Photoblog Of Change - My Trip To The Inauguration Of Barack Obama

Collectibles: A Special Occasion For Every Mode Of Transportion

2009-02-11T23:44:00.000-08:00

This is a ticket for the Maryland commuter train(not to be confused with the subway which we used). It's hard to tell from my scan but this is a supersized ticket... roughing 8in by 3 in. I love the parchment style back, the large angled wave in the stars and stripes, and color matching of Barack's suit (navy and deep red).

This is the bus card for metro dc. It's the same size as a credit card. Simple design and a hint of a flag in the background.

5:30AM: The ride in... Suprisingly not crowded!

2009-02-11T22:40:00.001-08:00

Zach is looking just a little bit tired... ha ha! I was in the same boat tho, all we had was one slice of toast for breakfast.

5:00AM: Getting There

2009-02-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

This is the DC metro (subway) ticket I used to get to the Inauguration. Obama-mania everywhere. Gotta love it! This ticket is actually guilty of sparking my current inauguration collecting craze.

We were staying 3 minutes from where we needed to catch the metro (which opened at 4:00AM). Myself, Zach, his friend Nathan (who was kind enough to let us crash at his pad), and Kate (Nathan's wife) drove down to the Hyattsville metro stop. Hyattsville is between Baltimore and DC. We were worried about not having a space to park but we lucked out and there were plenty of spots.

4:00AM: Rise and shine

2009-02-11T21:46:00.000-08:00

This is me being a jerk and capturing candid Zach in the midst of getting ready. Keep in mind the Inauguration itself was not supposed to start until noon. But based on the crowds we saw at the end of the previous night, we were not taking many chances.

INAUGURATION DAY ARRIVES

2009-02-11T21:23:00.001-08:00

This is a scan of the invite I received from the Obama campaign. These were sent to all who donated to his campaign. I wasn't lucky enough to get an actual ticket to the inauguration, but receiving this invite did make me feel like VIP. Well played Obama marketers!

Also, for those with an eye for design, I appreciate that they didn't use the 'Gotham' font (which gets a shout in the Helvetica documentary) which has become the staple of the Obama campaign. It is one of my favorite fonts, but just not quite apropos for an invite of this nature.

Obama Is His Own Stimulus: More Obama Products Than You Can Imagine

2009-02-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

In addition to all the street vendors there were several actual Obama stores like this in downtown DC. All I can say is "Godddamn!"

Potbelly Sandwiches... Obama Even Eats Like A Movie Star

2009-02-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

At this point in the day (around 6pm) we were dead tired (got up before 6am) and hungry (we only had a hotdog to that point). DC was so crowded and packed that finding a decent non-McDonalds restaurant to eat at was very difficult. After going to a couple different spots and leaving (the waits were at least 30min) we found 'Potbelly Sandwiches' down the block from the ESPN Zone.

If you can read the menu they have a meal called "Barack's Fave," which consists of a Bowl of chili, chips, and a drink. A bowl of Chili at a sandwich joint??? I guess that's how he keeps those Presidential Abs.

Cold Creeps In

2009-02-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

This is Pennsylvania Ave the eve of the Inauguration. Bleachers for the parade were setup all the way down to the Capital Building. It seemed like there were so many, that we thought that for sure there was enough seating setup for us to see both the Inauguration, and the parade the next day.

The Thickest Beard Ever... A Black Panther?

2009-02-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

Zach spotted this guy on the mall. This picture doesn't really do enough justice to how thick his beard was. They need 3d for the internet. FYI, That ear in the foreground is Zach's. We pulled one of those 'pretend to pose' shots.

Strange Sound

2009-02-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

At sunset the night before the inauguration there was a high pitch hum blaring over the speakers on the mall. You could hear this for at least half a mile in any direction. A terrorist attack was always deep in the back of our heads during this trip so this noise was a little unsettling.... on a side note, i hate the sound of my voice!

A March On Washington

2009-02-03T01:31:00.000-08:00

The amazing feeling in the air was not just the mass anticipation of Obama's Presidency... but also, as this photo captures, the excitement of closing the book on the Bush era.

AC 360 and MSNBC on the mall

2009-02-02T23:07:00.000-08:00

FYI, Anderson Cooper is not that tall... and anytime there were video crews out like this, huge crowds followed.

This is not a very interesting clip but it does show how everybody yelled in front of MSNBC hoping to be on TV when the camera crane was moving. At this point in the day we thought the crowds we saw were huge... Obviously not prepared for the next day.

Long Lines For Inauguration Tickets

2009-02-02T22:47:00.000-08:00

This clip was taken outside a congressional building where 'the chosen ones' were waiting in line to get their inauguration tickets for the next day.

Here is another clip of a different line for inauguration tickets. This one snaked all the way around the block.

The Supreme Court

2009-02-01T21:38:00.000-08:00

These are the doors of the supreme court... i guess we love gold. Would you like a schmoke and a pancake?

Some Of Zach's Pictures

2009-02-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

Zach took this picture near the capital building on our way to the Supreme Court. Without looking at this lady's head... you'd think you were looking at:

Not all Canadians Are bad

2009-01-30T17:48:00.000-08:00

Gotta love the Inaugural decor of the Canadian embassy

The Obama Haters!

