Comments on: Trek to history: Before the dawn’s early light

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:18:49 +0000

I was at Forest Glen Metro at 3:30 Am- they forgot about their own rule- cash only for parking and had no change- so they kept a long line of cars waiting until 4:15 Am. I got on the red line around 4:30- seats available and switched to the Green Line at Fort Totten- seats available- getting out at L’enfant around 5:10 Am was tough- riders taking pictures of the crowd in the station. I was on the mall until 1:30 PM(as a volunteer) and eventually came home via Farrguat North at 5:30 PM- emptier than on a work day.

By: dumbek

dumbek — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:33:52 +0000

It sounds like everything on the south side of The Mall was a disaster. We stayed north, exiting via Metro Center and walking to The Mall entrance at 18th St. We got on the Metro in Wheaton @ 5:00am and were standing in the middle of The Mall near 9th St. at exactly 7:00am. That includes stopping at Starbucks for coffee/breakfast. For some reason they wouldn’t let anyone cross 7th Street even though that section of The Mall was fairly empty. If they had let us cross, we could have easily been a few blocks closer.

Getting off The Mall at the end of the day via 14th Street was a disaster though.

By: Jennifer Deseo

Jennifer Deseo — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:14:27 +0000

I caught CNN’s coverage of the parade once I got home. Someone needs to tell Wolf Blitzer to shut the fuck up — it’s nonstop blah, blah, blah with that guy.

By: Springvale Roader

Springvale Roader — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:59:15 +0000

We watched MSNBC because of Rachel Maddow’s presence, and all in all they did a pretty good job, even if it wasn’t HD.

Vagrarian, I’m surprised there wasn’t a riot in the Silver Theater. That sounds horrible. I hate to say this, but the classical music (Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, et al) was beautiful. Are you sure you didn’t stumble into the Majestic’s screening instead?

By: Woodsider

Woodsider — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:23:37 +0000

C-span is the only way to go! The networks/cable news organizations ruin the event with their endless commenting & commenting as well as the split screens and the animated “headline” bar at the bottom of the screen. CNN went one step further with a timeline running on the right side of the screen. It got so annoying that it was a pleasure to watch standard-def C-span on my high def tv just to get away from the distractions.

By: Ferosha

Ferosha — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:25:17 +0000

I guess we got there early enough to miss the chaos at L’Enfant. We transferred from the crowded red line at Fort Totten and the 6 of us all got seats on the green train to L’Enfant. Of course then we stodd with thousands of other people for 9 hours but all in all I can’t complain.

By: Vagrarian

Vagrarian — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:38:58 +0000

The man next to me ran to the managers and asked if they could switch to CNN or something, but was turned down; they had a contract with TV One.

I’ll be interested to see if I get a response to my letter to TV One. They really dropped the ball.

By: Jennifer Deseo

Jennifer Deseo — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:14:35 +0000

I’m surprised AFI didn’t go with a CSPAN broadcast. They wouldn’t have had to pay for the broadcast license, methinks.

By: Easley Does It

Easley Does It — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:58:33 +0000

Sligo is right on. C-Span is blissfully free of pundits, zealots, gasbags, and pompous anchors/reporters explaining to me what I’m seeing.

By: Sligo

Sligo — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:46:47 +0000

The only proper way to watch these events is C-Span.