Obama Sighting Part 2

This was the scene if you were in the crowd outside Calvin Coolidge High School. Thanks Mark for being such an awesome photojournalist.

BREAKING NEWS: Michelle and Barack Obama Sighting

What made this sighting special was not actually seeing Barack and Michelle Obama. It was seeing and hearing the PEOPLE! The joy, the excitement, the tears, the screams, the families - you will see it all here.

Mark positioned himself at the end of the barricade. He was able to get this coveted photo of the presidential limousine. I mainly concentrated on the crowd.

The first video shows the crowds' reaction at 1:30 when Michelle Obama's motorcade went by they first thought it President-elect Obama.



Second is the crowd's excitement 8 minutes later when it was clear the motorcade was coming our way. He is in the second limousine, which Mark and the secret service referred to as the "BEAST." Obama is in the backseat. The entire experience lasted 38 seconds.



For the folks there - they will remember seeing American's first black president on the eve on his inauguration on MLK Day for the rest of their lives. Who would have ever thought THIS was possible? The man with the strange name. Obviously, this explains Dr. King's Dream because I am seeing it too.

After the motorcade rolled down the hill, it began snowing again.

The Obama Wall on U Street

There's an upscale restaurant on the corner of U Street across the street from the Marion Barry Center that has a European, yet bohemian feel about it. We are told that this is a Belgian restaurant fused with southern cooking. What stops you in your tracks is the outside wall that is blanketed with some dramatic posters of Barack and Michelle Obama. Art is subjective and you have to allow yourself to see the world through some someone else's. eyes. I believe this would be a bigger tourist attraction if more people knew where to find it.

The first piece that captures your attention is the huge Obama "PROGRESS" portrait in bold black, red and blue colors. Next to it is the highly-debated, yet thought provoking, portrait of Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama's faces merged together. The passerbys we spoke to had no idea until I pointed it out to them. Obama has said on many occasions that he feels a kinship with Lincoln. The other provocative print is the vision of Michelle Obama as a radical Black Panther.

In the photo with me is a woman named Janelle who I met on the sidewalk. She is from Tampa and now lives in D.C. She painted a picture of this mural. I will post it when she emails it to me.

If you want to see this wall for yourself, you have to view it soon. Bulldozers and construction crews are already there to construct a new building over the wall.

Intellectual Cafe

In the neighborhood where Mark and I are staying is a place called Busboys and Poets. It seemed to be the cradle for African-American intellectualism. The cafe has open mike nights, poetry readings, etc. What strikes you about the place is its diversity and inclusiveness on the same relative block as the center of the 1968 riots. We are told that this where the neighborhood Obama team met during the campaign. Here are photos inside and shot of an interesting portrait composed of newspaper articles about Obama.