Warmup to the Barackstar

Passing the time before the main event.

I'm watching New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson speak to the crowd at Mile High Stadium (still can't bring myself to call it Invesco Field) as we wait for Barack Obama to take the stage around 8.00 PM local time. Richardson is a powerful speaker, but I accidentally found out that his speech is about a thousand times more exciting when Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" is playing in the background. I look forward to listening to tonight's speeches with Modest Mouse, Interpol, and Hot Chip in the background.

As a serious side note, the venue is impressive. They've shown some cutaway shots, and it looks almost like an Olympic event. (Yeah, I stole that from NPR's Mara Liasson today. Fine.) There are nearly a hundred thousand people in the stadium, all of whom are waving American flags and yelling like crazy people. It's pretty heady. The Greek columns in the background that the McCain camp kept referring to as the "Temple of Obama" don't look pretentious at all, in my opinion. It almost looks like they're speaking in front of the White House, which I'm sure was the idea.

Last note - as Richardson started speaking in Spanish to excite the Latino crowd (to great effect), the Gorillaz' "Clint Eastwood" came up on my iTunes, and for a brief moment, I thought he was going to shoot someone. It felt like watching a cholo pumping up his gang. Weird, weird juxtaposition.

And now, I leave you at that until the big speeches tonight.