Inauguration thinkiness

[raefinlay]

I am home sick with a massive headache and sore throat, which I'm not convinced is entirely due to sickness so much as the hellish Ohio dryness and general lack of sleep. So I have the humidifier at full blast (a cute blue penguin thing. Srsly) and we'll see how that does.

Anyway, I am useless for anything but random, stream-of-consciousy things, and I keep going back to the inaug, which makes me happy.

First, I've heard from several fronts that Obama wrote that speech himself. Any confirmers? If so, wow. A president who can not only deliver a stirring speech but has the brain cells to write one of that caliber? It's like he thinks the office of the President should be filled by an intellectual or something. Weird. President Obama, President Obama, President Obama...nope, that's never getting old.

Aretha...not what you used to be dear, but I will always love you and your current 4 note range. I especially love your hat. I'm sure your personal assistant and your Bedazzler are now BFF's.

Obscure (to me) poet-person...WTF? I reeeeally don't get modern poetry. *sigh*

Rick Warren...we are not stoopid. We know that your prayer was a pretense, a "preach-prayer" so to speak, intended for your mortal audience, not God himself. I hoped for better from you.

Michelle O, soopah model, WORK!

And now I embark upon Mission Tylenol.

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Hope you feel better SOON.

I wondered if Obama had written his own speech because youngest son and I watched a series of his public speaking engagements on C-SPAN Monday afternoon and evening. One of them was an appearance at a Barnes& Noble in New York to promote his book when he first became a senator.

His presentation, his memories of his past and reasons for writing the book were eloquent and seemingly UN-scripted, which made them even more impressive.

The wording, some of the thoughts, were similar to his speech yesterday.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

I love modern poetry. I did not, however, love La Alexander's offering.

Feel Better!

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you can spare the cash or the miles for a flight out of there, there's plenty of floor space available, and the family room is heated!

(I'll also keep your trip Super Secret! Shhhhhhhh!)

I wasn't able to watch the inauguration. I'm going to see what I can find of it online this morning.

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I found it and watched the highlights. Obama's speech made me cry. I am definitely a fan.

Warren gave a sermon in his prayer. Completely annoying and transparent to me, but hey! He might actually HELP unite some of the fundies!

Aretha... *shakes head in wonder* I'm afraid 4 notes is generous. There was only one that she actually hit... over, and over, and over. I almost didn't make it through the whole thing. It was painful. And it was painful that it was painful. I think I'm gonna go listen to Respect just to remember her with joy. If she could still sing, she would have been the perfect person for that role. Then again, since most of the nation is tone deaf, maybe she was anyway.

The poem? Yeah, me neither.

Okay, gonna go run before the rain comes. I've started my intensive strong-as-a-man training program. :-D

Hope you feel better soon. Or come visit me soon. Either one.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

We all age, even the divas. Alas.

And the poetess was a Famous Person. *shrug* But no writer can be ON all the time.

The Warren thing...Christians all over were like, Yeah, Preach it! They're just sure that he got through to folks, and I'm sure they bathed him in prayer. But the actual result is that all the athiests and agnostics in the world think: See? Even Rick Warren doesn't pray to God. Not really.

[sandramcdonald.livejournal.com]

Feel better soon!

Rick Warren is a doofus.

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be surprised if Obama wrote it. I think his M.O. is to write something, send it to his speechwriters, get their ideas, and then bounce things back and forth. It wasn't his most uplifting work, but I thought it was perfect for the moment.

The poem... Jon Stewart referred to it as a way to clear out the Mall in a quick, orederly fashion. I could believe that.

[aimeempayne.livejournal.com]

I got three words for you: Whole House Humidifier. We had one when I was a kid. It made our house a tropical paradise.

[writerswife.livejournal.com]

This is the first inauguration that I recall wanting to watch. I enjoyed what I got to see/hear via the scrambled cable feed at work. Still...I'm hopeful.

Oh, the dryness! Students were getting static shock all day today. My hands cracked when I got into the building at work. It will pass at some point. I'm a huge tea drinker in the winter. There's nothing like sitting with a nice mug and breathing in the steam. Really, it's more for the steam than the actual tea.

[pjthompson]

It wasn't the fault of modern poetry. The poem just sucked.

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

Oh, THAT was the problem! Hee!

[pjthompson]

lol--yeah, I think she forgot the difference between the written word and read poetry, but even on he page, it wasn't all that. But then, it's hard to follow Maya Angelou. ;-)

[silkpajamas.livejournal.com]

I've been sick for the last few days with the flu, and it was awesome to turn on the TV and have world events actually pull me up and out of myself. I am still basking in the glow of the inauguration but too sick to write anything coherent. I started a blog and put it on hold.

I majored in Speech Communication at Cal State (now called "East Bay," ugh), and was thinking that my old department is having a field day dissecting Obama's beautiful speech that was far more poetic than the poet was. I know more about speech than poetry, but her cadence was weird.

I loved Michelle Obama's evening dress. I wasn't thrilled with the color of her daytime dress. I was annoyed at some of the rock 'n' rollers who inserted themselves into history by taking advantage of their fame. Aren't some of these people too young to have earned this? Does entertainment = accomplishment on this level?

Beyonce should have dressed down, if she was going to sing for the couple. Now every historical video will include Beyonce? Can't Mariah cover up her boobs for this occasion? Is no event sacred? I normally respect Sting, but couldn't he shave for this event?

Are manners obsolete? Do I sound really old?

I was sick and missed some of the inauguration. I missed Aretha, who has never understood clothes. Anyone who wears a hat like that is out of touch with other people. In a crowd like that, nobody can see over or around it.

I throw my bitches out because the beauty of these last few days is harder to express. And there is much more beauty than anything I could find to complain about.

I agree with PJThompson. It's hard to follow Maya Angelou.

I thought about dissecting Obama's speech in a blog. (My big projects were on Malcolm X and David Duke.) The thing I notice right off the top is that Obama's audience was everybody. This may seem like a no-brainer, but often there are smaller messages imbedded for sub-audiences to here. Terminology for a special group. I didn't hear that. He knows his audience. He does not exclude. He is inclusive. HE IS INCLUSIVE.

Are you feeling better, Rachel?

of headaches and poets

[loismoon.livejournal.com]

Don't feel bad about the headache...we have it pretty cold in SoGA (it actually has been in the 20's), but we are all also suffering from allergies because the warm weather of last week confussed the trees and they are all in bloom. There is pollen everywhere on top of the frost.

Thank you for confirming that it wasn't just me not getting the poet. 1) I thought she was a poor reader and 2) I had my students all excited because we talked of past poets presentations at the inaug. and they thought they were about to get knocked off their seats...:( Too bad, it was a missed moment for grabbing future poetry fans.

Hope you feel better. Try steaming...head under towel over steamy water. It really helped me with OH winters.

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

I don't have the documentation to back it up yet, but from what I heard some commentators saying, Obama did in fact, write his own speech. He's awesome like that. Seriously.

Aretha... well... that hat was something, wasn't it?

Rick Warren... yeah sorry, total douche. Anybody that equates homosexuality with pedophilia or incest is just dead to me. Unless he retracts it and apologizes profusely for that completely ignorant, bigoted garbage, he can go... well... I'm sure you can fill in the blanks.

Hope Mission Tylenol was successful. Feel better.