Earth Day 2010

Despite forecasts of thunderstorms, it was sunny and warm on the National Mall during this year's Earth Day climate rally. Since it was the 40th anniversary, there was a much larger crowd than last year, and some big names on the marquee as well, including Avatar director James Cameron. I duly rubbed the elbows of, among others, reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, the lead singer of Fall Out Boy, and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker and television personality Dhani Jones, who jokingly (?) accused me of trying to sneak a peak at the paper his speech was printed out on (I wasn't - I swear.) But the highlight of the day was getting to meet legendary Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir. When it came picture-taking time, I was so nervous I could barely focus the camera. And, objectively speaking, the picture isn't all that great--it's probably not really interesting to anyone other than me. At one point in Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes writes about a photograph that only holds significance for him--and it's the only photograph that he discusses that isn't reproduced in the book. But since I'm not Roland Barthes, here's my picture of Bob Weir, along with a few others from the day.

Earth Day on the Mall 2009

The Flaming Lips headlined the Earth Day festival on the National Mall this past weekend, so I packed up the camera bag and off I went. I'd wanted to see them perform live for ages, and they did not disappoint, to say the least. The Capitol Building in the background provided a nice surreal touch to what's in all likelihood the most postmodern rock concert experience available. Wayne Coyne, merry prankster extraordinaire, came out onstage with the giant hands on, surfed the crowd in a plastic bubble, and at some point, he was playing a crazy looking double-guitar, where the bottom guitar was some sort of modified "Guitar Hero" device. I have no idea how he played it--or even if he really was, for that matter. (Judge for yourself in the 3rd picture...) Highlights included an intense, gong-banging cover of Madonna's "Borderline" and the encore (and new official state rock song of Oklahoma) "Do You Realize?"

Other bands on the bill included Los Lobos (who encored with their incredible rendition of the Grateful Dead song "Bertha") and moe. It was fairly crowded, and of course there were plenty of college girls in hippie skirts with hula hoops. Because what would a neo-hippie gathering be without hula hoops? Or the secretary of labor, for that matter? It was like a mini-Coachella, with a lot more policy wonks and a lot less music, the kind of festival where every speaker loudly proclaimed "I am a member of the Green Generation!" despite actually being members of different generations, and the rare event where people could wander in and out of the Smithsonian during the long gaps between musical acts.