Whether it is grooving to cool tunes or yelling at Nazis, summertime is the right time. The Daily Kibitz took the opportunity to enjoy its annual Lollapalooza pilgrimage, followed up by a spirited Sunday afternoon telling "Unite The Right" racists where they can get off. To say that both events were fun is to simply scratch the surface of the English language.
Let's start with yesterday's "Unite The Right" rally. This was truly a terrible idea that was piggybacking on the original terrible idea that was last year's Charlottesville debacle. The organizer pushed ahead with it, against nearly all advice. There were going to be some 400 Alt-Right miscreants participating in this year's White Rights rally.
What are you going to do? Let the Nazis win the day? Uh-uh. So The Daily Kibitz and Mrs. TDK found ourselves heading towards Lafayette Park, the rally site next to The White House.
We made our way past packs of black-costumed and masked Antifas, who were going through their pre-show instructions (Find a Nazi and punch him. If no Nazi can be had, find a cop and punch him... Yeah, they are that way.) We gave them a wide berth - these people do not believe in fun. But there were thousands of others who were like us:
Soon enough we were deep into the counter-protester portion of Lafayette Park, with the cool kids. We were cordoned off from the Nazis by a fence and heavy police presence. Police horses, too ("neigh" to Nazis!). The crowd was really ramped up, waiting for the Bad People to arrive. Lots of shouting, lots of group chanting, lots of energy!
And arrive they did. All 23 of them. It was a pathetic spectacle, these human mistakes, as they filed into their reserved half of Lafayette Park. The press corps surrounding them made their numbers appear larger at first. But when the press stepped away, the tiny rotten core was revealed.
(The organizer later claimed that "we would have had many, many more attendees. But most decided to stay back because they were afraid of losing their freedom." Honest to God.) They had marched several blocks from the Foggy Bottom subway station (with enormous police protection), walking through a gauntlet of counter-protesters and residents who did not hold back their opinions:
All afternoon, many references were made regarding the late Heather Heyer. The guy with the flag above and below is the organizer of this and the Charlottesville rally. When told about Heyer's death during those protests last year, he tweeted, "Heather Heyer was a fat, disgusting Communist. Communists have killed 94 million. Looks like it was payback time."
While the less-than-two-dozen flowers of White Supremacy ambled around their spacious secured rally space, I was struck by the symbolism of it all. Our huge crowd had assembled to protest these measly losers, whose appearance then and last year can be directly attributed to Donald Trump opening the Pandora's Box of American Racism. So there we were - thousands jammed into the upper half of the park, cordoned off from the less than two dozen nitwits in their lower half of the park. And directly behind them... the Trump White House. It seemed like they were the White Nationalist line of defense for their leader. They, and their like-minded allies in the body politic, were blocking the path to us reclaiming the People's House.
Then suddenly it was all over! It had been raining, with rolling, grumbling waves of thunder, like God expressing his disapproval over their rally. At 5pm, when it was to officially begin, someone with a loudspeaker announced that the rally had been cancelled. We whooped, "We beat them! We beat the Nazis again!" Nearly everyone went home happy, except for the White Nationalists, who were quickly escorted into police vans and whisked off to a nearby subway station for an escape under cover.
A much different crowd had been experienced the previous weekend at Chicago's Lollapalooza festival. Each day there were 140,000 attendees. As a point of reference, consider that Trump's margin of victory for the combined voter total from Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - the states that gave him the election - was 80,000.
These crowds were the opposite of the one in DC. Uniformly young, apolitical and inebriated. Lots of energy, and hardly any animosity displayed. Considering the blast furnace conditions and cattle-car confines, that's remarkable. And there was so much body glitter everywhere that every Michael's for a 200 mile radius must have had their stocks sold out.
We won't get into a recap of the proceedings. However, there were a couple of standouts.
Bruno Mars, All American. Here's a guy born to Filipino and Puerto Rican/Ashkenazi Jewish parents. Raised in Hawaii. He becomes one of the biggest selling recording artists of the 21st Century. He sets the festival on its head with a supremely slick and completely entertaining performance. Here's a video from near where TDKibitz was watching. Forgive the occasional frame shake, this is really good:
Wow. My favorite part - when the Chicago firemen come onstage to "put out all the fires" because it's just too hot. That's entertainment! Bring the people together through peace, love and funky dance moves.
And people were brought together! While enjoying the terrific St. Vincent set, TDKibitz was astonished by the appearance of some old friends from Virginia. Out of four days and over 500,000 attendees, we bump into each other. They were there to see their amazing son play guitar for Vampire Weekend, that night's headliner. He'd been recently hired by the band. Who knew? Surreal and hilarious - and their son was great.
Yes, TDK was a Wet T-Shirt contestant. Hot, muggy, and mucho agua had been consumed. It was a real marathon. I'm unsure how Claire and Russ stayed so crisp and unaffected by the conditions. Just cool, I guess.
The other highlight was Portugal.The Man. They possess such a strange name, but they are insanely irresistible. They performed with 6 backup singers, two violins, one cello, two keyboardists, two guitars (one a paraplegic in a wheelchair), drums, and a lively bass. Check out their smash hit, "Feel It Still":
http://feelitstill.com
Just click on the "Fight Apathy" play button for their interactive music video. It is filled with an interesting and fairly dense series of visual metaphors and symbols regarding Our Ongoing Societal Issues and How to Resist. After the video, click on the "Unlock All" for a complete menu for places that can help. These guys come from Wasilla, Alaska, home of the failed VP candidate and former mayor, Sarah Palin. They give a damn.
Is it coming?
Is it coming ?
Is it coming?
Is it coming?
Is it coming?
Is it coming back?
Yes, it is, Portugal.The Man. With the ardent commitment of folks like the rally counter-protestors, and the untapped goodwill of the Lollapalooza goofs, we will come back all the way! Step by step, inch by inch...
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