Comments on: Dancing in the streets for Obama

Dancing in the streets for Obama

twoleftfeet — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:51:58 -0800

People took to the streets to celebrate Obama's victory in New York, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, Boulder, New Brunswick, Oakland, Philadelphia, Gainesville, Los Angeles, Boston, Portland, Atlanta, Cambridge, Madison, Richmond, Baltimore, Santa Cruz, and Washinton, D.C.

... and many other places.

By: Krrrlson

Krrrlson — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:56:00 -0800

Should this maybe go in the other thread?

By: Atreides

Atreides — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:58:12 -0800

You mean the thread with one thousand plus posts? I'd figure it'd just get buried there.

By: Nick Verstayne

Nick Verstayne — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:59:37 -0800

Because otherwise we wouldn't have known. C'mon people, I cried too, but this one's in the wrong spot.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:12:24 -0800

The other thread actually has 2050 posts at the moment. And it started before the election.

By: Lipstick Thespian

Lipstick Thespian — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:15:37 -0800

Having formerly lived in Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Portland and Oakland, and having been to Washington DC, Boston, LA and New York, I LOVED THIS. Thank you for posting it here and not buried in the throbbing blob of the other post. Not that I don't like the other throbbing blob post. Throbbing blobs have their place in this new America, also.

By: ob

ob — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:21:22 -0800

Downtown L.A was fun last night, but today has been great. I keep on hearing random people on the street just start shouting 'Obama! Obama!' every half hour or so. That's only trumped by the guy who driving along blasting out James Brown's "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" this morning.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:24:00 -0800

How about this thread?

By: mrzarquon

mrzarquon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:25:02 -0800

Neighbors (seattle gay bar) turned their speakers towards the outside, and this is what happened

By: Artifice_Eternity

Artifice_Eternity — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:30:49 -0800

Thanks for this thread. Greenwich Village was full of joyous racket last night. We thought about trying to get to Times Square or Harlem, but stayed put (at Kettle of Fish on Christopher Street) so as not to miss the O-man's speech. A great night, altho the beer plus Jaegermeister plus champagne turned out to be a big mistake.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:33:19 -0800

Neighbors (seattle gay bar) turned their speakers towards the outside, and this is what happened 'Cause nothing says OBAMA like a little, uh, Journey goodness? ... Who am I kidding, I'm all about the Journey.

By: Artifice_Eternity

Artifice_Eternity — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:37:17 -0800

mrzarquon: That is awesome.

By: silby

silby — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:41:42 -0800

The scene at MeFi's favorite hippie school, Hampshire College

By: Awakened

Awakened — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:42:24 -0800

I seem to have something in both my eyes :~)

By: wemayfreeze

wemayfreeze — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:46:43 -0800

Thanks for the Hampshire link, silby! I've been watching these videos all day and chills every every time. WHAT BLACK MAGIC. Oh right: love, long-dormant, for my fellow countrymen.

By: Pantengliopoli

Pantengliopoli — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:48:12 -0800

mrzarquon: I was thinking of that song last night and had yet to get to listening to it, knowing it would bring the tears -- to see it with the backdrop of my neighbors on Capitol Hill was perfect...

By: matteo

matteo — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:48:20 -0800

I suspect Shep Smith will be among them

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:48:57 -0800

I was at the DC video scene, though I left about an hour earlier. Man, it was crazy--incredibly tight crowd, everyone happy, horns blowing everywhere, and everyone yelling at the White House. Bush, apparently, was home at the time. Hope we kept him awake.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:56:00 -0800

mrzarquon: I was among the 3500 or so people literally dancing in the streets last night on Capitol Hill (and I probably should have chosen that video instead). It was absolutely beautiful. I've never seen anything like this in the U.S. - spontaneous outpourings of unbridled joy across the country. Other countries get to win the World Cup sometimes, but I can't think of another time when americans (well, a lot of us) were so happy together.

By: mrzarquon

mrzarquon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:57:05 -0800

> mrzarquon: I was thinking of that song last night and had yet to get to listening to it, knowing it would bring the tears -- to see it with the backdrop of my neighbors on Capitol Hill was perfect... I am continually kicking myself for not realizing how big of a thing that was, and that I just went to bed last night to an attempt to get some sleep before an early day today. Right now I wish I was hungover at work, but delighted and with my own photos of the events, than just mildly regretful. On the plus side, I think the partying will probably carry through the weekend. And maybe there will even a Prop 1 spontaneous party for us transit geeks.

