The Civic Center - Denver08

by: rich

Tue Aug 26, 2008 at 19:50:53 PM EDT

Not content to eat a sandwich in the very crowded, very loud, and very warm Big Tent, I opted instead for a burrito at the Chipotle around the corner and down the block.

As I was eating, about a dozen people wearing blue McCain T-shirts walked in. Outside, a man in a red shirt was holding up a big yellow sign with black letters that said, “Jesus Saves.” Thanks to my warped metal-headed youth, the Slayer song of the same name immediately came to my mind.

Fortified with lunch, I took the 16th street Mall shuttle bus down to the Civic Center. It was 92 degrees outside. Inside the non-air-conditioned bus it felt like 102 degrees, especially when it was jam-packed with convention-related visitors.

Down at the Civic Center I saw this sign directing people to a booth.

People at the booth were selling the book "Goodnight Bush," which is an unauthorized parody version of the children’s classic "Goodnight Moon." I paged through it (very funny) but did not buy it, having already bought my DNC souvenir.

Over in the middle of the park were these people.

As you can see they believe that 9-11 was an inside job. They want to "expose the cover-up."

One of them grabbed a bullhorn and said, “There is no leadership here...Everyone here has a bullhorn. Everyone here has something to say.” That could be a plausible description of the Internet...

Away from them I wandered over to check out this.

Nader is running for President, and he wants in on the debates. He’s giving a speech tomorrow at Denver University at 6pm. (No, I won’t be going.)

Near that big bell was an art installation called “pictures of you.”

Before I got the chance to photograph it inside and find out what it was, I walked into a debate between a woman and a handful of Christian activists. Apparently, her father is gay. Because of that, the Christians were telling her that he and she (for loving him despite his gayness) were going to burn in hell. She was having none of it and told them off. The Jesus People are everywhere trying to berate and save all of us sinful Liberal Democratic Party souls

The “pictures of you: images from Iran” art installation is part of the Manjushri Project. It's "a traveling multimedia installation featuring portraits of Iranian people printed on translucent fabric.”

I took a few photos. Here's one.

Here's another.

To view a few more photos from "pictures of you" you can go here.

I spoke with one of the people behind the project and was told that the project organizers were hoping to raise money to bring the installation to other parts of the country. The project is an effective way to humanize the people of Iran in a way that our Resident Warmongers and Main Stream Media seem incapable of doing.

After that, I headed back towards the Big Tent, up the 16th Street Mall. I'll detail what I found there in a follow-up post.