If I had to chose a week to be sick this would have been the one. That’s because as lousy as I feel, watching the festivities out of Chicago for the DNC is making me feel so much better.
Although the first night was a difficult act to follow, the Harris/Walz team did just that. With a number of moving and motivational speeches — as expected from former President Barack Obama and the man who could have been one Bernie Sanders, the two that floored me were from the first Second Gentleman – and soon-to-be first First Gentleman Doug Emhoff and the knockout speech delivered by Michelle Obama.
By the way, Doug Emhoff chose for his entrance and exit music one of my favorite songs, “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals. New Radicals released their one and only album in the late 90s, Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too. It quickly rose to the top of my favorites of that year. I was Music Director and later Program Director of the radio station I worked for at the time, Los Angeles’ Channel 103.1. And I was fortunate enough to interview Gregg Alexander, the man who was New Radicals. He didn’t do many interviews, and never recorded another album, though he continued writing and producing for other artists, preferring to remain out of the spotlight.
To honor our first Second Gentleman, and the man who will be our first First Gentleman, here’s my interview with Gregg Alexander, recorded May 3, 1999 ( the day that my daughter was likely being born on the other side of the world in Kazakhstan… a story for another day)… Enjoy!
I am still recuperating so will share with you a couple of full speeches from last night (can you guess which ones?) as well as some clips and observations as my still-on-the-mend psyche can conjure up. Either way, the chat room is open during the live show and we’re partying like it’s 2024!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Wa2m5HXsU
