It felt good to finally get a chance to scream!
I had tried circling the Kodak Theater once before deciding to park at home and hoof it over on foot. Everything was blocked off! Not a street spot, not an open lot, not even the underground parking garages! It was very busy driving by, even by L.A. standards. You could tell that something really big was going on.
The air was electric, which reminded me that my phone was about to die, so I plugged it into my cigarette lighter. I love gadgets!
I parked my car and ran upstairs to gulp something down. No time for formal lunch. I grabbed my iPod, phone, jacket and headed towards Hollywood Blvd. up Fairfax. Then I listened to Madonna’s Die Another Day, and Bjork’s Declare Independence. I was pumped up.
Good thing too.
I had patched a few self made stickers, backed with double sided tape, to my pants and jacket. Not fancy, but it worked. Just after I crossed La Brea I stopped at an ATM to pick up $20. Directly next door was an Army Recruitment Center, right there with the stars on the sidewalk and everything. For some reason the moment felt very ironic…I’m not sure exactly why.
I saw the banners. ‘CNN‘ plastered all over the place. Personally I prefer MSNBC to CNN, but that’s just because the colors on MSNBC work for me better. No seriously. That’s it. When it all boils down to it, CNN is fairly mainstream with a leftward bent and MSNBC has the same leftward bend itself. I admit it. As long as it’s not FOX News (sounds like “FAUX”)…and it’s credible, I’m OK.
I had arrived. No, literally. Every political journalistic celebrity from the network was working the ground. Wolf Blitzer, John King, Candie Crowley, Borger…and many others. There was a medium sized platform elevated directly under the entrance hallway to the Kodak, just in the opening atrium under the roof. The bridges and balconies further in were already full, noticeably nearly exclusively with Obama signs. Better than the Oscars, oh so much better!!
I managed to get up to within two rows of people near the front gate which separated the crowds from the CNN Cameras there in the entrance. Everyone was looking at each other, seeing who was supporting who, looking at who was looking at them, and what they looked like, and so on. It was amazing. We were at the Kodak in Hollywood only minutes before Obama and Hillary were going to take the stage on the highest night of political drama in the campaign thus far, and we knew it.
The chants started. Mostly for Obama. A few scattered Hillary supporters tried to get some cheers started when we took a break, but early on, the Hillary crowd was minimal at best. Multi-colored Warhol inspired profiles of Obama’s face poked out on all sides; above, in front, and behind.
A few Hillary supporters stuck their team’s stickers on one of the large ‘Obama’ signs featuring a different face of his, the adhesive circles placed over Obama’s eyes and mouth. The Obama sign holders found out after a couple minutes and removed them.
The camera crew couldn’t keep the crowd quiet. The house was at capacity. Security guards kept telling all those behind us to move along because there was no more space. ‘Obama’ literally boomed in unison throughout the hall. We easily out voiced anyone else.
Yes I was cheering for Obama. I will cling to idealism as long as it still exists.
I managed to inherit an ‘OBAMA 08!‘ sign from a sweet Latino girl who had made a stack at home to pass out. I served her gift well. My arms got tired, my voice cracked, and I got to bring back my ‘call-and-response’ training from music school in college.
When the Hillary supporters started chanting, “Hillary will set us free!” I was stunned. Literally baffled. Being so, I returned with “Hillary’s a dynasty!” and a few dozen others joined in for a moment. That’s how these mixed rallies work. It’s more of a shouting match for the cameras than anything else.
The other popular one I started, when we got tired of saying “O-BA-MA,” in three distinct syllables, was “No More Drama!” That one did alright, but the sequel didn’t seem to match up overall.
Ironic? Maybe.
I met several interesting people. The first was an older mixed race couple, the husband black, the wife hispanic. They were supporting Obama. The second was another Obama supporter who was a 40-something white woman from Santa Monica. Then there was the Mother and Son duo from Downtown LA, the Woman on vacation from Russia wearing a Hillary T-Shirt (showing the candidate physically running across a finish line in first place), and the Latino Grandmother standing next to me who supported Hillary as well.
The Mayor arrived.
“Yes We Can!” then, “Si Se Puede!”
The Latino’s were out in force for Obama, so my mind eased a bit. Apparently Hillary didn’t have a lock on them, and I apologize for my distinctness. Brutal statistics in returns and polling are so cold on TV, but when you see them in person, in the flesh, everything is different. You start to pick up on the ‘vibes’ of the campaign, the clashing energy, the mix of ideas bouncing off each other in waves of sound. I’ve never seen anything like it. The Mayor seemed to notice.
Very rarely do you have a mixed rally such as this. Most happen for one candidate or another, so that nothing gets out of hand and everyone stays happy. Being that we were in Hollywood, at the very temple of pop-culture to cheer about politics, everything felt important. It was such a different climate from the usual walk of fame…I’ll tell you that! There was even something Greek about it.
I started home twenty minutes before the debate began so I could watch it, holding my Obama sign up to the buses and on coming traffic as it came, some honking horns. I got two buses to honk for me. I figured a little free advertising couldn’t hurt…you know, since I was already out.
I couldn’t help but feel that somehow, by simply yelling my lungs out up there, I had helped to turn the tide in California. I couldn’t be sure, but I had a hunch that they heard me across America.
I yelled directly at the cameras on purpose after all.