Category: Travel
Jay-Z Concert – Chaos
Things were going very smoothly, albeit somewhat slowly. There were four magnetometers and many thousands of people waiting to get in. Some had waited since 3 pm and it was now about 6:30 pm. I was dutifully overcoming my unconscious bias and giving out stickers to everyone that walked by me.
A commotion erupted at the left-most magnetometer. A man who seemed very intoxicated got into a dispute with the police and the secret service. It went on for a while before he was shuffled away.
As if this little dustup were a dramatic foreshadowing, a real crisis erupted. Suddenly a very large crowd of people waving “preferred” tickets arrived from around the other side of the building. They seemed disgruntled and were demanding to be let into the venue. Nobody at our station knew what was going on or where they were coming from. It turns out there was a suspicious package at the VIP/preferred entrance. The secret service closed the gate and sent them to us. Maybe somebody was informed, but my team was surprised. I called the overall leader to let him know and he told me about the package.
The people patiently standing at our gate were understandably reluctant to give up their places to this new folks, irrespective of their “preferred” status. I’m told that some senior Clinton staffer lifted the gate to allow the preferred people in front of the regular folks and all Hell broke loose. The crowd surged into the security stations and the Secret Service declared a safety hazard and shut down our gate, as well. The crowd erupted. For the next 40 minutes various police and regular people tried to get the crowd to back up to no avail.
Jan Roller, my host in Cleveland, and her sister stood up on some concrete barriers and shouted for the crowd to step back. “Go back!! Go back!!” they bellowed. It was pretty scary. This video doesn’t really convey the crisis situation, but gives an idea.
Somehow, very gradually, some space was established in front of the magnetometers, enough to begin screening people through again. After about half an hour of screening people, some order was restored. It was pretty amazing that the mood of the crowd became more festive. It was during this period that the guy said I looked like Bernie Sanders.
Ast a kind of epilogue, we went for Chinese food after the concert. I walked behind Jan, Joy and a couple of their friends as we entered the restaurant at about 11:3o pm. As we were being seated, a couple in the booth next to us asked how we liked the concert. Jan asked how they knew we were there. The guy said, “You were the lady shouting, ‘Get back! Get back!”
Cleveland is a small town.
Jay-Z Concert – Unconscious Bias
My job providing replenishment tickets to other team members converting Clinton tickets into venue tickets did not require much work at all. They all had plenty of tickets. So, I wondered aimlessly watching the people come through security.
I discovered a large roll of Hillary stickers and decided to distribute them to the incoming Jay-Z fans. It was an interesting social experiment for me. As might be expected, most of the attendees were African American rap fans. Distributing stickers meant going up to people and offering them a sticker. Some would simply take the sticker, some would lean their shoulders toward me for me to apply. It was fun interacting with people.
However, I found myself more willing to approach the women with a sticker than the men. Some of the guys frankly looked scary to me. Leather jackets, torn jeans, lots of bling and sunglasses. I realized that my reluctance to approach the men was a clear sign of my unconscious bias. Most of them had been waiting for 2 hours before they got through security and their expressions were serious, if not grim. But I forced myself to approach whoever came through security, including the scary guys. In literally every case, the man’s face would soften into a smile when I offered the sticker. They immediately went from looking scary to looking benign, if not downright friendly. No matter how many times this happened, I retained my reluctance to approach many of these guys. That unconscious bias is very deeply ingrained.
There was, however, one very mean comment that cut me deeply. I relieved one of the team members and waded into the crowd to do distribute tickets. One guy in the crowd yelled, “Hey, look, Bernie Sanders is here.” Ouch. I reminded him that I had the tickets and he’d better be nice to me. He claimed that somebody else that looked like him made the comment.
You be the judge.
Me
Bernie
Hey, what a minute…
Jay-Z Concert – Sound Check
Waiting for the doors to open, we were able to peak into the auditorium. The concert was at the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University. Looks to hold about 12,000 people.
Both Jay-Z and Beyonce rehearsed a bit to an empty arena. Jay-Z was dressed very casually in an untucked flannel shirt and his trademark baseball cap. Beyonce rehearsed separately wearing sexy shorts and a spangly top. She came back a little later for a dress rehearsal wearing a pantsuit, in honor of Hillary. She objected a quote that was projected on the screen behind her. It was Hillary’s quote from earlier in her career about declining to stay home to bake cookies. She said it was an incomplete sentence and lacked context. Sure enough, during the concert, the quote was extended and more clear.
