Happy belated Obama Day

Somebody asked if Obamamania had hit Italy. My one regret about the experience so far is that I couldn’t tell you. Our language skills aren’t up to watching Italian TV or reading newspapers, or hanging out in bars chatting up the locals, so we don’t.

However, I can tell you that Obamamania came to Via Mirabella, Siracusa. Even I, the political cynic, wanted to hear what the new president would say. So we hooked up the laptop to the TV in the livingroom (see post below) and surfed to the CTV (Canadian television network) Web site. CTV was offering a special live stream of the proceedings. We put it in full-screen mode and the video and audio quality were amazingly good – a little soft focus, occasional blips in the motion, blurring in fast motion such as when the crowd waved their flags, but perfectly watchable, and every word was audible. The screen grab above gives you an idea of what we saw.

The lead-up to the speech – the only thing I was interested in – was boring and, dare I say it, a little cheesey. But the speech, while not of the lift-you-off-your-feet variety, hit exactly the right note of seriousness and exhortation. IMHO.