Friday, May 21, 2010

Vintage: Presidential Elections, 2004

I re-discovered that my Photobucket account, which contains some pictures I have from high school and early college. Among these were photos from a rally I went to for former presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.

I remember election season in 2004. My first time voting. Everyone remembers their first time. The air was so full of hope back then. How young we were, how naive...

Also, I think I might've gotten extra credit in my AP Government class for attending this. Hopefully I did. That class was hella hard.

My friends and I arrived at the Johnson Center at George Mason University early to get a good spot. The evening involved lots of standing around waiting.

We were waiting a long, long time.  You can tell by this disgruntled-ness on Corianne's face.


There was plenty to look at while we waited. Here are some of the supports who got to hang out at the front of the stage and wave signs. You can't tell really in this photo, but this group has a sign that says "Armenians For Kerry". It's nice to know that Kerry supported the Armenian community.

Armenians for Kerry


And, of course, there were the usual crazies there with their signs. I can't remember what exactly it said now, but this one looks like it says something about Kerry killing babies.

Crazy radical nut with sign


Here are some random political type peoples talking.

More random politicians


And eventually John Kerry came up to speak, looking slightly like Sam the Eagle from The Muppet Show.

Kerry speaks


I feel like this was my first political rally, and I remember feeling so cool and patriotic at the time. I was pretty excited when I started college that fall and got to turn in my absentee ballot (less thrilling than going to a polling place, but still nice). Of course, as we all know, Kerry lost the election.


But still, you'll never forget your first Presidential election.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Ladyboys and Girls

A few weeks ago, I attended a roller derby bout in Richmond between a team from their league, the awesomely named Poe's Punishers, and the DC All-Star Team.

It was fun seeing a bout that was not on home turf. But what was even better was their half-time show. Can you guess what Richmond roller derby games have that DC games don't?

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That's right.

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Drag queen cheerleaders. Dancing to Lady GaGa's "Bad Romance". As my friend Aimee put it, "Every time a drag queen dances to Lady GaGa, a fairy is born."

I don't get it. Why doesn't DC have drag queen cheerleaders? We have plenty of drag queens. Can they not get all dolled up and show some hometown spirit? Seriously. We need to fix this. Seriously.

The half-time show also had girls with hula hoops. Also an improvement on DC roller derby's half-time shows.

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Sorry DC roller derby, you fail at half-time shows. We need some drag queens and hot chicks dancing with hula hoops!

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OK, DC roller derby doesn't entirely fail though, since they did win the bout by a huge margin. Go DC Rollergirls! Just get some drag queens and I'll love you forever!

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