rhetoric in this country can change.

Thumbs up from Tricky Dick

Man Cat Watches Anderson Cooper 360

Man Cat Watches Anderson Cooper 360
Photo by:Dennis

I used to like CNN. How could one not like a news organization who employs someone named Wolf Blitzer? And Anderson Cooper seemed like a fair and good news anchor. That said, I'd never really watched CNN then, so I just assumed I'd like it. I've been watching CNN as of late and I've got to say: I'm not impressed.

For the last ninety-something days, Anderson Cooper has covered almost nothing but the Oil Spill. I get it, it's a horrible horrible travesty that should have been avoided. Unfortunately, I don't understand why he needed to give the same exact report for ninety straight days.

Then there's the problem of Anderson's wardrobe. I noticed it on one of his marathon We're going to show clips of me asking BP to talk on air for the last 40 days straight. And what I saw befuddled me: Anderson only appears to own 3 shirts (he's especially fond of a certain black v-neck).

Any time I've watched any other CNN show they seem to have this unorthodox obsession with Twitter, reading from their blogs online, and their touchscreen TVs. Really, reading what people say on Twitter doesn't much contribute to the news, nor does constantly scrawling on your touchscreens simply because you can. I can certainly appreciate their embracing technology, but they're acting like a kid who's just discovered markers and a white wall.

Speaking of crazy, obsessive, and Twitter, let's talk about CNN's sister network Head Line News (HLN). I'll start with Showbiz Tonight, "TV's most provocative entertainment news show." I'd like to know how they came up with that tagline. Provocative? How? All they talk about is Lindsay Lohan. In fact, that's all most of HLN's shows talk about. This show is utterly pointless, not remotely entertaining, and the furthest thing from provocative; I'll take E! News over this any day (and that's not to say that Giuliana and Ryan's show is much better).

Next up is Joy Behar. I like the View, it's an interesting show that educates me on how 4 different women feel about current issues. You've got Conservative blowhard Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Whoopi Goldberg (who is the most sane person on the show), Joy Behar who tends to make pretty good sense, and Sherri Shepherd who I can't say is all that memorable, but seems okay. Then, I tune to Joy Behar on HLN and she has managed to create a show that is somehow always 3 days behind on the news. Not only that, it's kind of painful to watch, she says some of the most idiotic things. The only recent show I enjoyed was Leonard Nimoy's show about his photography exhibit which I'd already read about on NPR

Finally, there is the batshit crazy Nancy Grace. I don't know where to begin, but I'll summarize the show for you. Nancy will mention a topic, which she will then rant on about for awhile. She will then invite a guest on to talk, and she will yell at them (and thus the audience) until she takes calls and e-mails. These e-mails are all seemingly from bible-belt stay-at-home-mom's. For about a month and a half straight all she talked about was Joran Van der Sloot. Then she talked about Lindsay Lohan for a month. Most of the time, however, Nancy talks about cases of child abductions and murderers, but mostly missing and dead children. Oh and Mel Gibson; they all seem to love hating on Mel Gibson.

Man Cat does not approve. Not of black V-necks (unprofessional); repetitive news mongering; taking calls from lonely, angry women; repeatedly yelling about celebrities and how out of control they are; and missing/dead children and murderers. Why can't HLN talk about something a little happier? News doesn't have to be so depressing all of the time. Why so hard over Mel Gibson and his wife? I understand ratings are all that matters, but frankly I'd rather sit back with a nice cup of tea and listen to my NPR than be berated by HLN all day which is precisely why HLN goes on when everything else worth watching has gone to commercial.