It’s Over! The Good and the Bad of the DNC

It’s been a long week, the kind that drags on as long as a Catholic wedding in August held in a stuffy church. While friends, colleagues and family have been jealous of my access to the Democratic National Convention the last week, I am kinda happy it’s over. It was a blast, but it wasn’t always glamorous.

I need a nap after four consecutive 7 to 10 days (that’s 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., by the way).

Here’s what I’ll miss the most:

• Chance meetings with all sorts of celebrities and notables, from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to former Super Bowl MVP Franco Harris to Charles Barkley and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. The last week was not short on star power.

• The Captain Morgan bar at media tent No. 2. Free top-shelf liquor is always popular among journalists. I think I’ll have another Crown with a splash of Coke, please. The Coors Light happy hour in media tent No. 5 was pretty nice, too, as were the massage chairs in media tent No. 4.

• Seeing the great Democrats of our generation speak. Uncle Teddy’s talk drew tears, Hillary’s grace in defeat was remarkable, Bill Clinton has not lost a step and Barack Obama topped them all.

• Seeing Denver abuzz with activity. It felt like NYC for a few days.

• Having my office for the last week be the coffee shop, the Captain bar, the Pepsi Center stands, random tables in Mile High and basically anywhere else I could either plug in or get a WiFi signal.

• Trying to keep up with my freelance writer James Burrus, who may be the next Hunter S. Thompson in waiting. He did work in Aspen for awhile. Just sayin’.

• Meeting all sorts of interesting people from a passionate Alabama state representative to delegates from Guam, and to journalists from France to members of the German parliament.

• Witnessing history. Barack Obama. Enough said.

What I won’t miss:

• Having to eat food from a stadium concession stand twice a day. There are only so many hot dogs and slices this waistline can handle.

• Trying to get the big guys to answer my calls for interviews. It turns out, CNN has a little more pull than Yellow Scene Magazine. Who woulda guessed?

• Looking for a parking space downtown.

• Driving through the gridlock of downtown.

• Trying to walk onto the military base that was constructed as the perimeter around the Pepsi Center.

• Listening to the religious zealot who was standing at the perimeter entrance every day with a megaphone damning us all for such horrible things as being gay, watching pornography and drinking. We get that this guy lives such a “perfect life,” but preaching such extreme beliefs on what’s moral is just plain irritating.

• Fighting for personal space on the floor of the Pepsi Center when big name speakers were at the podium.

• Trying to figure out how the whole convention worked. Basically, no one knew where anything was or when it was happening. The details of the convention were basically a secret to everyone, including those working for the host committee.

FYI: I will not be attending the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis and it has nothing to do with media bias. Yellow Scene’s budget can cover me working out of Denver, not flying to Minnesota for a week.

—Jacob Harkins, Yellow Scene Magazine editor

More DNC coverage here.