By: gomichild

gomichild — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:03:13 -0800

You forgot Obama, Japan.

By: mrzarquon

mrzarquon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:05:17 -0800

Apparently there is a victory march tonight in seattle?

By: gman

gman — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:13:10 -0800

Obama: The second coming.

By: bottlebrushtree

bottlebrushtree — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:13:30 -0800

still hung over and my bike bell ringing hand hurts.

By: brain cloud

brain cloud — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:20:31 -0800

Inauguration Day Meetup? Plz?

By: lunit

lunit — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:25:55 -0800

Providence!

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:32:04 -0800

I was trying to figure out what this reminded me of. I don't think we've ever seen anything like it after an election in this country; it feels like the sort of thing you see at the end of a movie just before the credits roll. Then it hit me. It looks like Berlin the night the Wall came down.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:42:50 -0800

Should this maybe go in the other thread? This is the second attempt to derail a thread. Folks, if we all flag these comments, we can get them removed. We can do this, people.

By: Autarky

Autarky — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:47:50 -0800

This Obama love is getting to be a bit much. He'd better be the Second Coming for all the fuss that's being made.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:54:39 -0800

It looks like Berlin the night the Wall came down. Yeah. I actually thought of photographs of American cities celebrating the end of WWII. When I left work yesterday, it was looking pretty good for Obama, but I didn't want to count any chickens or anything. Then I was away from any news during my hour-long commute. When I got out off the BART train in Oakland, I was greeted by people dancing in the street, laughing and hollering. One guy in a car slowed down next to me, rolled down his window and showed me a large carton of ice cream. "I'm gonna go home and celebrate with ice cream!" Then he sped off. It was a really great way to hear the news.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:55:17 -0800

I am sooooo jealous. I live overseas, and I had a hectic-beyond-belief schedule for the past 36 hours and only just now am I able to soak in all of this. Wish I could've been there...whichever city, that is.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:58:58 -0800

cheers for that lunit - seeing RISDoids clapping limply means something is really going on in the world : )

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:02:39 -0800

Does running around my apartment screaming and kissing my boyfriend count? It should.

By: brain cloud

brain cloud — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:03:17 -0800

This Obama love is getting to be a bit much. He'd better be the Second Coming for all the fuss that's being made. Don't think of it as a second coming, then. Think of it more like a giant fudge sundae after 8 years of shit sandwiches.

By: CynicalKnight

CynicalKnight — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:04:09 -0800

I was trying to figure out what this reminded me of VE Day is the only thing I can compare it too.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:04:30 -0800

And oh god, NYC had such a VISIBLE Hangover today. Worse than New Years. Aspirin sales must have SPIKED.

By: bukharin

bukharin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:09:25 -0800

I stood on a window ledge in Harlem and screamed "We did it, we did it, we did it" for two hours. Fireworks went off, cars were honking, people were dancing in the streets, hugging, laughing.

By: spacely_sprocket

spacely_sprocket — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:24:26 -0800

I think I saw more fireworks in Portland last night than I did on Fourth of July.

By: Windigo

Windigo — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:29:16 -0800

This is what the streets outside Grant Park looked like in Chicago

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:56:09 -0800

As to the Second Coming, I think it's more of a Moses thing.

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:58:16 -0800

Actually meant this photo, but the above works well as well.

By: Yoshi Ayarane

Yoshi Ayarane — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:01:39 -0800

Forget New Year's Eve, THIS is epic happy. I've heard comparisons to the huge victory row at the end of Star Wars. That's... not a bad analogy, actually.

By: Rykey

Rykey — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:15:01 -0800

Man, I miss living in Madison.

By: wildcrdj

wildcrdj — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:15:47 -0800

Sadly for a lot of people in SF the elation has turned into something more mixed, as Prop 8's passage is pretty devastating. Still happy about the rest of the election, but it casts a nasty pall over it that makes it impossible to truly enjoy.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:25:08 -0800

Gee, I wonder how this makes the republicans feel? It must flip them right out. If this type of outpouring had ever happened for Bush, I'd have been very afraid.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:52:03 -0800

Public holiday for kenyans to celebrate Obama's Victory

By: melissa may

melissa may — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:12:22 -0800

I love the pictures up at Obama Daily. Gee, I wonder how this makes the republicans feel? In my statistically insignificant poll of centrists (N = my dad), not too shabby. My 96-year-old grandma is another story. She voted Republican all her life -- she says more because that's how everyone she knew voted than anything -- but the last 8 years have made her what in Western Kansas passes for a radical progressive. She and I agreed that the polite thing to do with the rest of family during the holidays would be to maintain a discreet and dignified silence (with high-five breaks when no one else is looking).

