demiurgent (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
demiurgent) wrote2009-01-20 01:09 pm
demiurgent) wrote2009-01-20 01:09 pm
inauguration thoughts
Feinstein was fine in her role as Emcee, though when she said "In a world..." I blacked out and could only hear Don LaFontaine's voice from that point forward.
Rick Warren did, in my opinion, a journeyman's job leading the invocation. It was not "non-denominational," since he is Rick Warren after all, but he spoke with conviction and spoke of hope for the coming administration, and that is a good thing. He clearly wants to be the next Billy Graham, both in terms of influence and in the perception of non-partisanship. As a result, I anticipate anti-Warren Chick Tracts by the end of the year.
I learned that two thresholds were crossed during the inauguration. First off, when Biden took the Vice-Presidential Oath, power officially transferred across the board. As of then, Bush was no longer president. That intrigues me. Does that mean Biden was the President for the next six minutes? The second threshold was Noon itself. When the clock clicked on noon, even if Biden hadn't taken the oath, power transitioned. Protocol wonk for the win.
Robert Bennett, the Republican Senator from Utah who introduced Associate Justice John Paul Stephens (who administered the Vice-Presidential Oath), looks like Alan Arkin.
"Air on Simple Gifts" was a beautiful piece, but A) it sounded in the beginning uncannily like the music for Hinterland Who's Who on CBC television ("for more information about the 44th President of the United States, why not contact the Canadian Wildlife Service, in Ottawa?") and when it segued into Simple Gifts proper I became hungry for a Turkey Dinner.
The problem with the stumbling during the Oath is there are Constitutional requirements involved, so they have to say it exactly as it is writ. So it was kind of grin-inducing.
The speech was fine, and there is some progress in the concept of agnosticism and atheism being acknowledged, but still... "we are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers." So... the choices are Abrahamic religions, Hinduism... and a blanket "non-belief?" No Buddhists? No Pagans or Neopagans? No Shintoists?
Look, don't piss off Thor, man. Seriously.
The nanosecond power transitioned, Whitehouse.gov updated. We now have a blogging administration.
Finally, there was the poem.
...look, the poem itself was bad enough. But did they need to find someone from the Enunciation School of Poetry Reading? "A WOman... and her... SON... waitforthebus." Look. You got the gig. You're reading your poem at the Presidential Inauguration. You don't need to convince us you're a Poet Reading Poetry. We know it already. You got the gig. Either read with cadence and rhythm or read with natural speech. Otherwise, you just sound simpleminded.
The Reverend Joseph E. Lowery gave the benediction, and was a thousand times more lyrical and beautiful in his words and in his imagery than poet Elizabeth Alexander. But by then only seventeen people were left watching, thanks to Alexander's terrible read.
Power has transitioned. Life goes on. We still have a boatload of troubles, but at least we have someone who can pronounce the name of the most powerful weapons on the planet correctly at the wheel now.
Rick Warren did, in my opinion, a journeyman's job leading the invocation. It was not "non-denominational," since he is Rick Warren after all, but he spoke with conviction and spoke of hope for the coming administration, and that is a good thing. He clearly wants to be the next Billy Graham, both in terms of influence and in the perception of non-partisanship. As a result, I anticipate anti-Warren Chick Tracts by the end of the year.
I learned that two thresholds were crossed during the inauguration. First off, when Biden took the Vice-Presidential Oath, power officially transferred across the board. As of then, Bush was no longer president. That intrigues me. Does that mean Biden was the President for the next six minutes? The second threshold was Noon itself. When the clock clicked on noon, even if Biden hadn't taken the oath, power transitioned. Protocol wonk for the win.
Robert Bennett, the Republican Senator from Utah who introduced Associate Justice John Paul Stephens (who administered the Vice-Presidential Oath), looks like Alan Arkin.
