So we made a fake Sarah Palin ad:

And then we thought, “What if we change the music?” After about 20 minutes of tinkering, we ended up with this:

We have some theories about the effectiveness of each with different types of audiences, so please let me know what you think!

The first sign that something was afoot came from (unsurprisingly) Facebook, and amused me much more than it probably should have. I glanced at the ‘groups’ page only to find these two randomly placed side-by-side:

Next up was the appearance of an obnoxiously large McCain banner hanging down the side of someone’s balcony in the UMW apartments, facing William Street. (According to university policy, it’s also a fire hazard. This hasn’t stopped them.) The night before Obama visited campus, someone painted “McCain” on the construction wall across from Ball Circle, where the rally was to be held. Or at least, he tried to, but left out the second “c”, so the lettering read “McAin”. It was soon painted over, though whether it was corrected by an Obama supporter or a spelling enthusiast will probably remain a mystery.

Enmeshed in a lengthy group project (which resulted in the mashup in my previous post) and with no intention of attending the rally, I briefly emerged from my apartment on Saturday afternoon. I was greeted by a line stretching all the way down William Street, around the corner, and along Sunken Road. Curious to see how far it went, I grabbed my camera and started following the line down Sunken.

The line curved around to the left, vanishing into the distance.

Selling t-shirts...

A family waiting in line.

McCain supporters walking down the line.

So at this point, I was practically in the center of campus, because I’d followed the line to its end behind Monroe Hall. I continued along campus walk to see how many people were already in Ball Circle, and ended up standing in a flowerbed taking photos of the crowds.

My (disappointing) view from atop the flowerbed.

"Gosh, Janet, I'm so glad that we have these fancy cameras and can use them as an excuse to get a clear view of everything. Imagine if we had to take photos from atop a flowerbed, through tent canopies and annoying tall people." "Haha! Oh, George. You do say the funniest things."

Impatient crowds.

Still waiting...

Best view in the house.

It was just at this point that the weather got sick of waiting, and dumped buckets of rain on us. I rushed my camera back to a friend’s dorm, and kept waiting. Obama arrived eventually (after a bizarre sermon, a campaign recruiting speech, and several loops of the same irritating playlist), and delighted the crowds with his ability to create elaborate, weather-appropriate metaphors. I saw his arm at one point (between the media tents and the tall guy in front of me) and his whole torso on the screen of a TV in one of the media vans. (Professor Anand Rao, who was lucky enough to snag a spot in the second row, has some amazing shots of Obama on his flickr page here.)

I dragged myself, soggy and exhausted, back to my apartment, where I discussed the rally with my housemates, also soggy and exhausted. Since Saturday, the rally has been covered in various publications, and my new favorite pastime is spotting friends in the AP photos. Campus is still recovering from the 26,000 people who invaded over the weekend, and Ball Circle will likely need reseeding. And I may never break the habit of glancing up at the roof of Ball Hall to check for Secret Service guys.

4/8	==>	2/4	==>	1/2
	(Four-Eighths)		(Two-Fourths)		(One-Half)

I haven’t been voted Miss Congeniality in the Senate, or managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a brazen fashion, but I can simplify fractions!

And an orgy

of spending.

–

Also, Henry Kissinger: Henry Kissinger.

DAY 1:   Word-image association

As you can see, there was quite a lot of work to be done. However, through persistence and good luck, the final results were spectacular.

DAY 3: Field Trip… Practicum in flora-related empathy

Says Jim, “This is my favorite tree. I love this tree.”

Enjoy!

There are many awe-inspiring things in this world. The icy slopes of Mount Everest, sunset over the Grand Canyon, a whole school of humpback whales leaping out of the water, the Great Wall of China, Quentin Tarantino’s ego. The sight of Jim Groom reclining in his office chair, feet on desk and glasses askew, eclipses these by far. The leaning tower of Pisa doesn’t hold a candle to Jim’s one-armed leaning glasses, the kind of glasses that only come into being after one too many violent encounters with an overzealous two-year-old.

Despite the throngs of women who throw themselves at his feet during his arduous three-minute walk from the parking lot to work, Jim’s only passion is for WordPress. Yes, Jim’s lover, his grail, his Achilles’ heel is an online blogging platform. The man is a whirlwind of typing fingers and crazed mutterings, breathing in the Internet and exhaling words on a web page.

Someone in the office mentions their morning, and Jim starts singing about it in a loud New York accent, fingers never leaving the keyboard. Clearly a master composer, he invents dozens of new songs, with lyrics like “WordPress, oh WordPress” and “Why haven’t you read my blog yet”. Jim Groom is also a wonder of multitasking. He can blog, smoke his favorite cigarettes, argue with passers-by, and eat a meatball sub, all at the same time. In fact, Jim can blog during almost any activity, and does.

Jim’s website is bavatuesdays, a treasure trove of 1950’s horror film discussions, web tutorials, and humble self-reflection. On most days, he writes around five blog posts, but has been known to break fifteen. He has the endurance of twenty marathon runners and the daring of the world’s greatest explorers, the focus of a surgeon and the smile of an angel. To keep up his energy, Jim Groom subsists on a hearty diet of New York pizza and Dr. Pepper.

Man or god? Maybe we’ll never know. Jim Groom is a cautionary tale, a joke, a trend. Jim Groom is an insult. Jim Groom is an incentive. Jim Groom is a role model, a bad influence, an ideology. Jim is pizza snobbery and alarming enthusiasm. Jim is the eighth wonder of the world.

Maybe one day you decide to see this champion, this legendary creature for yourself. You’ll sit in my office chair, with only a large Macintosh computer between Jim and yourself. You notice his beat-up UCLA Bruins cap, his yellow plaid shirt, his scruffy beard, and you can hardly breathe. And then he stares at you through those crooked, thick black glasses rims, and you think “Oh, God. Have I blogged yet today?”

“Listen you,” he’ll say. “Have you been reading the Bava?” You realize with horror that you have not, in fact, kept up with Jim’s blog as faithfully as you should have. Maybe you duck down behind the iMac, hoping that he’ll be distracted by the newest Internet phenomenon. Always persistent in the face of adversity, he asks you again,
“Did you read my blog today?”
“Um… no, sorry,” you whisper.
“Why not?”
“I didn’t have time!” You almost burst into tears, but Jim Groom does not accept excuses.
“Go read it now.” You nod obediently, and sink back behind the computer screen.
“Hippie.” Jim mutters, and eats another slice of pizza.

Photograph by D’Arcy Norman via Flickr.

And many more on Flickr.