Cross Posted in Blue Commonwealth
11:00 PM, Monday May 11, 2009. Amazing coincidence - 11-11-11-11! The hour is 11, 11 alphabets, date is 11 and the sum of the year is 11! What a magical experience, attending a concert by will.i.am at the Clarendon Ballroom in Arlington Virginia. The crowd was electric, mostly in their 20's and 30's but a fair sprinkling of 40's and 50's as well. While the crowd waited for the star, a DJ kept spirits high by playing music with a beat that kept most tapping their feet. Not sure what the capacity of the ballroom is, but it was pretty full and when I left at about 11:00, there was no letting down on the music or enthusiasm.
The concert took me back many decades to my youth, in Mysore, India, to the 1970's when it was the cool thing to attend a "Beat show", for a fee of what used to be 20 cents! 4-6 hungry looking kids with long hair and wearing jeans would be strumming their guitars and playing drums to entertain a crowd of 50-200, depending on how popular they were. Music from the Beatles, Santana, Bee Gees, Cliff Richard, Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, and many others. Intermixed with these world renowned artists' music would be some original compositions. Of course, it was a lot more cool to be on stage as one of the artists, strumming the guitar, beating the drum, or just crooning the words.
In those days, mostly college and high school kids would be the attendees, no wonder the gate price was so low :) To put it in perspective, the price of the ticket could buy a full meal - so 20 cents in the seventies, in India, was nothing to be sneezed at. So $20 in Arlington for will.i.am does not appear to be unreasonable - a decent meal without liquor costs about that today in any restaurant.
Of course the music is completely new to me (why is that no surprise!)and so I can not comment on any of the songs, though some did sound familiar. However the beat was very good, and the artist incredibly talented. No wonder his song for Obama made such high impact.
The music was preceded by a very inspiring speech. will.i.am traced his involvement with the Obama campaign, and how he came to be admired everywhere. will.i.am was profuse in his words, acknowledging what he has learned over the years from McAuliffe and why he now supports the candidature of McAuliffe to be the next Governor of Virginia.
McAuliffe made an excellent appeal to the audience, asking that every one checks out his website for learning about how he plans to solve the problems overwhelming the Commonwealth.
Towards the end of his speech, McAuliffe appealed to every one to unite on June 10th and help the Democratic nominee fight Bob McDonnell. McAuliffe should surely win the award for "playing cricket" in Virginia Democratic nominee politics - maintaining the highest possible standards and not just not saying negative things about his candidates, but actually saying positive things about them, almost to the point of campaigning for his opponents!
On Saturday May 9th, the McAuliffe campaign opened 6 more offices. McAuliffe went to each of the openings and met local voters. He made a little campaign speech and amazed his supporters in Centerville, while answering a voter's question on gun control. McAuliffe was very clear in describing his well published stand on stricter gun control laws and enforcement- that is when he caught every one by surprise, by stating that on this issue, all three Democratic candidates were united in their opinion that there should be stricter controls and they would support greater safety for citizens of the Commonwealth. McAuliffe's approach of clean politics is amazing, and something that he has maintained very carefully all through his campaign. This is one reason to support him, as I do. Other reasons include his proven experience turning around losing businesses. McAuliffe's reach all through the United States and internationally will help bring new businesses and jobs to Virginia. He talks repeatedly about his plans for high speed rail between Washington DC, Richmond and Hampton Road. In his published plans for turning around Virginia, McAuliffe in great detail talks about Education and Health care. Without a doubt, McAuliffe is the most promising candidate and the best qualified candidate, to be the next Governor of Virginia.