WASHINGTON – If you had been walled off from all media reports since November, had missed the traffic alerts along the interstates, forgot what year and what month it is, and dropped from outer space onto the national mall, you could hardly have failed to notice that something unusual was afoot Saturday night.
The Lincoln Monument, bathed in white light, was bedecked in American flags where a stage was being set up. Half a dozen Jumbotrons surrounded the monument, looping test captions.
The reflective pool that ties the Lincoln to the Washington Monument was iced over and rimmed with legions of vacant, green portable toilets. And the lilting voice that carried over the frosted expanse, singing a James Taylor song, belonged to James Taylor.
These blocks are expected to brim with people – those hoping to witness the making of history Tuesday – for the free, pre-inaugural concert. Millions are expected to brave what could be historic gridlock, bitter cold and the crowds to see the nation’s first black president sworn in.
But Saturday night was almost eerily still.
For all the reports of the out-of-towners flooding into the city, they must have stayed inside. Perhaps a score of people stood at the fringe of the Lincoln monument, listening to Taylor, some of them filming video.
The occasional crowd of tourists, streaming off buses, hurried through the park.
Stereo speakers piped Taylor’s music throughout the mall, as the musician strummed and sung to the stragglers, and the portable johns stood silently by.
It was the mall before the storm.
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