I didn’t go downtown this morning. Getting anywhere even potentially worth being seemed to require a very early start, and although Becks‘ promise of a delicious pre-inaugural spread was tempting, I opted out. I’d gotten up before dawn the day before in order to catch a flight, making me even less inclined than normal to wake up early. Instead I woke up around 10, made some coffee and french toast, then plopped down in front of the TV. Honestly, I think this was the way to go.
I did head out on my bike around 1, though, to see what things were like around town. I made a rough circle down to Chinatown, over to Freedom Plaza, up Fourteenth, across U, then back down Eleventh. The verdict: there are a lot of people here! They all seem excited to bustle about and enjoy the historic occasion, but there’s no comparison to the emotion that flooded the streets on election night. I guess for that sort of joyousness to spread to the daylight hours we’d need to be transitioning from an even worse president than Bush to an even more trailblazing and exciting one than Obama. Like, say, a resurrected Freddie Mercury succeeding a two-term Palpatine administration. Well, fingers crossed!
You’ll be glad to know that I took some crappy pictures with my iphone:
Gallery Place was ground zero for nonsensical Obama paraphernalia, including this plumber’s truck with photos of the new president plastered on it. Despite the street being closed, a cop yelled at me for stopping my bike to take this photo, and then again when I took five seconds to begin moving. Ah, officiousness.
Fourteenth had stalls set up, but aside from folks queued to get into the perimeter around the mall, it wasn’t too flooded with people. It was pretty fun to bike through the closed streets.
There’s an Obama ice sculpture outside of Ben’s. And yeah, the line still goes down the alley:
MOST EXCITINGLY: I’m pretty sure I saw Matthew Lesko walking down my street as I returned home. I mean, okay, it could have been someone else. But whoever it was, he was wearing a leather jacket emblazoned with question marks, pants with question marks on the back pocket, a question mark hat, and ludicrous shoes (which seem likely to have also involved punctuation symbols of one sort or another).
Like, say, a resurrected Freddie Mercury succeeding a two-term Palpatine administration.
This is a great line. But given how campy Palpatine was, ol’ spandex ’stache wouldn’t be that trailblazing – he’d be walking in the ballet slippers of those who preceded him.
I’m waiting for your exegesis of the new White House website.
Matthew Lesko lives in the DC area, I think. I once saw him at a dance performance in Friendship Heights. He drove there in a yellow VW Beetle decorated in many question marks and wore his green question mark suit to the performance. It was surreal.
Matthew Lesko lives in Kensington, so it’s quite likely you did see him.
I’ve seen Mathew Lesko around town a few times. One time, he was in the full-on question mark suit, and drove away on a Vespa decorated with question marks, wearing a question mark helmut. It made so many people’s day!
This is the first time that you’ve seen Lesko? You need to hang out in Adams Morgan a bit more. His wife has an apartment there, and he is always hanging out in Tryst.
I’d seen him before, but not in a non-suit outfit.
And no: I don’t think I need to get to Adams Morgan more.