Love that this was live! Here I was at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits in Northwest Washington D.C. watching this on my Apple computer screen in the store and getting all excited and pumped up by this rally on the Mall with both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert with their Restore Sanity &/Or Fear and loving it. Music by Cat Stevens, the O'Jays, Ozzie Osborne and more, and Stephen Colbert saying to John Colbert that to everyone of his " points " that their is a " counterpoint ". I loved that.
It was great, it was uplifting and inspirational for me. All the customers that came here after the rally ALL said that the mood was a really positive one and that everyone seemed happy and that there were no problems and no dissension. I also heard that the feeling that everyone that was there was intelligent and that there were people of all ages there, too including families with their children.
I also heard that the posters were great and had people bringing me their i-pods and cameras and showing me the posters that they took pictures of. I liked the customers that came through here. I got lots of pictures of them to add and will do that next week. In the meantime enjoy these pictures.
Many of our customers came here dressed-up as if they were getting ready for Halloween tomorrow.
There is also the Marine Marathon tomorrow and the midterm elections on Tuesday. Busy times here in Washington D.C. And the Uptown movie house across the street is already selling tickets for the next Harry Potter two-part movie in another couple of weeks.
Cheers and stay-tuned for more soon. TONY
This was a great rally to watch " live " while at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits in Washington D.C. when there were very few customers in our store as many of them were down at the rally.
I took these pictures from my Apple computer as the show was broadcast live and I am thrilled to have them as they often have my reflections in them, too : almost as if I was really there " and with good seats as well. Not bad.
Driving to work I got into the spirit of the event as there were enough people walking across the Teddy Roosevelt bridge on a drop-dead gorgeous day to really make me with that my destination was the Washington D.C. Mall and not Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits. They would not really miss or need me until 3 PM when people started to come by after the rally.
People were walking across the Potomac River in small groups, along the route 50 highway in Virginia, and all along Rock Creek Parkway and up through Cathedral Avenue N.W. and Connecticut Avenue N.W. It was bustling, it was vibrant, you could feel the excitement of the morning and what the day held as you drove or walked along. That's where the " buzz " was that Stephen Colbert talked about later : the " buzz " of the people and not of the bees covered in honey! People were organized, on a mission, ready to have a great show, too.
I loved Stephen Colbert coming up from his " Fear cave " 2 miles deep in the ground, reminiscent of the 33 Chilean miners coming up a couple of weeks prior. How exciting and invigorating and rejuvenating that was : just like this rally. We all need some " good news " in this period of political upheaval and turmoil and uncertainty.
I mean, what have we become here in the United States : nothing but a bunch of paid and unpaid lobbyists from small towns to large cities fighting for " special interests " and forgetting the " general-greater good and addenda " of our once great nation that seems to be slipping all the time and very reminiscent now of the Roman Empire of long ago?!? I don't think that I have ever been more in turmoil with knotted gut and I guess a gnawing fear that things will certainly get worse and perhaps never better?!? I'm scared, not running scared, but terrified and scared. And I am not running from my responsibilities, either. I'm prepared to be counted and heard and to do more ...
I'm an optimist and certainly not a politician and I loathe all of this and the fact that it is beginning to absorb more of my time and thoughts. My stress level has certainly gone up as a result of all of this working for so many special interests that by definition exclude the working for any greater good for one and for all. All we have is the " one " or the " few " or the " select " and we have forgotten the " all " that are our rich fabric of peoples and cultures, races, beliefs, sexual persuasions that should all be considered and included when making decisions that affect us all ultimately as shown so clearly today as a result of so many having relentlessly pushed for only their interests and their desire for growth, gain, power and more money.
Hell, I shouldn't be writing any of this here. This is a wine column! I meant for this to have gone into my personal blog that I call " qynothna " and I forgot. Sorry! But I am not sorry for speaking out as I am really concerned and alarmed and in doubt, not much in denial any more about what the outcomes of these current efforts all around the country by the smallest of groups to the very largest will result in : a weakening of our country at large and with results that will further reduce us to nothing more than lobbyists whether paid or not.
The fact alone that we have been willing to spend the ludicrously ridiculous amount of money to get " our men and women politicians " elected and not having used this money instead to fix many of the blaring/obvious/crucial/fundamental/simple problems all around the country from the inner cities and way into the large expanses of our great countrysides in our great country is shocking and beyond sad.
Let's spend the money fixing things and not getting people elected!
I'm not a politician : it's obvious to me and glaringly obvious to you. I don't want to be a politician, no way. But I do have a voice and I do have the ability to voice it and raise it and let it be known where I stand. It may hurt me but so be it. I'd rather be heard than be silent.
I would have been at the rally alongside my son and others if I could have been there. I was " there " in spirit as I watched the images broadcast live.
Today it is Halloween and my family and I will be home passing out candy for the " trick-or-treaters " and that will be fun. Because Halloween falls on a Sunday for the very first time in a long time I believe that there will be more especially because tomorrow is a holiday for many.
I watched again last night the taped rally that we had here at home in northern Virginia with my wife and daughter. That was good because what I saw at work was split up by selling wine and liquor and beer in between. Many of our regulars that did not go to the rally came through. Some had had medical appointments and trouble getting to and from them either on the metro on by taxi as the ranks of the rally-goers I believe soared from sixty thousand that they had expected to over two hundred and fifty thousand. Is that possible? That's pretty grand when you realize that it was two people on two different t.v. shows ( Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert ) that working on a comedy channel had achieved all of this? Do you think that any two politicians trying to do this could have achieved the same turn-out? I don't think so.
