Storms delayed my flight home yesterday, and I found myself at the airport in the all-too-familiar predicament of being cornered by businesspeople broadcasting their importance into their cellphones. A TV monitor over our heads broadcasted Sarah Palin's latest speech. Panic. I needed to stay put, lest I miss my flight. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when the businesspeople started bonding, vocally, over their loyalty to Palin, McCain, and the Republican party. I don't know if it was about the gap closing in the polls, or whether they felt charged up by their underdog status, but I'd be lying to you if it didn't take real work to control the exasperation from my face. If I were a different sort of person, I'd have said a thing or two about the issues at stake, but that's not really what this was about. This was about bonding: hey, I'm a member of that team, too. (Sigh.)
All I can say is that from now till Election Day, I'm wearing an Obama T-shirt whenever I leave the city.
(It should be noted that the businesspeople were not from Georgia, but from New Jersey, state of my youth. It should also be noted that I didn't see one McPain sign or bumper sticker during my two days in Atlanta.)
Luckily, I had my iPod in my backpack. Without giving it thought, I put my headphones on and played Sigur Ros' "Gobbledigook." And played it over and over.
On the plane, everyone fell promptly asleep, as if stressed out and wearied by the state of things and what's to come, regardless of political persuasion. No wonder so many people are coughing and sneezing right now.
Here's the "Gobbledigook" video, which already makes me feel sweetly nostalgic for the beginning of the summer when it came out.
Warning: don't even give a thought to playing it if you hate nudity, fun, and trees.
5 comments:
paul, your evening reads like an episode of the twilight zone. you poor thing.
Sitting in an airport waiting on a delayed flight is bad enough. Your experience sounds like HELL.
Lucky that I was feeling sick, or else I might have decked one of them. Which is not what anyone would want to do in an Airport!
Mark just called me to say that the three people next to him at the Tulsa Airport Starbucks were wondering whether Obama was a terrorist.
I'm just back from a walk, where I passed by a group of people outside the Village Den exclaiming, they're going to trounce her! Agreed! said a passerby, not bothering to stop. Big laughs from the group. And of course they were talking about the Sarah Palin's SNL stint. Everyone's talking politics in Manhattan all of a sudden. It might as well be Boston.
I have to say that I wish Lorne Michaels weren't a Republican. Otherwise, I think I'd have a little more faith that the cast would go the full route.
The video is pure joy--thanks for it. Your airport experience, however, is the worst. Sorry. :(
I'm glad you liked the video, Myfanwy. I haven't tired of that song, yet. I hope your novel is going well.
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