the Mark Pike

“They said… this day… would never come.”

It happened. Barack Obama is our President. I saw it happen with my own eyes. I watched the coming out party on TV, with so many others, when he instilled a sense of Hope from the Boston podium in 2004. I was there in DC, whispers all around about a change coming to town, a new man in the Senate chambers with an honest voice. I was there in Iowa; saw the people he brought into the political process. I was there in Virginia; saw the largest crowd ever assembled for a Democrat in town. I was there on election day; saw the turnout, the optimism, the understanding.

And, I was there when he took the oath. It was beautiful.

We could see the Presidential podium and people in the crowd, but they were in the distance, dwarfed by the magnitude of history. For a better view, we watched a television from the roof of a building just Northwest of the Capitol. It was somewhat surreal to watch the TV and hear the chants and cheers, somewhat ethereal to observe from above and yet feel completely within the moment.

Afterwards, Bush’s helicopter flew overhead. Just like that, he was gone.

While leaving the building we saw New York Gov. Patterson and I gave a head-nod and then said “hello”. In fact, for the entirety of the trip, I kept seeing celebrities and politicians all around town. For once, DC was actually a place where people wanted to be and be seen. On my first night in town, we saw Sen. John Kerry (who did not recognize me from that time we high-fived at a rally in Norfolk, VA in 2004), Marisa Tomei, Spike Lee, Matthew Modine, Star Jones, Tim Daly, and many others as we had coincidentally made dinner reservations at the same exact spot as the Creative Coalition’s pre-Inaugural party.

Throughout the celebration, everybody took to the streets. Large crowds and security checkpoints are an equalizing force. It was such a pleasure to strike up conversations with strangers and to bump into friends knowing that you were sharing a little slice of history. Vendors everywhere were hawking goods to commemorate the occasion, some tacky and some powerful.

After dancing in the streets for the parade, I took a quick nap to prepare for the Inaugural Balls. Ticket in hand, I headed to the Youth Ball only to be stuck in line for a long time. It was such a big ticket that everybody wanted to be there, but the fire marshall wouldn’t allow that to happen. Because of this, I missed Kanye West’s performance and the Obamas cameo. However, it was still fun to mingle with more celebs (Usher, Kanye, Fall Out Boy, Ashton and Demi, etc.). Next, I took a taxi with a friend to Google’s party and got acquainted with the dancefloor. Many more celebs were in the building rubbing elbows with Silicon Valleys brightest minds and DC’s new policy-makers. A collective sense of optimism all-around.

Another world is possible. We made it.

If a bus is traveling at 65 mph, and it’s emitting a wireless internet with a data rate of 9.2kb/sec , does an email get sent faster if the bus accelerates? I am living a high school physics pop quiz question right now, en route from DC to NYC on a bus that offers free WiFi.

Forget the Chinatown Express experience. This is the way to travel. DC2NY offers itself as a luxury service for those willing to pay the $5 premium (but only $25!) to avoid the bootleg operations of its competitors, whose buses frequently break down and reek of porta-potties. Only 30 minutes into the trip, I don’t hesitate to give my wholehearted endorsement to the new player on the scene. I just hope nobody else finds out about them so the seats around me remain empty!

I wrote a piece for Campus Progress about why not having an iPhone might be a blessing in disguise. This way, the NSA won’t be wiretapping your phone! Check it out, and feel free to leave comments over there.

But on the real, Steve Jobs, if you wanna hook me up with a free iPhone, I won’t complain.

READ IT: “Hey AT&T, Eavesdrop it Like it’s Hot”

How your iPhone service provider has cooperated with illegal eavesdropping.

Ever since hearing that there was a new pizza place in town with a ping pong theme, I’ve been trying to hit it up and get served a slice. Unfortunately every time I visited Comet Ping Pong, the kitchen was closed (but they still allow you to play table tennis on the free table out front on the sidewalk).

Last night, we managed to get there before the kitchen closed and it was very tasty (even for lactose intolerant peeps). Try the soft shell crab pizza. It’s a little pricier than your local Pizza Hut, but there’s a price to pay for deliciousness and table top tennis.

In the back of the restaurant there’s 3 tables to get your game on. And, there’s an ingenius ping pong ball dispenser. I had never seen one of these before, but I suspect if I bought a few dozen of these vending machines and placed them on college campuses for beer pong supplies, I would become a gazillionaire.

Reminds me of the dude I knew in high school who worked at an Italian Subs spot. As the sandwich maker, he would always put extra onions and garlic on everything. He bought a vending machine that dispensed mints and set it up outside. He made serious bank.

Ping Pong Pizza from themarkpike and Vimeo.

UPDATE: This post was featured in the Washington Post Express’ blog section. My cheesy comments were viewed by over 286,000 people today. Perhaps blogging and mainstream media should not mix.

DC keeps me busy. I’ve been working hard at EPIC for the past 3 weeks. The past fortnight, I’ve been focused on researching the Google / DoubleClick merger. We put out some great work product (pdf) that I’m proud to be associated with. Check out the supplemental materials we submitted to the FTC if you’re into that sort of thing. And by “that sort of thing”, I clearly mean the evolving concepts of privacy in a digital society.

EPIC’s summer clerk program has given me the opportunity to meet some really cool folks from the policy world. I even got to rub some elbows on the Hill, and say whatup to everybody’s favorite socialist Senator.

Speaking of socialism, or rather, being social (terrible segue)… I saw some great shows recently. I managed to sneak in to the sold-out U.S. Air Guitar National Championships last week. I “air talked” my way in by convincing somebody with a press pass to let me have their badge. The competition was fierce, and in the end the victor was a geriatric man who shredded his air instrument like an atmospheric virtuoso. (Last year, my friend bit the air-head off of an air-dove. Sadly, he did not win).

This week, I got an authentic press pass from a buddy that works at NPR and saw the sold-out Feist and Grizzly Bear concert. I’m slightly infatuated with Feist now. The entire crowd was absolutely smitten with her stage antics. It was like watching a kitten paw at a crowd of 1,500 people. Her new album is amazing and I highly recommend it (I even bought it for my mom for Mother’s Day). Grizzly Bear had amazing control of their sound, even though their aesthetic is like an impromptu house party performance (Listen to Fix It, then go see if they’re playing near you in the near future).

So much music in the summer in the city.