2009-01-29T23:15:00.000-08:00

To be honest, most of this trip kind of felt like a 'lovefest.' However, we did run into Anti-Obama people twice. This group of people seemed to be Canadian (?) and were protesting outside the Canadian embassy.

This video(like most of the ones taken with my camera), is a little jumpy, but it does show the apparent male leader. He was jibbering on and on about something from the Bible and how Satan's middle name was also Hussein... Funny how people's balls grow when they have cops protecting them.

In some ways this clip is very scary, not just because of the vile venomous things she is saying about Obama(and gay people), but because she doesn't seem to comprehend what she is saying... If this were the middle east she would probably end up being a suicide bomber.

D.C. All Decked out

2009-01-29T23:03:00.000-08:00

A generic office building...

This is the "Newseum"... probably even more boring than it sounds. However, at the Newseum there was a celeb packed party being put on by The Huffington Post the night before the Inauguration... Couldn't get tix even tho I facebooked Arianna.

Not much to see here...

2009-01-29T22:45:00.000-08:00

This is not a very interesting photo of the the FBI headquarters, but I'm including it, because it represents an hour of walking in circles.

Obama SWAG... From The Windows, To The Wall!

2009-01-28T21:28:00.000-08:00

If this seems kind of frantic and crowded... that was nothing. This video was taken a couple minutes after the store emptied out. And I still wish I bought more stuff... damn.

A Different Meaning For Black America

2009-01-28T17:14:00.000-08:00

Within the black community I saw every class, age group, and geographical group represented. I did see a lot of other races and ethnicities at the Inauguration, but, the 'non-black' demographic was largely limited to the young metropolitan middle-to-upper middle class. You could definitely feel that for African Americans, the Inauguration of Barack Obama struck a much larger chord in their history and had a meaning which was not the same for the rest of us. It seemed like I saw groups gathering to take pictures, like this cute family, everywhere I went. Definitely heart warming to be around.

Treasury These Moments

2009-01-27T20:36:00.000-08:00

This is the Treasury building across the street from the White House. Behind me is a statue of Alexander Hamilton. As a fan of the $10 Bill (shout to good ol' fashion duels) and as a 'Treasury employee' I had to take this pic...

Bush's last day...

2009-01-27T17:20:00.000-08:00

Everybody taking this shot was wondering what Dubya was doing in there his during last day.

The crowd in front of the White House

This was the south entrance to the White House. Zach told he saw Obama in the suburban... I believed him... for a second.

Die Hard 5: The Obama Soldiers

2009-01-26T21:32:00.000-08:00

This young lady walked up to us and politely asked us where the White House was. Funny thing was it was like half a block behind where she is. She said she just drove in to D.C. from Ohio. I started to give her crap about how Ohio almost blew it again during the election. She responded to that by pulling out her awesome "4 OBAMA" license plate. She said that the plate got her on MSNBC and other news stations. Then she told us how she was down with Obama from day one (the 2004 convention speech) and about all the hours she put in to help Obama win Ohio. People like her made this possible... All I could say was thank you. . In addition she said she was gonna get to the mall the next day starting at 4am (when the metro opened). That meant waiting a full 8 hours in the 10 degree cold before the inauguration started! Her jacket is appropriate because that is definitely SOLDIER STATUS! She would have camped out on the mall if they allowed it. It was really uplifting to be celebrating Obama's victory with other Obama fans as passionate as we were. Not too get too messiah-ish about Obama... but it felt like Obama was mecca and we were all on the Hajj. hahaha!

Everybody Hoping To Cash In

2009-01-26T20:53:00.000-08:00

Just seeing the American Red Cross give love to Obama made me want to donate!... full disclosure: i didn't, but I should.

Vietnam Memorial... too crowded.

2009-01-26T19:43:00.000-08:00

This was around 1 or 2pm and we saw bus after bus dropping people off at the mall. I have been to this memorial before and it is pretty powerful to see all the names organized in such a stark way. You get sort of the 'never again should we fight this type of war feeling.' However, crowds like this really don't let you get 'overwhelmed' by the power of this monument.

Seeing a present day soldier who could/did fight in the sands of Iraq, at that instant, kind of made me feel in one way that these two terrible wars had come full circle. Really makes you think if we have learned anything.

Lincoln Memorial Fail

2009-01-26T18:53:00.000-08:00

This desolate shot of the pool reminds me of scenes from the game 'Fallout 3' which takes place in D.C. The reflection pool was completely frozen over. I stepped on it with about half my weight and couldn't break through.

We really wanted to see the the Lincoln monument up close because it was Dr. MLK Jr. day. This was pretty much as close we got. The construction from the free concert/remembrance for Dr. MLK Jr. the previous day was being taken down and the public was not allowed to walk up close. At this point in the day the mall started to swell with people.

Overlooked Monuments Continued...

2009-01-25T22:22:00.000-08:00

Just east of the Washington Monument is the World War II memorial. I guess it's hard to say it's overlooked when a lot of people walk by it... but on a national level it is not a monument people tell 'folks back home' about. The interesting thing about this monument is that it is a circle of columns making it seem like a patriotic Stonehenge. Also it reminds of the cold fascist architecture of Mussolini.

