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RSS FeedInaugural Sketchbook: Scenes From Obama's Mall
Wit took on a different air in Washington on Tuesday. When a mass of more than a million people is sharing a sense of uplift -- reveling in a rolling lovefest, actually -- the moment's unjaundiced humor can take a Washingtonian by shock.
Far from the Capitol steps, deep into the cheap "seats" of SRO (creating the surreal sensation that you're four-thousand rows back), you feel as if you're more at sporting event than swearing-in. On the mound shadowed by the Washington Monument, the giddy mood is one of a Super Bowl -- multiplied many times over.
You can take pictures, but that doesn't begin to capture the tone of the moment. So you do the only thing you can as a cartoonist: You crack a sketchbook.
Here is a handful of quickie sketches from a hill of history, based on overheard dialogue. The renderings are mine; the mood (condensed for space) of a historic "Moment" in Washington is theirs.
(Michael Cavna)
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(Michael Cavna)
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(Michael Cavna)
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(Michael Cavna)
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By Michael Cavna |
January 21, 2009; 6:00 AM ET
| Category:
The Morning Line
,
The Sketchbook
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Posted by: Mrhode | January 21, 2009 10:23 AM
Very cool.
Posted by: oceanchild | January 21, 2009 11:15 AM
Well done! Wish I coulda been down there.
Posted by: rhompson | January 21, 2009 12:25 PM
Michael, Thanks for the sketches and the words of people who were there. They give a vibrancy to the day that even watching it on TV didn't.
Most excellently cool!
Posted by: elyrest | January 21, 2009 1:35 PM
Love it all, thanks for sharing...
Posted by: JkR- | January 21, 2009 2:23 PM
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Excellent stuff, Michael.