Rattle My Petite Loli

Rattle My Cage would like all you Nous Non Plus fans to know that their new video, Loli, can be found here.

Rattle My Inauguration

The Grateful Dead at the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball – January 20th, 2009

On Monday morning I boarded a Bolt Bus and headed down to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of Barack Obama.  I got in on time, right around 2:30.   The only cabs available were regular people trying to make an extra buck and I was a little wary of that scene, so I walked through a depressed industrial area to a gentrifying part of NE that gave way to gentrified NW where I helped Emma prepare for her little pre-inaugural shindig.

The party was well attended by Teach for America types, former Yalies, and a good mix of Washington types including a lawyer who would be starting a stint for the Attorney General the next day.  After the party ended we headed out to Adams Morgan where I ran into an old Yale friend now working for professional organization of chemists doing environmental work and several members of Columbia’s political science program (by design and by accident).  Also of note at Local 16 was Aidan Gillen.

On too little sleep I headed out for the Mall with Zachary, Gabriela, and Scott.   

 

On the way to the mall.

Walking through DC was a Maze.  It was at least 3 miles of walking for the mile and a half to the Washington Monument, probably more. The police had no idea how to get to the Mall and there were not enough volunteers around directing people.

 

True to rumor, there were port-a-potties-a-plenty.

Zach, Gabrieall, me, and Scott

We arrived to our first view of the Washington monument to Sunday’s performance by U2 of “Pride (In the Name of Love)” playing over the loudspeakers.  It was pretty amazing.  It was like being part of a pilgrimage as we walked among tens of thousands through the entrance towards the monument.

 

The Masses

Before the half hour of choral singing they played some of Sunday’s concert including Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen doing the entirety (depression lyrics and all) of “This Land Is Your Land.”  We all sang along.

 

The moment after the oath.

 

Scott, Emma, and I at the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball

The Grateful Dead

We entered to “Uncle John’s Band” but to be honest I wasn’t paying that much attention.  I was much more concerned with the arrival of the guests of honor.

 

The President of the United States of America and First Lady!

Do You Know Where You Are? You’re in the Mercury Lounge, baby! You’re gonna die!

Mr. Brownstone at the Mercury Lounge – January 1, 2009

 

Axl

 

 

Sometimes you go to a show for the finest musicianship that New York has to offer and sometimes you go to pretend that 5 guys in wigs and costumes are actually Guns ‘N’ Roses.  It was in this latter fashion that Paul, Alison and I rung in 2009 with Mr. Brownstone’s 2 a.m. show on January 1.  The show was a complete blast.  Aside from being way, way up front it was a lot what I imagine seeing GNR in a small club might have been like back in the day.  It was really incredible.  They pretended they were GNR.  We pretended they were GNR.  People were reaching for them.  They would straddle the stage amps and have the audience strum their guitars.  And it was all at a million miles a minute from, well, from minute zero (that’s instant acceleration!).   They performed the entirety of Appetite for Destruction and I believe, including the encore, performed at least 3 renditions of “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”  Photos and captions are below:

Slash, Axl, and Fake Security

Slash and Axl with “Fake Security” man whose job seemed to be to keep the band well plied with Jack Daniels, then to pour Jack Daniels into the open mouths of the front row, and then I think he played bass.

 

"Ole Beich" and Axl

“Beich” started at the edge of the stage and progressed forward through the entire concert.

 

Beich 2

See?

JK Rowling’s Graduation Speech at Harvard

 

Back on the theme of me making up for missed posts is this brief one on JK Rowling’s speech at the Harvard University graduation ceremonies this year.  From what I understand, there was some controversy that such an esteemeduniversity would invite a popular children’s novelist to be the main speaker.   I had no expectations.  I was pretty much there just to see a celebrity (actually, I was there to see Alison graduate from law school, I went to the speech to seek Rowling).  She started off funny and then knocked my socks off.  It was beautifully written and both of her themes resonated with me.  It also didn’t hurt any that her social responsibility message involved the idea of the birth lottery which is, to me, probably the most important component of a convincing system of ethics.  My favorite section is excerpted below.  You can watch above or read the whole text here.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.