On each column is the name of the 48 states and other territories that were part of the U.S. at the time. As a naturalized Filipino American it's trippy to think that the P.I. was actually a part of the U.S. at one point. It was called the 'Commonwealth of the Philippines'. During the war several thousand Filipinos and Americans fought and died together as brothers. The monument is moving in that light.

Bathrooms... There were enough

2009-01-25T21:54:00.000-08:00

This video was taken on the 'White House side' of the Washington monument. The crazy thing is... this video only shows about a seventh/eighth of the total Porta Potties setup Tuesday.

Soledad O'Brien

2009-01-25T16:51:00.001-08:00

Walking more towards the Washington Monument we saw a bunch of people circled around some media on the mall. We said to each other, "I hope it's Soledad O'brien" and then laughed at the unlikelihood of that... to our surprise it was Soledad! FYI... some famous people are not as attractive in person as on TV.... She is.

She is sitting next to Rosa Parks' lawyer to her right and your boy Roland Martin on her left. We were laughing because right before I shot this someone yelled "TELL IT LIKE IT IS ROLAND!"

Hilarious T-Shirts

2009-01-25T16:09:00.000-08:00

On most vacations I hate being bothered by people hocking their wares. This trip was different. I guess i give people more sales patience when they have Obama stuff. This guy was putting on the fullcourt press to buy his 'Fade To Black' shirt. He kept saying, "come on show me some love" (meaning buy a t-shirt... i hope) and he offered to throw in a CD from someone called Rob C who works with R Kelly. This was the first guy i've ever met who used R Kelly as a selling point! ha ha. Pretty funny stuff so we talked to him for a minute.

Monday day lights...

2009-01-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

This was the main media stand being setup. It was on the mall across the field from MSNBC. It was full of affiliates and international news crews.

Let's play hardball

2009-01-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

The 'liberal media' was everywhere... MSNBC was setup on the mall halfway between the Washington monument and the captial. They had the biggest setup and constantly had a crowd. Actually, all the other major networks never had signs up announcing who they were.

In The Air Of The Night... Err, I Mean Day

2009-01-25T00:15:00.000-08:00

There were Obama standups everywhere and each time we saw one people where gathering around and getting in line to take pictures with one. One of the biggest things from this trip I keep thinking about is that I have never in my life seen so many people collectively friendly, happy, and excited. It is cliche to say, but there was just an electric atmosphere. This photo (especially DJ Super Cheeser on the left) reminds me of that feeling.

Overlooked Monuments

2009-01-25T00:06:00.000-08:00

This is the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial which is between the capital building and the reflecting pool/national mall. Historically Grant always seemed to be in the shadow of Lincoln and his memorial's relative small size and location put it in the shadow of the capital building. He's definitely someone I don't know enough about.

Closest We Could Get

2009-01-24T18:39:00.000-08:00

This picture shows how close were able to get to the stage on 01/19/2009. Pretty amazing seeing everything setup and ready to go. At the time we were so jealous of all the people who had tickets to the seated area.

This picture is a bit further back from the one above. Check the level of barricades between the seated area and what i call 'gen pop' (where people w/o tickets had to gather.... shout to season 4 of the show 'The Wire'). There are five barriers you can see and one underneath where I'm standing when i took this picture. This day there was hardly any law enforcement around. We saw a lot of people in uniform site seeing like us.

Partner In Crime

2009-01-24T14:16:00.000-08:00

This is my bud Zach and I in front of the capital building the day before the inauguration. We've been good friends since high school. As you can imagine, during this trip there were some long periods of time of just standing around, and or just trying to fill time. Zach is a hilarious dude who is always 'down to clown' so time always flew by. One of our favorite games is trying to figure out what celebrity each stranger around us looks like. He's a great bro-mo to have shared this experience with. However, there is no accounting for his taste in baseball teams.

More D.C. culture shock

2009-01-24T13:45:00.000-08:00

When's the last time your were given 90 seconds to cross a street in downtown Seattle? I felt like doing sprints back and forth between curbs just because i had the time. Seattle Prep's Mr. Olson would've been proud.

SWAG the dog

2009-01-24T13:03:00.000-08:00

Soon as we got out of the subway at Archives-Navy Memorial we immediately saw tables like this being set up for the big day. In D.C. the sidewalks are huge both lengthwise and widthwise so they were able to cram in lots of stands like this on every block. Oddly enough we didn't see much price gouging.

01/19/2009 First full day in D.C.

2009-01-24T06:15:00.000-08:00

The last time I traveled to the capital I was in 7th grade and this was Zach's first time to D.C. Luckily enough Zach had a friend in Hyattsville (which is between Baltimore and D.C.) named Nathan (that works for Greenpeace) that we stayed with. Since we really wanted to get a jump on site seeing before the inauguration crowds we got our butt's up at 6am and headed down to the metro station. It takes about 20 minutes. Having fast, clean, and reliable mass transit is really refreshing coming from Seattle and the world of Joseph R. Metro...