"Clinton_inauguration_1993_crowds" courtesy of Flickr user dpape

Did estimates of up to 5 million people scare you from coming out to see the Obama Inauguration?

Well how about 2-3 million? Does that number sound more appealing to you?

Inauguration officials are now revising earlier estimates of Inaugural attendees by half. According to the Washington Post, “turnout could easily reach 2 million, officials said, far outstripping the 400,000 who attended the 2005 inauguration of President Bush.”

It doesn’t surprise me that only 400,000 people came out to see Bush swearing in again. I wonder how many of them were protesters.

The WP article notes that 5 million people may come into the DC Metro area, but it seems unlikely that the entire 5 million will actually make it to The Mall and parade route. So does that mean that a fallback plan of watching the festivities at a local pub may not be smart? Trying to fight through the other 2 million that came into town but didn’t want to go the extra mile to be there in person may make leaving my house a nightmare no matter what I do.

I also wonder if this story will entice even more people to try and see the events in-person. Next thing you know we really do have 5 million people in DC because they thought, “5 million people? No way! But 2 million people… maybe I will try and make it in…”

Now for some more Inaugural news.

Obama’s playing the part of Lincoln very well

"Lincoln Bible" courtesy of the Presidential Inaugural Committee

So the Obama’s got the Lincoln train ride thing down. He’s also kicking off Inaugurapalooza with a concert at the Lincoln memorial. And of course we all know Obama’s from the “land of Lincoln.”

He wants to make sure we get the whole Lincoln metaphor down with his decision to use the Lincoln bible to take his Inaugural oath. The bible hasn’t been used in over 150 yearsm since- you guessed it- Abe Lincoln used it. With the announcement the Lincoln bible came out for a little photo op and CBS has some video of it on display.

More Inaugural Weekend Details

It looks like the Inaugural committee has released some more details on the events that weekend, here’s the latest details from the Presidential Inaugural Committee:

Sunday, January 18th
No new details on the welcome event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial except that it will be in the afternoon

Monday, January 19th - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
The President-elect, Vice President-elect, and their families are going to honor Dr. King through various community service activities. The earlier reported youth concert at the Verizon Center will be held that evening.

Tuesday, January 20th - Inauguration Day

"the president's own" courtesy of Flickr user happy via

The festivities will start at 10 A.M. but officials say that if you have tickets that you should try and get into the areas around 9. Remember that there’s no overnight camping on The Mall and that you can’t stake a parade spot til 7 AM.

Musical groups to perform include The United States Marine Band, Aretha Franklin, The United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters”, The San Francisco Boys Chorus, and The San Francisco Girls Chorus. John Williams will conduct an ensemble including Itzhak Perlman,  Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, and Anthony McGill.

Here’s a the current rundown of the ceremony:

• Call to Order and Welcoming Remarks: Senator Dianne Feinstein
• Invocation: Dr. Rick Warren
• Musical Selection: Aretha Franklin
• Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will be sworn into office by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the Honorable John Paul Stevens
• Musical Selection: John Williams, composer/arranger with Itzhak Perlman, (violin), Yo-Yo Ma  (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet)
• President-elect Barack H. Obama will take the Oath of Office, using President Lincoln’s Inaugural Bible, administered by the Chief Justice of the United States, the Honorable John G. Roberts, Jr.
• Inaugural Address
• Poem: Elizabeth Alexander
• Benediction: The Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery
• The National Anthem: The United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters”

President Obama will escort President Bush to a departure ceremony then attend a luncheon in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

The Inaugural Parade will march down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House. Here’s a preliminary list of parade participants that have been invited.

Wednesday, January 21st
No new news on the prayer service that will take place that day.

How cushy is an Honorary Co-Chair role?

The committee has also announced their Honorary Co-Chairs which include former President Carter, Clinton, and Bush (the first one.)  Mayor Adrian Fenty and Colin Powell are also on the list. While I don’t know what exactly an Honorary Co-Chair does at the Inauguration- I bet he/she will have really good seats.

Talking about seats I was showing a friend around DC last night and we visited the White House where we saw the VIP Grandstand still under construction.

The work looks top notch and there’s a round frame at the top- probably for the Presidential Seal. I also noticed glass partitions installed in the front and center rows. I bet those are probably bullet-proof. There’s also another grandstand structure opposite of this one. That’s probably as close as  I’m going to get to the parade- or anything Inaugural for that matter.

More Inauguration Links

The Inauguration Committee on Twitter: http://twitter.com/obamainaugural

Volunteer for the Inauguration: http://www.pic2009.org/page/s/volunteer2

Mayor Fenty, Interim Attorney General Nickles and Chief of Police Lanier are starting their press conference momentarily on the steps of the Wilson Building downtown. WTOP Radio (103.5FM/1500AM) will be broadcasting the event live, and we’ll have a liveblog going here.

