Didn't want to go. True-believing relative showed up. Thus compelled to go. My impressions:

-Never seen so many hipsters in trees

-Never heard the word "vote" uttered once

-Best month to rally on Mall: October. Worst: July, January.

-Are Port-o-Potties steel-reinforced? They can bear the weight of many hipsters

-DC Metro expected smaller crowd, got blindsided, gave up and let people ride free

-Rallygoers' main object of contempt--mild, detached contempt--was Tea Party, not GOP

-Signs a lot cleverer than your usual rally

-But, with exceptions, usually less so than authors seemed to think

-Comedy Central viewers MUCH better spellers than Tea Partiers

-Illustration of several of the preceding, sign reading: "Will Spell-Check Tea Party Signs for $5"

-Curiously large number of people dresses like Charlie Chaplin (did I miss an in-joke?)

-Pretty sure 75% of young-ish crowd had no clue who Cat Stevens was

-Ozzy sounded surprisingly good, considering

-Genuine, non-ironic Democratic signs were scarce. Saw a couple "Obama Cares," little else

-Mood was heavily ironic, slackerish. "Enthusiasm," such as it was, didn't seem voting-directed.

-Didn't get the sense too many people understood the purpose of rally (me either).

-Or care (meaning "all still had a good time").



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