Barack Obama’s Inaugural Celebration concert included a song from John Legend and a few words from Steve Carell, as one of the celebrities who presented quotes from past presidential speeches.
Steve Carell speaks at the Inaugural Celebration. Click on the image to enlarge.
Anyone else find the subtitle on John’s screen humorous?
John Legend performs at the Inaugural Celebration. Click on the image to enlarge.
There are a few photos of President-Elect Obama under the cut if you haven’t seen the HBO presentation of the concert yet, and a little ramble of my thoughts on the experience so far. I hope you’ve got good inauguration plans of your own, if you’re so inclined.
Washington D.C. has become quite the odd city over the past few days… more so than usual. On the one hand, things are quiet, because most everyone has at least a four-day weekend, but on the other, it’s packed full of tourists and locals who normally wouldn’t have reason to come into the District. It’s Inauguration Weekend.
Picture a combination of Mardi Gras and New Year’s Eve, with the red-white-and-blue hues of the Fourth of July sprinkled into a sea of black wool overcoats and heavy parkas. You can’t get anywhere thanks to concrete and steel barricades, but there are hundreds of thousands of police officers and volunteers either offering help or shouting at you to stay out of the road. (This is how politicians do Mardi Gras.) Looking back at this set of photos is already an oddly emotional experience, though. I can’t wait for Tuesday’s inaugural ceremony.
Here’s a shot of Obama on the Jumbotron. From what I understand, his speeches this weekend are sort of a rough draft of his actual inauguration speech.
President-Elect Barack Obama is shown onto many large screens set up around the concert grounds. Click on the image to enlarge.
And Obama at the podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The black stage obscured a lot of our view, but you can see there was a screen in front of it and fortunately I could see everyone who stood at that podium. I liked the juxtaposition of this particular shot, including what looks like the Marine Corps orchestra.
President-Elect Barack Obama speaks at the Inaugural Celebration. Click on the image to enlarge.
Thanks for sharing with us, Kina! I’m glad you had a good time.
I’m one of those insane people who is planning to go downtown on Tuesday for the Inaugural events, so I decided not to go to the free concert. One day of DC craziness is enough for me. I know it will be a challenge to get around town but it will be totally worth it.
Tomorrow is going to be a good day for America!!!
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Thanks! Good luck tomorrow in the madness. But yes, totally worth it. I’ll see you in the crowd – I’ll be the one in lots of layers :p
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Stay warm, ladies! I’ll be thinking of you while I’m watching tomorrow morning. : )
Click here to watch Steve Carell’s speech (which was done along side Jamie Foxx), and click here to watch John Legend sing “Shower the People” along with James Taylor and Jennifer Nettles (and introduced by Marissa Tomei).
Enjoy!
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Thanks to HBO for streaming this yesterday so I could watch it at work. It was quite the line up of talent and very moving. The memory of Marion Anderson, Martin Luther King and Lincoln himself lent a special aura to the proceedings. Wonderful!
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Thomas Jefferson…oh what great irony he could provide a comedian.
Thanks for the write-up, Kinaesthesia.
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Thank you for providing everyone a link to that. You got ahead of me. I watched it online last night and was going to post the link this morning. I love the line up of speakers and guests.
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The whole thing was just inspiring. Thanks for posting your pix, Kina. I wish we could be there. Our daughter sat down and watched at least some of it with us (she’s a Senior in HS and tres busy). Since we all had our first trip to DC in October, it was great to see all the monuments again, and think to ourselves, “We were just on those steps!”
Have a great time tomorrow and bundle up. I’ll be watching along from work.
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Oh my gosh Kina, you were actually there!! Brava for you!!! I watched the whole marvelous concert on HBO.com and reminisced about my former apt in Dupont Circle … I went to a lot of wonderful & amazing events during my 5 years in DC, but never anything like this (Bush I’s inaugural parade just not the same). Thank you for sharing a little of the flavor with us!
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Anyone know why Steve Carell was there? I thought he might provide some comic relief, but I guess he just did a straight presentation. I was thrilled to see him there, but I was just curious. I mean, I know he’s served our country well by working for Control which fights against Kaos;)
Good luck braving the crowds Kinaesthesia and Jenny with a Y! I’m sure it will be worth it. What an amazing moment in our history! I originally hail from D.C. and will be there in spirit.
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Thanks for the links, Lisa. Makes me wish I was on the Mall there watching everything. My choices tomorrow are to watch the inauguration on my office computer during lunch, or to go over to the campus arts center and watch it in the big auditorium with all the students. I can’t decide whether I’ll be happier sharing the moment with other people, or if I’ll just be annoyed that people are talking or something.
ETA: Looks like the YouTube video (John Legend) has been yanked by HBO already. pfft!
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Wow ~ that’ quite an honor!
cool
U
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