Mayor Fenty is speaking now: He’s welcoming everyone, including Chief Lanier and AG Nickles, and several of the City Council.

“Unfortunately and disappointedly, the Supreme Court did not hold up the three-decade old ban.”

Mayor Fenty has directed the Police Department to begin an orderly process for licensing handguns to citizens for home defense. Before you may lawfully possess a firearm, handgun or not, it must be licensed.

There must be a process within 21 days to register new handguns. During that time, the old law remains in effect. You MAY NOT POSSESS A HANDGUN INSIDE YOUR HOME at this time.

The City Council will be working with the Mayor to create effective regulations for storing firearms in your home.

It seems to have been a pretty short event, as WTOP has now cut away.

Mayor Fenty on U St - Originally Uploaded by DCMatt

I’ve been meaning to write about my Artomatic experience for a few days now. I biked over there this past weekend, not sure how long I’d stay but hoping I’d find it as laid back and welcoming as I did a couple of years ago, the last time I went.

I wasn’t disappointed. What I love the most about Artomatic, which no one else has mentioned, is that it’s a big public space where hanging out is totally ok. Unlike a gallery or a mall, no one owns it or is territorially hoping to make money off of you. And unlike one of our Grand National Museums, you can just be there, without feeling like people are looking at you askance for not moving along.

So my friends and I engaged in some quality hanging out—we meandered about, asked strangers random questions, burst into impromtu dance sequences. Whatever.

The art? Right, the art. It was also pretty great. I remember a lot of it seeming pretty awful last time, but this time I was quite impressed. A couple of the ceramic exhibits on the 10th floor (I think) genuinely looked like they could’ve been in some chichi gallery somewhere.

The On the Fly guy was parked out front—the actual guy I met last week and blogged about—in case folks get hungry. Oh, and be prepared to run into lots of people you know. Including neighbors and ex-boyfriends. Just so you’re ready.

Julia’s Empanadas opened a branch in Columbia Heights last month. I missed the news then, but hearing about it today, decided to go there for lunch. Julia’s is one of the better healthy alternatives in town, though I wish the vegetarian empanadas would always include beans, not just sometimes.

Columbia Heights was absolutely buzzing with energy at 2pm on a Tuesday. What surprised me most of all was the ubiquitous construction, which I’d wrongly assumed had ended when the big DC USA complex opened. The neighborhood is still in the process of reinventing itself, with buildings-in-progress stretching north towards 16th Street Heights. But the central area, around where Park Rd. meets 14th Street, is pretty much done. It’s pretty great, too, with a semicircle of restaurants and cafes and even ice cream shops surrounding an open area. I know, I know–gentrification, prices, displacement, etc. Still, an area of the city that didn’t feel super welcoming in the past has opened up to more District residents.

Anyway, some things aren’t too different. Not everyone in the area has somewhere to go, or a way to get there. A really nice guy stopped me as I left Julia’s, asking for $.85 to get across town so that he could show up for his bimonthly urine test. I gave it to him, and he thanked me, saying he’d pray for me that night.

There’s just a few weeks remaining of a photo exhibit at the Mexican Cultural Institute here in Washington, and there’s a special event at the Institute on Monday night, welcoming photographer Rick Nahmias who captured the images of those migrant farmers who probably helped pick what you’re having for dinner tonight.

From the exhibit text:

Though images of migrant farm workers of the 1930s and 40s are now iconic to many, rarely seen are their contemporaries - one of America’s largest invisible and cast-off populations. “The Migrant Project,” an in-depth photo-documentary (with bilingual text), proudly places the faces and stories of those currently working our fields front and center, providing a present day microcosm for numerous issues surrounding the human cost of feeding America.

DC has a fairly large migrant population, as well, and I suspect their roles in our lives are not quite so different: they’re a part of a society we don’t like to talk about, but carry tremendous value for us.

Maybe go check out the exhibit, think a bit more on it.

Photo courtesy of University of New Mexico Press

Mexican Cultural Institute
2829 16th St NW
Washington, DC 20009

image courtesy of SeenyaRita

Well, by late Sunday evening we’d managed to get all of my darling girlfriend’s possessions into our new house, three blocks from her old house. In some ways it was frustrating to move so much stuff - and seriously honey, SO MUCH STUFF - so short a distance, but we both love that neighborhood.

Or rather, we do when we can’t smell the waste processing plant about a mile to the south. I don’t know what’s going on there, if it’s because of the construction there or the dry spell we’re in, but I have never before smelled their skunkyness from that far away before. Talk about an unwelcome welcoming.

The people, however, have all been gems. At least three different neighbors came up and said hello, introduced themselves, offered their assistance, etc. It’s a delightful change, for me, coming in from the extended burbs out by Dulles airport. Not that those folks weren’t nice enough when I ran across them, but I almost never did, despite very similar house spacings.