By: juiceCake

juiceCake — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:31:05 -0800

I keep expecting the camera to pan over to Rod Serling on the street or to pan over from the Star Wars holograms on CNN. So far, I haven't seen the wisps of smoke that say Rod is will be speaking with us in a moment.

By: vorfeed

vorfeed — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:31:49 -0800

mrzarquon: thanks, that's officially my video of the day. Nothing says fuckin' great like an impromptu JOURNEY street party, complete with 2000 people muttering vaguely along until it finally gets to the "streetlights! people! in the niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!" part.

By: YoBananaBoy

YoBananaBoy — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:04:02 -0800

the polite thing to do with the rest of family during the holidays would be to maintain a discreet and dignified silence (with high-five breaks when no one else is looking). *practices aforementioned by trying not to smile while re-reading above quote*

By: brain cloud

brain cloud — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:05:44 -0800

Public holiday for kenyans to celebrate Obama's Victory Reminds me so much of the worldwide celebrations after Bush got re-elected! Ah, nostalgia.

By: borkingchikapa

borkingchikapa — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:40:10 -0800

I was in a bar on 14th and U in DC, and a ridiculous party started on the very same corner as the 1968 King riots. I went down to the white house later, and yeah, it was pretty incredible. Much more than the fall of the Berlin Wall, it reminded me of the end of the Return of the Jedi special edition where they're knocking down all the statues and everyone's cheering for the end of the Empire.

By: six-or-six-thirty

six-or-six-thirty — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:27:44 -0800

Goddamn. Personally, I love seeing hundreds of really happy people all hanging out together. Dancing is an added bonus. Flag waving? A little bit unorthodox given the past eight years, but a nice thing to see nonetheless. I give this thing a 10 out of 10.

By: velvet winter

velvet winter — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:41:47 -0800

Those pictures at the Obama Daily LiveJournal community are amazing, melissa may. How rare it is to see so many people overwhelmed with that kind of joy. Thanks for the pointer. Now I'm weeping too!

By: Potomac Avenue

Potomac Avenue — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:10:31 -0800

A friend of mine started this Impromptu Hi-Five Streetgame in portland.

By: threeturtles

threeturtles — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:58:13 -0800

Could everyone start posting links to flickr sets of the celebrations and such here? I'm looking for more inspiring photos of my fellow Americans.

By: sondrialiac

sondrialiac — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:39:42 -0800

Gee, I wonder how this makes the republicans feel? It must flip them right out. If this type of outpouring had ever happened for Bush, I'd have been very afraid. That's because Bush was one of the most unpopular presidents ever. I think even if McCain had won, there would still be bittersweet feelings from Obama supporters simply because McCain is not Bush. Of course, he tried his hardest to imitate Bush during his campaign.

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:48:38 -0800

This video from Harvard Yard brought me to tears.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:07:17 -0800

I have posted a related question in AskMe.

By: curagea

curagea — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:27:11 -0800

I was coming home from studying for a midterm when we encountered stop-and-go traffic and honking. My friend dropped us off and we saw that there was a HUGE crowd gathered in the intersection of Telegraph and Durant (this is in Berkeley), all cheering, dancing, crowdsurfing, popping champagne, climbing trees and traffic lights, honking their cars, riding each other's shoulders... it was just amazing. I took a couple of video clips of the event, and will post them up soon...

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:27:57 -0800

This video from Harvard Yard brought me to tears. Related: Harvard Class of 2012 Celebrate Obama Victory.

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:33:53 -0800

I love the pictures up at Obama Daily. Dammit. No I'm weeping. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. YES WE CAN!

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:34:11 -0800

*No, I'm not weeping.*

By: Smallpox

Smallpox — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:40:36 -0800

Elsewhere in Boston, kids were going batnuts in Kenmore Square.

