Friday, June 08, 2007
I am Politically Active
So I saw Al Gore speak on Wednesday night. My friend had an extra ticket, which allowed me to enjoy not only the speech but also some free chicken and a free body cavity search. To me, the most interesting thing about the whole experience was that it was, well, interesting. The media had always made good old Al seem like he would be likely to spend his half hour lecturing you about the importance of eating enough fiber and not making rolling stops at traffic signals. Instead, though, he delivered a fairly incisive analysis of the problems with contemporary political discourse (i.e. it is shouting of sound bites) and even a fun anecdote about eating at Shoney's. I was a little saddened that Tipper wasn't there (I wanted to ask her to affix a warning label to my sweet, sweet ass), but that's a small quibble.
There was also a question and answer period, which had the potential to be beautifully disastrous, but they unfortunately screened the questions carefully in advance. Hence there were no questions about Mr. Gore's one time wolfman-like facial growth or preferred sexual positions. There was the obligatory question from a child in the room, but apparently that child was Ariana Huffington's, because even that question was fairly tame and articulate. Next time I'm going to bring my own Star Stage microphone and bust out some questions of my own.
So I saw Al Gore speak on Wednesday night. My friend had an extra ticket, which allowed me to enjoy not only the speech but also some free chicken and a free body cavity search. To me, the most interesting thing about the whole experience was that it was, well, interesting. The media had always made good old Al seem like he would be likely to spend his half hour lecturing you about the importance of eating enough fiber and not making rolling stops at traffic signals. Instead, though, he delivered a fairly incisive analysis of the problems with contemporary political discourse (i.e. it is shouting of sound bites) and even a fun anecdote about eating at Shoney's. I was a little saddened that Tipper wasn't there (I wanted to ask her to affix a warning label to my sweet, sweet ass), but that's a small quibble.
There was also a question and answer period, which had the potential to be beautifully disastrous, but they unfortunately screened the questions carefully in advance. Hence there were no questions about Mr. Gore's one time wolfman-like facial growth or preferred sexual positions. There was the obligatory question from a child in the room, but apparently that child was Ariana Huffington's, because even that question was fairly tame and articulate. Next time I'm going to bring my own Star Stage microphone and bust out some questions of my own.
