Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Rally to Restore Sanity

I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (hosted by Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert) this past weekend on the Mall.

After attending the inauguration in sub-thirty-degree weather last year, I promised myself that I wouldn't go to another one of these massively populated events. Sure, it's a great adventure and one of those things you'll remember for the rest of your life, but the physical toll it takes (i.e. freezing for 8 hours in the middle of the night with not even enough room to sit down) is a bit of a turn-off.

Unfortunately, I'm a sucker for hype and the second I had heard that they were hosting this rally, I decided I had to go. I also had friends fly up from Dallas just to attend, so my hands were tied.

The vibe at the rally was not completely unlike the inauguration - I preferred this event much more though, for several reasons:
- Instead of stupidly staying out all night and getting to the Mall at 4am like I did in January, we decided to just get there early in the morning.
- The weather was way better - I will take 50s for 6 hours when the sun is out vs 20s in the early morning hours any day.
- Signs! The biggest story of the rally was probably the creativity and originality of the signs that people brought. Colbert and Stewart encouraged people to make signs reflecting the spirit of the rally, and I saw some really great ones (Here's a few: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-100-best-signs-at-the-rally-to-restore-sanity).
- Swag! They didn't give out anything at the inauguration, but a few blocks away from the rally, they gave out towels, horns, hand fans, and stickers. You can never have enough swag.

The rally itself was nothing short of spectacular, and I admire their ability to have an entire rally that steered clear of politics (they didn't feature politicians, and shockingly, didn't even remind anyone to vote). It was very much a live version of their respective shows, while mocking the modern-day rally (and the media coverage of them). It lived up to Stewart's slogan - "a rally for the rest of us." It was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon in DC, and Stewart's closing speech emphasized the non-political nature by saying he didn't want anything else from the crowd - his only call-to-action was for people to attend the rally.

My favorite moment of the rally was definitely the song they sang together:
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or FearJon and Stephen - "I'm More American Than You"www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sainty and/or FearThe Daily ShowThe Colbert Report


A close second was participating in the Mythbusters experiments - including seeing how long it took to do the wave (250,000 people doing the wave has to be a record, right?), and having everyone jump at the same time to see if we should create a mini-earthquake!

The Mall has probably never seen a rally quite like that before, and it was pretty awesome to be a part of it.