Brief Rundown (with videos!)
Because I haven't gotten the full video yet, I've managed to piece together an approximation of what I experienced at the Rally to Restore Sanity (still have yet to download the full bittorrent, myself, so these will do for now):
After arriving en masse about half an hour early, wading through people to find the best view of the jumbo-screens, and waiting for the Roots to finish their warm-up music and for the two dudes from Mythbusters to ease up on the video-assisted-audience-participation bit, Mom and I were treated to Jon Stewart's opening spiel...
...he was joined shortly by Stephen Colbert, from his "underground fear bunker...encased in bedrock"...
And Father Guido Sarducci gave the benediction (I'm still looking for the other half of it)...
Stephen had a special celebrity guest read a poem that he claimed to have written half an hour before the show started...
At one point, Wyatt Cenac and Jason Jones were asked to give different reports about whether or not the rally was a success:
One of the most hilarious bits (and probably misheard from where I stood) was when Jon and Stephen alternated between handing out their respective Sanity and Fear medals...
I previously added a video of Jon and Stephen bickering over whether Yusuf Islam should play "Peace Train" or Ozzy Osbourne should sing "Crazy Train" and that was one of the few bits I could see clearly past the masses when I stood up on a table to look at a jumbo-screen.
I regret not being able to find any video (yet) but there was an awesome bit with Jon and Stephen going back and forth about the merits of fear and sanity, made even more hilarious when Jon Oliver showed up dressed as Peter Pan.
Because my mother and I had been strong-armed off of our table, we mostly heard Jon Stewart's closing speech, which is why I'm so glad I was finally able to watch it:
...In summation, the whole event was mostly a "chill-in"--where mostly-like-minded and polite people show up, hang out and get free entertainment for a little over 3 hours, as well as a reminder that our ideological differences do not have to be a detriment to our ability to work together.
I only wish I'd thought of saying something to people about possibly sitting on the grass so that we could all see the screens... Also the sound-quality where we stood alternated between clear and echo-y, but that's just a technical issue.
After arriving en masse about half an hour early, wading through people to find the best view of the jumbo-screens, and waiting for the Roots to finish their warm-up music and for the two dudes from Mythbusters to ease up on the video-assisted-audience-participation bit, Mom and I were treated to Jon Stewart's opening spiel...
Click to view...he was joined shortly by Stephen Colbert, from his "underground fear bunker...encased in bedrock"...
And Father Guido Sarducci gave the benediction (I'm still looking for the other half of it)...
Stephen had a special celebrity guest read a poem that he claimed to have written half an hour before the show started...
At one point, Wyatt Cenac and Jason Jones were asked to give different reports about whether or not the rally was a success:
One of the most hilarious bits (and probably misheard from where I stood) was when Jon and Stephen alternated between handing out their respective Sanity and Fear medals...
I previously added a video of Jon and Stephen bickering over whether Yusuf Islam should play "Peace Train" or Ozzy Osbourne should sing "Crazy Train" and that was one of the few bits I could see clearly past the masses when I stood up on a table to look at a jumbo-screen.
I regret not being able to find any video (yet) but there was an awesome bit with Jon and Stephen going back and forth about the merits of fear and sanity, made even more hilarious when Jon Oliver showed up dressed as Peter Pan.
Because my mother and I had been strong-armed off of our table, we mostly heard Jon Stewart's closing speech, which is why I'm so glad I was finally able to watch it:
...In summation, the whole event was mostly a "chill-in"--where mostly-like-minded and polite people show up, hang out and get free entertainment for a little over 3 hours, as well as a reminder that our ideological differences do not have to be a detriment to our ability to work together.
I only wish I'd thought of saying something to people about possibly sitting on the grass so that we could all see the screens... Also the sound-quality where we stood alternated between clear and echo-y, but that's just a technical issue.