It’s nice to be home.

“Road closed” - that is what the sign in the photograph of Ellsworth Drive says and that’s what PFA Silver Spring, LC, the developers of Downtown Silver Spring, said to photographers for years who thought about snapping a picture on this once fully public street. Until last month.

That’s when Chip Py started questioning the policy after he was harassed for photography. And when Metroblogging DC decided to organize a photo walk to visualize his concerns through Free Our Streets.

Now the developer has changed their policy, a first step in the right direction. But a policy statement subject to change at any time is not the answer. Welcoming photography, videography, and other filming on Ellsworth Drive, consistent with First Amendment rights as they would apply on any other public street is.

Or as Marc Fisher says:

Chip Py’s run-in with the picture policeof downtown Silver Spring has morphed into a good old American fight for the right to express oneself…

…The Peterson Companies, the developer that took advantage of $100 million in generous taxpayer support to get their lovely downtown retail strip going, is apparently running scared, and has offered what it terms a compromise.

But it’s an empty offer. Peterson will put up a “Welcome Photographers” banner, but the reality is that the company is in no way conceding that the street it controls is open to the public in any meaningful way.

So its time for you to join our good old American fight for the right to express oneself. Its time for you to Free Our Streets with a Downtown Silver Spring Photo Walk on the perfect day for a declaration of photographic freedom - July 4th!

Downtown Silver Spring Photo Walk
a declaration of photographic freedom
Wednesday, July 4, 2007, 12:00pm - Noon
At the Green Turf, the corner of Ellsworth and Fenton Streets

DC from Air Force Memorial

Originally uploaded by matt.herzog.

Last night coming into DCA, before the snafu at the luggage carousel, we had the most wonderful descent into the city. Following the Potomac from the north, we coasted over the river, looking down over my adopted home, seeing the residential portion of Northwest blink in and out beneath the canopy of trees like so many fireflies on a warm summer night. Then it was the Cathedral in view, majestic and tall among the otherwise squat buildings, the red beacons on its prow welcoming the flight home.

We flew close over Rosslyn and the view over Georgetown was just incredible, the Key Bridge, then the Memorial Bridge, then the holy trinity of DC Landmarks, the Lincoln, the Washington and the Capitol lined up like some sort of man-made constellation of gleaming white marble. I hadn’t remembered seeing the crenellated skylight there the last time I fly over. Then it was down over the water, then the brief spot of beach, and then touchdown.

“Welcome to Washington, D.C., the local time is ten to eleven. Please set your watches forward to Eastern Daylight Time.”

Another reason, besides 1/4″ of snow, to take some time off work, for those of you who are opposed to taxation without representation. (meanwhile, shame on Montgomery country, unnecessary ginormous SUV capital of the universe, to close all schools for 1/2″ of snow.)

Dear fellow citizens of the last continental colony,

Next Thursday (2/15/07) if you have any extra love for DC left in you from Valentines Day, take one-third of a
day off work to lobby for one-third representation in Congress with DC Vote’s “Congress Day” Come and tell Congress what it’s like to live in America when you are forced to sit at the back of the bus of Democracy!

Congress Day 2007

Join DC Vote, our coalition partners, Mayor Adrian Fenty, Chairman Vincent Gray, elected officials and
other citizen advocates as we educate members of Congress to support DC voting rights.

Where: Cannon Caucus Room, (Room 345)
Cannon House Office Building
Independence & New Jersey Ave., SE
(Closest Metro Stop: Capitol South)

When: Thursday, February 15, 2007
- 8:30 AM: Meet for continental breakfast
- 9:00 AM: Welcoming remarks from Mayor Fenty, Chairman
Gray and others
- 9:30 AM-Noon: Congressional visits

Please RSVP by e-mail to congressday@dcvote.org with your contact information including a telephone number.
If you have questions, please call Eugene D. Kinlow at 202.462.6000 x13 or http://www.dcvote.org

photo courtesy of Yukari*

Wayan may have thought that the hatin’ started when you cross the Potomac but it seems that anti-gay measures flank DC on both sides. The Post reports today that the trifecta of cornhole-phobia this week is comprised of Pittsburg, North Carolina and Baltimore. The writer reports that the Catholic Bishops statement compares same-sex attraction to the temptations of “envy, malice or greed” and politely queries Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli how he can then claim the release is intended to be “positive, pastoral and welcoming.” The article includes without comment the real comic content further on: the statement out of the Baptist Convention that “in our day and time, no other sin marches so defiantly across our national landscape.”

I think you forgot gluttony, Buddy. 66% of the adult population is overweight or obese and 19% of kids ages 6 to 11 are overweight. Maybe the Baptists replaced math class with intelligent design classes so I’ll give them a hint: 66% is more than “one in ten.”

Hmmm, they did say “marches.” Maybe that omits sins that waddle?