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November 04, 2008
OBAMA
Yes!
The big screen at Nick's. People cheering. Felt like New Year's eve. Elliot and Nick taking pictures of people in front of the flickering projection on the wall. Question of the evening: Who is sexier, Barack Obama or Anderson Cooper? The Hungarian Katie Couric and her hubby running off to file the live report for Budapest. Leave Nick checking Drudge Report on his phone to keep track of the competition. "Did he have someone on duty?" I ask. He nods, of course. Dumb question. Downstairs Balthazar bustling, cars honking their horns in the street. On the way home, we stop off at Bleeker Street pizza and sit with a 63 year-old New Yorker woman, and her "student," who appears to be an extremely nice, early 20-something, gay latino. They've just come from the Film Forum where they watched Rosemary's Baby. Go figure. The woman can't get enough of Mia Farrow, and then makes a big point about how people are forgetting that Obama is actually half white. "Half and half," as she mops the grease off the slice he's brought to her. SHe's a classic: opinionated, nutty. And when we protest that in the U.S. "half white" is "black" she is quick to agree. Does she remember if the feeling was the same when Kennedy won? No, can't remember that. Only remembers when he was shot.... She and the boy want to write a letter to Obama about something they've just seen: a group of kids, mostly black, walking down 7th Ave. One of the group, actually one of the white ones, screaming: "Whitey Go Home!" Obama needs to be alerted to the forces he's unwittingly unleashed. She wants me to to help her protege write the letter. We exchange email addresses. Then K. and I head on. Mayhem. Hope. And still eccentricity in NYC.
Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
Posted by oliver at November 4, 2008 11:14 PM