Thanks Jon and Stephen. You guys did good, really good. I've been a fan for years now ever since my daughter got me into watching your shows with her.
We even went to hear you " live " Jon at the John Paul Jones auditorium/stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia where you asked parents to leave with their children as you were not going " to tone down any of your profanity " ( they chose to stay ) and as you bashed everyone and everything imaginable from your roommate who peed in your closet to our closet/attic Canadian friends to the Jews, computers that " freeze " and become nothing more than large screen clocks until you turn them off in abject frustration and defeat and on and on and on and on and on ... I loved it, really I did. I wrote you a letter, too and will have to send or include it here sometime on my chatart.blogspot.com where much of this deserves to be or at qynothna.blogspot.com.
What I loved about your show in Charlottesville Jon was that you were " open " and that we did discover that you have children and a wife that is a veterinarian ( we learned a lot about that and animals-pets at the show in graphic detail ) and that you must be laughing all the way to the bank every time that people pay and show up to hear you. I mean Jon, you have to do this, you have to get it all out or it would literally kill you by imploding inside of you if you did not release at least some of it. It continues to build-up inside of you and without releasing it you would simply not make it : it's simply " too much " even for someone like you with you intelligence and stature to keep bottled up all inside. And you are thinking as you make money : " And I'm being paid boatloads for all of this?!? " I can see you dastardly little smile/grin/lips pursed/raining of your cheeks/eyes open wide one second. scroll-dart down the next split second.your lips purse to make an " O " shape ... Glad to be here I am sure, all of us for you Jon as you are plainly here for all of us : we've got each other's back. Thanks.
Who is that man to the right of Stephen Colbert in the picture above just to his back? He's in a lot of these pictures. Should I know him? Secret Service? Body guard? I simply do not know.
I loved the images of the four -to-one-lane-car-gridlock that you showed as you spoke about all of this Jon and how everyone in the cars with various bumper-stickers and beliefs and political points-of-views-, etcetera had to be patient and work together to get through and on with their lives in a certain amount of civility and order and reasonableness. There was little problem as I watched the images of the cars as they gradually got into the one line that got them through to wherever they were going. That was a good image / a good demonstration of what we face daily and must deal with with a certain patience and reasonableness to get through and onto other pursuits and projects to make our daily deadlines,etcetera.
Stephen, I loved when you came up from your " Fear Cave " and I loved your patriotic outfit and how you grabbed the American flag and ran up and down the stage with such glee and excitement and apparent joy. We all needed that : it was the moment, the relief, the epiphany and release of emotion and validation of joy and togetherness that we all had to have : gathered there so many strong and united to agree and disagree and be there together for the purpose of working together and being heard and seen as one large group of intelligent and concerned individuals ... it made the moment for me - it drew me in like any other moment to time-and-place and rally-and-event-and-making-of-really-important-history-that-this-rally-will-be-seen-( what a great scene ! )- as-shortly-and-certainly-in-the-years-to-come ...
I will watch the end of the rally broadcast that we still have taped tonight with my wife, daughter and son after the trick-or-treaters go home tonight. I want to listen to what you said again tonight and then perhaps finish this blog then. I will wait-and-see and if the time arises or the inspiration and energy affords me I will write more.
I do have a college to go off and see with my son tomorrow and I am looking forward to that a lot. I also have real wine blogs to finish and add text to if I get the chance tomorrow.
It's a beautiful day now and the sun is out and it's bright, clear-skied and a bit breezy in a good way and I'm going to go outside in a few minutes after unloading the groceries that my wife just brought home and sit I hope outside with her and look all around but especially at our Sasafras tree with leaves that are golden and rich and with highlights of reds and that glow positively as the sunshine hits them, even when not ... stunning, catches and locks one's eyes, fixing them as if they were feeding in their glow and sustenance that is both real and imagined yet completely positive in almost every way : much like this rally was, I believe to many of us : a way to get warm and healthy once a gain, to get rivitalized and enthusiastic and to restore, restore, restore or sanity and humanity and lose our fears that are real but so often fabricated and used against us for harm and destruction and negative, NEGATIVE, NEGATIVE ...
Cheers and stay-tuned for more.
I have more pictures that I took at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits in N.W. Washington D.C. as our customers returned from walking back from the Washington Mall. I have pictures of them and their stickers and pins and other colorful Halloween outfits. I will post a separate blog on that.
Nolan that sells us wine came to taste wines of California like the excellent HUSCH Chenin Blanc and a lovely smooth German Dornfelder red in a light red-colored wine bottle. There was a Napa Sauvignon Blanc and a new Spanish red Rhone-style dry wine, and more - oh, an excellent Alexander Vallet Pinot Noir, too. Thanks Nolan. You had been at the rally, too earlier I believe Nolan? Glad you could come and taste wines with our customers : they appreciated that.
I will include all of that detail when I post the next blog shortly.
I also opened a bottle of the TOAD HOLLOW French sparkling dry Blanquette De Limoux to celebrate with many of our customers including John and Maggie and Dakota, just to name a few. It's incredible and everyone loved it and appreciated the gesture of celebration.
Take care, be sure and vote on Tuesday and enjoy this glorious weekend in the meantime. Also, thanks for shopping with us here at Cleveland Park & Spirits. Cheers, TONY
1 comment:
Wish I could have been there! I'm such a fan.... :-)
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