Jay-Z Concert – The Setup
I was assigned to be an usher at the Jay-Z Concert as part of the GOTV program in Cleveland. I took as just another assignment and even told my “boss” that I had no real interest in seeing the concert. Not a big fan of rap. Fortunately, he disregarded my “sacrifice” and I did get to see the concert. It was pretty amazing, but more about that in a later post.
Volunteers gathered at 3:15 pm. Doors were scheduled to open at 5;00 pm, concert begins at 8:00 pm. The first couple of hours consisted of getting trained and mostly milling around. My team was responsible for converting the campaign-issued tickets to official venue tickets with scannable bar codes. We were stationed in front of the security stations and make the exchange. My job was to stand inside the security perimeter and supply the other members with the tickets they needed. So, I floated.
Traveling at 187 mph
I’m on the high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Honestly, it was a bit of a let down. It’s very cool to travel at more than 180 miles an hour. But once you’re at that speed, that’s it. Nothing changes. So, the novelty wears off.
That said, it is an unbelievably smooth ride. It makes the Acela seem like a steam engine. But the seats are pretty common and it’s not a particularly luxurious experience. And I couldn’t get wifi to work.
So, one thing off the bucket list.
The video below is taken out the window and I regret that I stopped the video just as another train was passing. Of course, the relative speed between the trains was almost 375 miles an hour. Now that’s cool.
View from my taxi
I’m heading for Tianjin, a city outside of Beijing. Don’t know much a out it but it gives me an excuse to ride the high speed train.
A Day in London
I travelled to Europe yesterday for a series of presentations on the presidential election. I’ll be keeping an online diary over the next week for my stops in London, Brussels and Amsterdam.
The Flight
The flight to London was unevental except for a major scare at the outset that had nothing to do with flying. My laptop, on which resides the final version of my presentation, crashed and began issuing me scrary messaages. The last time this happened, a week ago, it took me 2 days to get my data back. If I’ve lost the presentation, life is going to be very difficult when I land. So, I stashed the laptop away and prayed. Fortunately, the problem seemed to go away when I logged back in at my hotel. I immediately saved the presentation in a Lockbox folder. Whew.
The Hotel
I’m staying at the Radisson Blu in Covent Gardens. Each of the 3 or 4 times I’ve come to London, I’ve stayed in Covent Gardens. It is one of my favorite places in the world, waling distance to the West End for plays, Trafalgar Square for iconic London and St. Martin in the Fields, my single favorite stop in the city. I have not stayed in a Radisson in probably 15 years since a horrific night in Binghampton, NY, when the fire alarm went off 3 times over the course of the night. My son, Danny, who was 7 at the time, was traumatized. We vowed never to stay in a Radisson again.
The Kids
Here is our traditional picture of the kids who have been coming to the camp for 16 years. It includes our newest arrival, Anne, barely a year old. A new generation.
Creepy, Crawly Things
I was alone on the deck on this quiet afternoon. No sounds but the lapping of lake water against the dock, occasional bird calls and the mournful cry of the loon.
As I lay on the chaise lounge under a beach umbrella, I heard a scratching sound on the canvas of the umbrella. With my glasses off, I could only see a small black splotch moving across the underside of the umbrella. When I put my glasses back on, I realized it was a bat climbing out of the folds of the umbrella. I could see his pointy ears and the web of his wings as he made his way along the spine of the umbrella. I was both repelled and fascinated.
Check off another “close up and personal” encounter with nature.
Stargazing
Stargazing is always a potential high point of our stay in the Adirondacks. But it’s better when there’s no moon. Tuesday night was a moonless night with a spectacular display. And, for the first time in my life, I was able to actually identify individual stars and constellations other than the Big Dipper.
Which is not to diminish the Big Dipper. It is our official family constellation. Each year, it is positioned precisely over our porch/dock as though it was put there for our own edification. One of those consistencies that we rely upon for this vacation.
But thanks to the Ipad/Iphone app called StarWalk, we can hold the device up to the sky, where it replicates what we’re viewing at that moment in that place. Then, you only need to touch the star on the screen to learn everything there is to know about that particular star.
I was also able to identify the constellation Scorpio on the southern horizon.
A true breakthrough.
