I already watched the real inaugural yesterday on YouTube, so why should I watch this one? For the speeches and the music, I guess.
Obama's speech was an uplifting recitation of the liberal creed - we help people in order to lift them up and make life better for everyone, ourselves included - with only one serious clang, where he said that the purpose of schools and colleges is to train workers. Ugh, ack.
The Inaugural Poet said "crescendoing". Is there even such a word?
And was that an allusion to the Newtown shootings? My!
The music: That choral arrangement of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was one of the most hideous things I have ever heard. The woman who sang "My Country Tis of Thee" was not much better. James Taylor, who is a lot balder than in the last time I saw a photo of him, maybe forty years ago, turned "America the Beautiful" into a James Taylor song, no surprise. Unfortunately it's not a James Taylor song, is it? The credit of the event has to go to Beyonce, whoever that might be, for demonstrating what a tasteful alteration of "The Star-Spangled Banner" sounds like. The figurations and elaborations she added to the melody were always at the song's service and never got in its way. I was pleased
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