Wait, That's Our Band!

Producers and commentators, it seems, don't have kids in marching bands. Coverage of the inaugural parade by the major networks skipped nearly all commentary on the units in the parade, most of which were bands. They either continued analyzing the inauguration or the historic nature of the election, broadcasting the parade only as it appeared in the background over a reporter's shoulder, or reduced the parade to half a screen, again so they could show the reporter making observations of matters unrelated to the parade or the reaction of the new President and First Lady. If they did show the parade full screen, it was usually without any disclosure on the part of the journalists as to who was marching by at the moment. They didn't even bother displaying a graphic on the bottom of the screen so we could read it for ourselves while the unrelated commentary continued.

A bunch of us neighbors congregated over food and drink to enjoy the ceremony and parade, and we flipped through NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, BBC, MSNBC, and FOX, trying to find someone who would tell us who the bands were and where they were from. We finally settled on NewsChannel 8, our local all-news station ("More Local. More Often."). The hosts seemed fresh out of broadcast school, but at least they were talking about the parade they were covering.

I was eager to see the ceremony. But I was excited to see the parade. Having marched through both high school and college, I still thrill at the sound of drum cadences coming from a nearby high school on a crisp fall night. If a football game is on (at someone else's house), the sound I key in on is not the ref's whistle or the quarterback making a call, but the pep band. And I still love watching bands in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and the Rose Bowl Parade.

I know what it's like selling M&M's, chocolate bars, raffle tickets, Entertainment coupon books, and fertilizer (yes, fertilizer) door-to-door to raise money for band trips. I know what it's like putting in hours and hours of practice, memorizing music and marching up and down streets for days on end in heat, cold, and rain, to prepare for the spotlight. And I know the excitement of travelling across the country or around the globe to compete or to march in a parade broadcast on national television.

I also know that my parents and the parents of all the other kids were just as excited about our trips as we in the band were. And if they were not chaperones on the buses, the only way they could share in our experience, after months of sharing in our practices and fundraising, was to stay glued to the TV if we were marching in a major parade, so as not to miss the twenty seconds we'd be in front of the camera.

So I am particularly frustrated with the bush league parade coverage because I identify with those parents, as well as the siblings and alumni of the band being ignored as background to the parade hosts' blather. When they say, "More on that when we return after this short break" just as a band is marching by, I want to scream in solidarity with all those moms and dads going, "Wait! That's our band!" as the screen fades to black for a message about leaky pipes or ED. We've been hearing perspectives, retro-analyses, and commentary of all things political for the past several months, and it will continue for at least the next four years. Can't we put it aside for two hours and just enjoy the parade?

I put up with all the usual cringe-worthy jokes of parade hosts because they also follow the script in describing the bands, where they came from, and some interesting anecdote about their parade preparation. I realize that there's no other focus for the Macy's parade (other than food preparation), but at the Rose Bowl parade they don't talk ad infinitum about the football game or the players or the history of the matchups, while the flower-covered floats pass by silently, out of focus behind some reporter wearing headphones. So why rob the inaugural parade units of the short-lived, hard-won honor and glory they deserve?

Sure, they'll still have fun and won't even know until later if they didn't make the broadcast or were shown but ignored. But I still want to know. I didn't buy all those M&M's for nothing.

Photo credit: www.ramband.com

In Private Celebration

They've closed all bridges into the city from Virginia. They've prohibited bicycles (although that appears to be in question now). They're encouraging the use of Metro but asking people not to transfer. But there are no restrictions on walking into the city!

In anticipation of gargantuan crowds flocking to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the authorities have had to take extraordinary measures to deal with the onslaught. You can't fault them for thinking through every angle and putting certain prohibitions in place in an effort to make it an event which comes off with minimal problems. But - walking into the city? No strollers? No backpacks? No umbrellas?

Increased security is now a fact of life, especially in D.C. Hundreds of thousands will be packing every available spot of the Mall, watching the inauguration taking place several blocks away on Jumbotrons. They will be able to see the Capitol from where they stand, but they won't be able to make out human beings in ticketed seats or the form of the new President as he stands with one hand on the Bible. And yet each person watching the big screens placed along the length of the Mall will have to stand in a blocks-long line and pass through security screening, anyway.

Ditto for the parade; you can't just walk up to Pennsylvania, craning your neck for a glimpse of the President without first passing through a security entry point. Even then, they are going to refuse all entry to the parade once a specified saturation point has been reached along the street - meaning the entire parade route will be fenced off?

Ah, the price of watching history being made in a post-9/11 world. Sixteen years ago, I stood near the Lincoln Memorial on a cold January night for President Clinton's pre-inaugural concert. A-list Hollywood appeared then, also, and I didn't care that I couldn't see anyone famous without checking the big screen. It was just exciting being in the midst of an excited, hopeful crowd after twelve years of Reagan/Bush. Today's national mood of hope and relief was similar to that of early 1993. The youthful Bill Clinton and Al Gore were going to change Washington and the world. There were no security checkpoints back then, no cloud of a terrorist threat.

On January 20th, I stood on the Mall and watched the inauguration ceremony while stomping my feet and rubbing my hands. I took pictures of President Clinton raising his right hand on the big screen. And I also volunteered at the Presidential Inaugural Committee in the weeks leading up to the big day, tolerating the snotty, sloppy attitudes of the twenty-somethings on staff and performing menial tasks at night in hopes of snagging the prize assignment of working at one of the poshest Inaugural balls on the schedule - which, in the end, I got.

At the ball, I walked around amidst the rich and famous: Ralph Lauren, Harry Belafonte, Loretta Swit. At one point in the evening I stood at a door to stamp hands of departing guests and got to ask Dustin Hoffman if he intended on returning to the ball.

So I have had the good fortune of living in Washington and doing a quintessentially Washingtonian thing, and it was a great experience I'll remember for a long time. It may not have been as historic as this year, and it's hard to stay home, living a just a few blocks from the Metro and a five-minute drive from the Lincoln Memorial and not needing maps or subway lessons. But I'd rather not walk into D.C. (about an hour and a half to the Mall), stand in interminable security lines and wait for hours in the January cold, only to watch the inauguration on a big screen TV.

Instead, I'll be watching it on a smaller big screen TV with neighbors in a warm home, enjoying the ceremony, each other, Washingtonopoly, and good food and drink. We'll be toasting the start of a new era (and "the end of an error," as one commentator said today) and giving up our spots of the Mall for some of the hundreds of thousands of Americans travelling to our city for this event. We're glad to do it. Happy Inauguration, America!

Photo credit: About.com