Did You See It? (Part Two)

"It" being the inauguration of the second term of President Barack Hussein Obama.

The Blog got to watch most of the festivities, in bits and pieces, while he worked.

The parts that he missed, he has been spending the last two evenings catching up on on YouTube.

The most important 20 minutes of the ceremony was, of course, the President's speech.

If you have not heard it in it's entirety, then...

Good news!

The PC did your homework for you.

Here is the speech.

Go and listen to it.

Listen to it twice!

Yes, it is just short of 20 minutes long. But what else are you going to do for 40 minutes?

Watch "The Real Housewives of Wherever?"

Go ahead.

I'll still be here when you get back.

Oh good! You're back!

Now we are on the same page and we can talk.

In The Blog's not so humble opinion...

The POTUS' speech was not only powerful, concise, full of truth and general awesomeness...

If you cannot process this as fact, then you are not only blinded by your ideology, you are also deafened by it.

The President gathered up damned near every piece of feces that the primates in the GOP have flung at him over the last few years, and shoved each piece, one by one, back up the orifices from which they originated.

The PC is pretty sure that the only piece of ape shit that the President did not touch was the "birther" shit.

Because, why should he?

The POTUS made it clear that he is done with futile attempts at "reaching across the aisle." (A noble experiment. But, one that should have ended about six weeks into his first term, when it became obvious that the GOP was not interested in reaching back.)

The Blog would like to say that the reactions to the speech from his critics were "predictable."

Some were. Others were beyond anything that The Blog could have imagined.

For a bit, leading up to the taking of The Oath, the pundits were screaming about the planned use of Obama's middle initial, "H." instead of "Hussein." In order to "hide who he really is."

It is true that he was introduced as "Barack H. Obama."

But, when the time came, The Man himself said the words, "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear..."

Making that point moot.

"His speech wasn't bipartisan!" The GOP whined.

Considering that the President has spent the last 4 years up against Republicans whose mantra has been "Just Say No!" That would be understandable.

But, the fact is, he repeatedly used the word "together" in his speech. That means you and me, right and left, Democrats and Republicans, all of us, "We The People."

Together.

Seems pretty Goddamn "bipartisan" to me.

Unpredictably, a number of "conservative" pundits and politicians conceded that the speech was good, and signals the need for a reassessment of the GOP zeitgeist.

Others have disagreed, and have called for the heads of those pundits and politicians on ideological spikes.

And then there was the NRA's Wayne LaPierre who, in a speech to a gathering of gun fetishists demonstrated that he, either, thinks that his base is made up of a bunch of gullible morons, (which may be true,) or, he has blurred the line between narcissism and paranoid tin-haterey, by claiming that the POTUS' comment about "absolutism" (a comment, clear to any sane, thinking human being, was directed at the obstructionists in Congress,) was directed at him and his disciples.

If you can stomach it, you can watch and listen to that speech here.

But, enough about the professional "talking heads."

The real eye openers came from The Blog's right leaning Facebook friends who, essentially, "live blogged" via Facebook, during the ceremony.

There was the professor at the evangelical university who, first, posted this photo...

The above photo brings to mind one of the things that sticks in The PC's craw about the "Christian Right."

It's the whole "Love the sinner, hate the sin," thing.

Sanctimonious bullshit, I say.

In response to the ceremony's opening prayer, the same professor posted the following...

"Public prayer is a curious thing to observe. Sounds more like a speech."

A "curious thing" at the inauguration of the "Democrat" president.

But, a good thing in public schools.

Whatever.

Speaking of praying...

It gets worse.

The Blog, Jr., shared this tidbit that showed up on his news-feed, preceded by his own comment...

So lovely. A friend of mine posted that no matter what political party you are a part of, the President needs our prayers today, and the next comment from one of their acquaintances was "Oh, I'm praying... Psalms 109:8" The line being, "May his days be few; and let another take his office". What they like to leave out is the rest of this that is truly offensive:

Being his father's son, he replied...

"Oh, I'm praying...

Psalms 109:8" The line being, "May his days be few; and let another take his office". What they like to leave out is the rest of this that is truly offensive:

9 Let his children be fatherless...,
and his wife a widow.

10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg:
let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

The Blog could not be prouder of his son!

And, 

                                                                                               This

resurfaced on The PC's news-feed.

*Digression*

For eight years, from the year 2000 to 2008, The Blog was regularly told by his right-wing friends that, "no matter what you think of the President, you must respect the office."

Okay, fine.

Whatever The Blog thought about Dubbya, personally, (and yeah, he couldn't stand the arrogant, ignorant bastard,) he never once prayed that "his children be fatherless or his wife a widow."

"Respect for the office went out the window when the "Socialist, Fascist, Kenyan, Nigger" took office.

Double standard, much?

*End Digression*



And then there was this bon mot, addressing the inauguration party featuring performances by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett that night ...

Alright! This president is doing such a great job! I mean the economy must be doing awesome the way he parties! Look at all those rich people live it up while the rest of us struggle!

Because no other president has ever thrown an elaborate inauguration party.

Paid for by private donations and not one cent of taxpayer money.

Seriously, my Republican friends, are your auditory canals so blocked by the thin tissues of your inner rectum?

Moving on...

The poet did his thing,

Whatever.

Poetry, in my opinion, belongs in an open mike club. Not at a 20 degree fahrenheit  inauguration.

But, it happened and we let it happen.

So, fine.

In the end, only one controversy remained as the inauguration came to a close.

"Beyonce was lip-syncing the National Anthem!!!!!!"

Yeah.

That's the best that they could muster.

The Blog likes Beyonce. He has a few of her songs on his iPod™.

Here is a fact about singers performing in a large forum on television.

They all use something called a "scratch track" or a "back track."

The sound engineering on television is a dicey proposition.

And, if you have ever attended a concert by your favorite performer in a sports arena or stadium, you know what an acoustic mess that can be.

Without a little bit of "sweetening" (as we call it in the biz) music, and especially vocals, can sound like shit.

The Blog has watched Beyonce's performance over and over, on YouTube.

She was NOT lip-syncing. In my professional opinion.

But, if that is the only credible criticism that you can come up with re: the ceremony...

Then you've got nothing. 

Kelly Clarkson did a nice job on "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

Understand that she had a "scratch track," too.

James Taylor, who went full acoustic, (and,who I have to assume, was there for Joe Biden's benefit,) demonstrated why one should have a "scratch track."

The real rock stars of the ceremony were The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.

Look at those faces!

A multicultural group of, mostly, untrained singers, rocking the house, while sending a not so subtle message to the "conservatives" from The South.

Try to ignore the spot at the 00:57 second mark, where the cameraman seems to fall in love with the Anne Hathaway look-a-like. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the PBS director yelling, "Move on to the rest of the choir, you pervert!"

No. You can't really hear that. But, The PC has worked in television long enough to know that that is what went down.

But, I am digressing, again.

The Tabernacle singers stole the show.

Someone wasted no time getting that track onto iTunes.

And The Blog wasted no time downloading it to his iPod.

One last thing.

The photo below is not a pic of the inauguration.

But, rather, a reconstruction of the inauguration, built entirely from Legos™.

The builder is totally awesome.

And, has way too much time on his hands.