Artists for Obama: A Few of the Many

Obama Graphic hope
I’ve been kind of out of it all week.  Post-Inaugural ennui, worries, lots of appointments… whatever it was, it really sort of shut me up.  But when I saw the Obama video I’ve posted just below here, I started thinking about all the creativity that the campaign, and this presidency, seem to have engendered.

Then a friend sent me this.  I admit I’m a sucker for this kind of music, but it really is a combination of politics and joy that only such a campaign could have inspired.

We all remember Wil.i.am’s Yes We Can.  And Ron Howard as Opie. And Sarah Silverman.  And even Paris Hilton

And this, one of my favorites, just for the discipline.


I guess Les Miz must really resonate, because here’s another one.

Obama-mosaic
Of course these are only examples; there are dozens, probably hundreds more – and if you count the images, posters and paintings, many many more. If this kind of creativity goes toward solving our problems, we’re in good hands. Either way, it’s exciting (at least to me) to realize how many vocabularies came together to speak for this new president in the long journey that got him here.

BARACK OBAMA, SARAH SILVERMAN, FLORIDA AND A COUPLE OF QUICK MEDIA THINGIES

That_one_2
The first one is this poster, which I found on Jason Rosenberg’s Facebook page.  It’s not quite as good as "I am a community organizer" but it’s kind of cool.
The other thing is today’s New York Times story about The Great Schlep and Sarah Silverman video, which apparently has been screened more than 7 million times in the two weeks since it appeared!  Basically, it urges Jewish grandchildren to lean on their grandparents in Florida to vote for Obama or risk the end of loving visits from the grand kids.  Given her occasional forays into yukkiness, it’s actually pretty cute. 

The Jewish Council for Education and Research, and co-executive director Ari Wallach, are creative, agile and smart and they’ve done a great job both of creating and promoting a very good idea.  Even if few kids can afford to hit the beaches of Hallandale and Miami, they’ll get on the phone and make their case.  And the press has loved it.  If you missed the video, here it is.