Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
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From a man in a bunny suit, to "Rednecks for Obama", it's interesting to see and hear what's going on around the convention.
More than 50 people were arrested today outside the City-County building. It was one of the many small and not so small demonstrations going on.
It all was the subject of a conversation today between myself and a reporter from Bulgarian TV. I asked him how much interest people in Bulgaria had in the convention. He said there is great interest, but that personally he didn't quite get all the goings on inside the Pepsi Center. He thought the viewers back home would be more interested in everything being said outside.
The video caught a bit of it, though admittedly the photographer, a radio guy, could use more practice. Something I didn't catch on video was a short brush with the Reverend Al Sharpton. He and his group, for some reason were walking out of the public exit. He was surrounded by photographers. He didn't say much and onlypaused briefly to answer one question.Just like Al Sharpton, everybody here is walking, not because of a lack of rental cars, but because most people can't even get close to the Pepsi Center in a car. The first security check is on 14th Street. The entrance to the Center is on 9th Street, probably about a half-mile away. Between the two places is kind of a no man's land that offers little shade for people walking, and packing equipment to get to there. It's a kind of odd area where police and fire, and media outlets have moved into buildings and parking lots, and the peole you'd expect to see have moved out.
That's where I chose to stop and file some stories today. I found a temporarilly closed bus stop and took it over for a time. A TV photographer and I joked about what a well kept secret it was. Shade, right outside of the main entrance to the venue. There was graffitti on the inside, the garbage can was overflowing, but I sucessfully set up shop on the other side of the bench. After I had recorded some voice tracks for stories, a couple of volunteers who'd stopped to sit in the shade for a minute said listeners would be amazed if they had any idea of the setting in which the recordings were made. I only said, "Hey, it's shade, and it's close." Then, of course, I grabbed a half can of soda out of the garbage can and asked one of them if he was going to finish his sandwich.