"Air on Simple Gifts" was a beautiful piece, but A) it sounded in the beginning uncannily like the music for Hinterland Who's Who on CBC television ("for more information about the 44th President of the United States, why not contact the Canadian Wildlife Service, in Ottawa?") and when it segued into Simple Gifts proper I became hungry for a Turkey Dinner.
The problem with the stumbling during the Oath is there are Constitutional requirements involved, so they have to say it exactly as it is writ. So it was kind of grin-inducing.
The speech was fine, and there is some progress in the concept of agnosticism and atheism being acknowledged, but still... "we are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers." So... the choices are Abrahamic religions, Hinduism... and a blanket "non-belief?" No Buddhists? No Pagans or Neopagans? No Shintoists?
Look, don't piss off Thor, man. Seriously.
The nanosecond power transitioned, Whitehouse.gov updated. We now have a blogging administration.
Finally, there was the poem.
...look, the poem itself was bad enough. But did they need to find someone from the Enunciation School of Poetry Reading? "A WOman... and her... SON... waitforthebus." Look. You got the gig. You're reading your poem at the Presidential Inauguration. You don't need to convince us you're a Poet Reading Poetry. We know it already. You got the gig. Either read with cadence and rhythm or read with natural speech. Otherwise, you just sound simpleminded.
The Reverend Joseph E. Lowery gave the benediction, and was a thousand times more lyrical and beautiful in his words and in his imagery than poet Elizabeth Alexander. But by then only seventeen people were left watching, thanks to Alexander's terrible read.
Power has transitioned. Life goes on. We still have a boatload of troubles, but at least we have someone who can pronounce the name of the most powerful weapons on the planet correctly at the wheel now.
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The poet? She sounded like she took classes from the Shatner school of exposition, but failed the "emotional content" lessons.
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Whenever I see Rick Warren, I can't help but think he looks like Jimmy James from News Radio. Comparing photos, they aren't all that similar, but there is something about their self-amused everyman who rose to power but stayed in touch rings true. Such a persona lacks gravatas, which seems unfortunate in a religious figure. Fortunately the man who gave the benediction had enough gravatas to share, once he hit is groove a few sentences in.
As to his content; I only showed up about halfway through. He was so profoundly forgettable, I couldn't really care.
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He couldn't really list all the religions out there, I suppose. The mistake was maybe even trying. Maybe a clean "People of any religion, or none" would have been cleaner?
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It's an aural attempt to render the poetic structure from the page -- an attempt to make it Sound Like Poetry™. It's had its proponents for much of the 20th century, but it's been largely discredited as pretentious at best or laughable at worst. But you still get the odd duck who thinks it's what the words are supposed to sound like.
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That deserves a chant. "Nu-Klee-Er, Nu-Klee-Er, Nu-Klee-Er, Yay!"
Closing Benediction..."go in peace to love and serve [the world]"
It began lovely and familiar...turned out The Reverend Lowry was speaking some of the lyrics of "Lift Every Voice and Sing". I hope I wasn't the only non-African-American person who recognized it.
Amen, amen, and amen, indeed.
And, yeah, the dearth of real religious plurality in the Prez's speech caught my ear too. The best I came up with was something like "from the Amish to the Zoroastrians", though.
I didn't catch the title of the musical piece at first, but I could hear it was based on "Simple Gifts" before the main theme came in. Sorry to be a nuffer (I like the original hymn), but did you get the feeling Williams sort of phoned it in after listening to Aaron Copeland for the "enth" time?
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One hopes he's a Mercurian and not an Impudite.
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Yeah, that poem sucked. Bad.
I think he probably cut down the religious references because he's only got 18 minutes, and so he hit the largest ones.
Oh, and did you see the new Pres limo? That is one sweet ride.
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Now, for me, personally, I think of bad poetry as a Nimoy rather than Shatner specialty. I found one of his books of poetry in college at some point and, wow, it was *bad*. I wish I still had it just to share the depths that bad poetry can reach. They are low.