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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Inauguration On The Big Screen
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 01-23-2009 04:39 PM
quote: Stephen Furley Was this a public holiday over there? It would be interesting to know how many people they got in for it.
No, the holiday was January 19th, Martin Luther King's Birthday, which is a legal holiday in states which have made it so. (By now, that may include all 50 states, which would make it akin to a national legal holiday.)
Inauguration day is alway observed on January 20th every four years, following the November presidential election.
Since the two events were consecutive dates, I flew two flags from my balcony for both days, plus a third day for the new administration's first work day, which turned out to be very productive. My wife usually closes her office on King's Day, but this year she saw patients on Monday and we stayed home and watched the inauguration on TV Tuesday, switching three major channels and to PBS for the round-table commentary by columnists and professors.
As for numbers of spectators, they were astronomical but many ticket holders were shut out because there wasn't enough room on the Mall and the seven D.C. bridges were shut down for security. The millions endured the cold, though in-glove hand warmers were distributed to all those on the dais, and many huge JumboTron TVs were set up in the crowds, plus 5,000 Port-O-Sans (for crowd relief of the basic kind.) It was a most moving spectacle!
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 01-23-2009 05:28 PM
Actually I think the song is titled "America", and I was dismayed to hear Diane Feinstein introduce it as "My Country 'tis of Thee", as some children call it. That title doesn't make much sense unless you complete the sentence .."sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing."
I think her rendition follows the example of singers at sport stadium events where the designated singer tries to embellish an anthem with highly individual effects, so much so that it's sometimes questionable what song they are singing.
There are exceptions, of course; one being a guitar rendition of the "Star Bangled Banner" played during the Vietnam War that evoked "..the bombs bursting in air..." so vividly it sent chills down my spine. Or the rich tones of Richard Havens...
During the Inaugural an instrumental quartet played an original piece composed for the event, in which some church tunes appropriately themed were interwoven, such as the opening line "It's a gift to be simple, it's a gift to be free..." I thought this Williams piece was beautiful. We learned later the YoYo Ma and Itsak Perleman, who played carbon-fibre instruments because of the below-freezing weather, had actually pre-recorded the quartet with clarinet and keyboard musicians. They sort of "lip-sunched" the bowing, while the TV audiences heard a studio recording, free of crowd noises, and their antique string instruments were spared the wood-splitting freeze.
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