"Welcome back ...

... to that same old place you laughed about"

The Backbeat has returned. The hiatus has been good, it was nice not having to 'worry' about the blog, but after a while I started feeling the urge to publicly vent and share once again. There are some obvious changes; we are starting with a clean slate with a brand new URL and Layout (the old blog will remain only for the archives), I hope you like the new format I might still be tinkering with it for a while. Also, comments about "hot-button issues" will be moderated from now on (if ya don't know, this means if you leave a comment it won't appear on the post until I approve it), this is a drag because of my travels I can go days without being online and the conversation won't resume without me, but its worth it for my peace of mind. I'm going to rule with an iron fist! If you don't like it, drum up traffic to your own blog! Besides that, not much will be different. My "whatever is on my mind/where I am travelling" posts will remain.

So who won the election? I haven't heard. I kid, I kid. Of course I know Obama won (go Indiana!) and let me tell you, I am so happy my secretly Muslim candidate got elected so he can single-handedly turn our great Democracy into a Socialist state with the help of his many, many terrorist friends. Oh! Kidding again!

In all honesty, I've done a lot of cool things over the past few weeks and we have a lot of things to catch up on. #1 on that list was the night of November 4. I had a really amazing experience when I was in New York the night of the election. I hurriedly posted this note on Facebook the next morning:

I'm in NYC on tour at the moment and on Election Night I had a gig with the boss and the boys. Before our set I was anxiously watching the television and saw Pennsylvania turn blue--after the show I saw Ohio turn blue and knew that an Obama victory was a very real possibility so I hurried down to Rockefeller Center (by myself as the other guys in the band were still hungover from the night before, lame!).

If you watched NBC then you know that Rock Center was decked out for their election coverage. Flags, enormous TVs, lights, cameras ... I thought there would be a real mix of political supporters and that it might resemble a sporting event with McCain voters cheering and Obama voters cheering, but the crowd was for Obama all the way. Not long after arriving NBC projected Obama the winner and everybody went crazy; couples embracing, people jumping and cheering, the crowds chanting "YES WE DID! YES WE DID!" I tooled around watching everyone so happy and experiencing the same overwhelming emotions, I met two girls from England who were just as happy as anyone else. When Obama gave his acceptance speech the crowd of hundreds (thousands?) was absolutely silent as tears streamed down so many faces.

The crowd dispersed not long afterward but I wasn't finished celebrating so walked down to Times Square, talk about a celebration. There were folks dancing in the streets, hanging out of car windows screaming and honking their horns, mass cheering and chanting, and an overwhelming sense of relief, hope, and optimism. A few years ago I had the unique experience of being in downtown Milan when Italy won the World Cup this is the only thing I've seen in our country that has come close to that.

But I still wasn't done celebrating so I headed to a favorite Scottish Pub and had one of my favorite Scotches and slowly watched more red states turn blue on the electoral map.

What a night.

And to think, there are some Obama detractors who think all of this enthusiasm is a bad thing. We have become so jaded to our political process that showing emotion and hope for a candidate brands them as "style with no substance" or simply a "celebrity". Well record numbers of voters showed up and Obama won in a landslide, that type of change does not happen because of personality alone.

We've taken our future in to our own hands folks, today is a new day in history.