By: doctorschlock

doctorschlock — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:49:54 -0800

Awesome! Frigging Awesome!

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:24:07 -0800

I liked how peaceful it was. Especially in Grant Park in Chicago. (Especially given the history)

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:40:54 -0800

I liked how peaceful it was. Yes. I had this slight nagging fear that some people (not a lot, but it wouldn't take many to create an ugly scene that Republicans would talk about for years) would treat this like their team had just won the championship and start overturning cars and burning things. Thank God that didn't happen.

By: notswedish

notswedish — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:43:25 -0800

This is beautiful. I was in Grant Park, celebrating in the street, horns honking, people hugging, all that... and the thought that, in almost every major city in the country, and indeed the world, people were doing the same thing, spontaneously, for the same reason... OK fine so he's not the Messiah or anything, and things will calm back down eventually. But to all the cynics: don't you see the redemption in this? This is what people do, this is what countries do: they screw up and then make it better. Evil, or the bad side, is not conquered forever, or even that much tangibly changed right now, compared to three days ago. But what did happen is this: for one moment, at that moment, all that America was expressing to the world was its best side. Forgiveness, redemption, cannot happen without evil/bad in the past, and yet, somehow, it is wholly good. And yes I know it is not permanent, America will make more mistakes, just like anyone will, but right now, in this hour, it is not the mistakes of the past or future that matters, but the redemption of the present. I'm probably not making sense at all, but, all I know is that everyone around me, myself included, has stories of tears of joy over the last two days, and I'm not in the mood to rationalize this feeling away.

By: cell divide

cell divide — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:56:58 -0800

So awesome. My neighborhood in LA was silent, which was annoying because I would've loved to be a part of some of these street celebrations. Any American should be proud of an event which brings people peacefully into the streets to celebrate!

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:08:04 -0800

Oh man, thousands of people singing the National Anthem makes me mist up. Might as well just start cutting some onions.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:19:31 -0800

Awww, thanks for the Hampshire link!!!! I was there for the election of Bush in 2000, and it's so nice to see a JOYFUL reaction instead of the protests. Not that Hampshire doesn't do a good protest. We do.

By: doctorschlock

doctorschlock — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:23:03 -0800

I am so Jazzed!

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:24:17 -0800

(Thnx also for the Providence link. Maybe I should refrain from commenting again before I read the WHOLE thread, but I think we've hit up everywhere in the US I've lived, unless someone spontaneously comes up with something from that teeny town in VT where I was born, in which all five people and their cows start dancing.)

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:32:49 -0800

(Ok, so I also appreciate the extra Boston links. It's really nice to see Bostonians show some joy for something that ISN'T the Red Sox.)

By: remo

remo — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:59:51 -0800

Here are some pictures from downtown Raleigh, NC.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:50:59 -0800

We're still sort of two countries tho. I mean - where you celebrated, did a lot of people look like you? Where you wound up I mean. There are still black nightclubs and white nightclubs sorta. Not really an exclusivity thing. But we haven't really gotten together. Something we've got to play* at. * I don't say work because really, we should learn to just relax and enjoy ourselves in each other's company - broadly socially speaking.

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:38:28 -0800

Someone else on a local blog near me posted this -- this was out front of the bar I went to watch the speech at (I bar-hopped after I found out that one bar had a wide-screen tv, but the sound crapped out right after McCain called to concede). By the time I got to this block the crowd had doubled, and that woman with the flag was joined by a second woman with her own flag -- they ran into the middle of the street and started doing interpretive dance with them.

By: jckll

jckll — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:00:28 -0800

You forgot South Park, CO!

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:43:31 -0800

...shoulda been a raid on the Whitehouse castle, dragging Bush out and running him out of town on a rail. Obama coulda started as Prez yesterday.

By: mikespez

mikespez — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:08:26 -0800

I heard the New Brunswick one from my window. I didn't know it was a rally - I thought they were redistributing the wealth. (Jay Kay)

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:45:56 -0800

...shoulda been a raid on the Whitehouse castle, While I admire the sentiment, past examples of storming the palace and kidnapping unpopular leaders don't ....tend to go well. For anyone. Ever. Respect for the democratic process and reconciliation are better but (sadly) less popular.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:40:26 -0800

Worked for the Orange Revolution.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:40:29 -0800

THIS IS THE FAVORITE THREAD EVA!