Restoring sanity
KuddlKat and I got up at 5:30am and got to the Greenbelt Metro station at about 7:30am. There was parking, but the lines at the ticket booths were already starting to et a bit large. Got to the rally at 8. Couldn't get a good location, but were around the middle and fairly close to the front. There were people already there who apparently have been camping out for a while. We all pretty much got stuck there with the crowds quickly surrounding and tightening around us, but we still enjoyed the heck out of it, and had space to sit, and time to do some reading and sign drawing before the preshow started at 10.
Was AWESOME to see the MythBusters there doing large crowd based experiments. Probably only place they would get a chance to, since this is the one rally they can go to without being accused of being partisan. It took 1 minute for a crowd wave to go from the front of the crowd to the back. Also, 200,000 people all jumping up and stomping the ground at the same time apparently creates a zeismic wave 100 times greater than a car at a 35mph collision crash. So, 200 million pounts of meat hitting the ground = a sedan in an accident * 100?
Rally itself was awesome! Surprise musical stars were awesome and surprising. I was shocked and wowed when Ozzy Ozbourne came out of stage, and a bit confused when Kid Rock came out to play a Bob Dylanny "I'm a moderate, stuck in the middle" kind of song, especially since his other stuff was "Hell Yeah! I'm an American Badass!" type songs, mostly performed at Republican rallies. Granted I confused his stuff with Toby Keith's at one point (sorry Kid Rock, no hard feelings?). And, of course, Stewart's closing speech was very moving and very much on point. The "cars going into a tunnel" metaphor was beautifully spot-on. Also, Stewart is hot.
The signs were almost all pretty cool, too. Mind was decidedly unfunny goo.gl/aoNXJ but I was hoping to go for a more serious point regarding the #1 election issue *shrug* Ones i found most disappointing were actually the "9/11 Truth" conspiracy nut ones. There were others parodying or making fun of stuff, but at least the Republicorps were satire, so they could probably be forgiven for at least trying to be humorous. Regarding examples, plenty of pics on the web of those.
After the rally, we realized that we couldn't go anywhere for a while, since there was even a HUGE crowd/line just to get off the mall, so we just chilled, ate pre-packed sandwiches, and walked around looking at other signs. Ran into a fursuit group that people were taking pictures of. Totally awesome cause it was Halloween, and they probably had the best costumes there (the Cylon with "Toasters United Against Teabaggers" sign was cool, too). Getting home was a bit difficult. Metro trains were still packed even at 7pm when we finally got out of there.
Despite the traffic and stuff, it was TOTALLY worth it, and the crowds definitely beat out Beck's size. Aerial photos don't really show the sizes right due to differing altitude scale, but if you look at a map, Beck's crowd filled the mall completely from the Lincoln Memorial to 17th Street just in front of the World War II memorial, obviously not including the reflecting pool in the center. By noon, the Sanity Rally filled the entire mall from 3rd Street to 14th Street in front of the Washington Monument, and spilled out onto the surrounding streets. That's at least 1/6th more in just the area covered. Many people reported not being able to get to the mall, and just hanging out on the sides or turning around and going back home or just to walk around the city. But regardless of the numbers, I'm very sure the Sanity people had a heck of a lot more fun.
Was AWESOME to see the MythBusters there doing large crowd based experiments. Probably only place they would get a chance to, since this is the one rally they can go to without being accused of being partisan. It took 1 minute for a crowd wave to go from the front of the crowd to the back. Also, 200,000 people all jumping up and stomping the ground at the same time apparently creates a zeismic wave 100 times greater than a car at a 35mph collision crash. So, 200 million pounts of meat hitting the ground = a sedan in an accident * 100?
Rally itself was awesome! Surprise musical stars were awesome and surprising. I was shocked and wowed when Ozzy Ozbourne came out of stage, and a bit confused when Kid Rock came out to play a Bob Dylanny "I'm a moderate, stuck in the middle" kind of song, especially since his other stuff was "Hell Yeah! I'm an American Badass!" type songs, mostly performed at Republican rallies. Granted I confused his stuff with Toby Keith's at one point (sorry Kid Rock, no hard feelings?). And, of course, Stewart's closing speech was very moving and very much on point. The "cars going into a tunnel" metaphor was beautifully spot-on. Also, Stewart is hot.
The signs were almost all pretty cool, too. Mind was decidedly unfunny goo.gl/aoNXJ but I was hoping to go for a more serious point regarding the #1 election issue *shrug* Ones i found most disappointing were actually the "9/11 Truth" conspiracy nut ones. There were others parodying or making fun of stuff, but at least the Republicorps were satire, so they could probably be forgiven for at least trying to be humorous. Regarding examples, plenty of pics on the web of those.
After the rally, we realized that we couldn't go anywhere for a while, since there was even a HUGE crowd/line just to get off the mall, so we just chilled, ate pre-packed sandwiches, and walked around looking at other signs. Ran into a fursuit group that people were taking pictures of. Totally awesome cause it was Halloween, and they probably had the best costumes there (the Cylon with "Toasters United Against Teabaggers" sign was cool, too). Getting home was a bit difficult. Metro trains were still packed even at 7pm when we finally got out of there.
Despite the traffic and stuff, it was TOTALLY worth it, and the crowds definitely beat out Beck's size. Aerial photos don't really show the sizes right due to differing altitude scale, but if you look at a map, Beck's crowd filled the mall completely from the Lincoln Memorial to 17th Street just in front of the World War II memorial, obviously not including the reflecting pool in the center. By noon, the Sanity Rally filled the entire mall from 3rd Street to 14th Street in front of the Washington Monument, and spilled out onto the surrounding streets. That's at least 1/6th more in just the area covered. Many people reported not being able to get to the mall, and just hanging out on the sides or turning around and going back home or just to walk around the city. But regardless of the numbers, I'm very sure the Sanity people had a heck of a lot more fun.