Getting In Sync With the Convention

Denver, Minneapolis Ramp Up the Action

What images does the word "karaoke" conjure up for you? Drunken messes struggling through "I Will Survive"? Excruciating self-indulgence courtesy of "Desperado"?

I used to be like you. But that was before I came upon political karaoke, a variation on a theme, where the playlist includes not "Sweet Caroline" but Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire "No More Invisible Americans" speech. And since then, I've been practicing and practicing, all in pursuit of a pitch-perfect Hillary.

Over the last week I listened to you, and in the process, I found my own voice.

[Audience cheers.]

With backup applause as a guide, along with a screen that wipes the words from gray to yellow, you struggle to follow along, all the while searching for a tone of cautious optimism.

Now, together, let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me.

[Audience cheers.]

Finally, a karaoke we can believe in.

As it happens, this odd diversion is the centerpiece of an ambitious arts and culture festival called Dialog:City, which arrives in Denver on Thursday, four days before the opening of the Democratic convention ( http://www.dialogcity.org). It calls itself "a non-partisan creative and civic catalyst whose mission is to spark dialogue across the city through innovative cultural initiatives," but all you really need to know is that Denver is determined to break down the walls between the conventioneers at the Pepsi Center and average Joes cordoned off in the spectator area.

Accordingly, residents and visitors alike will be able to take in a hip-hop opera on climate change in Antarctica, witness a "large-scale projection" depicting the plight of homeless veterans that will emanate from a tricked-out Humvee, and exercise their Constitution-sanctioned freedom of re-speech at bars and clubs all over town by delivering, say, Mitt Romney's Florida "Washington Has Failed Us" address, or John Edwards's New Orleans "An American House to Rebuild" speech.

(Convention attendees are advised to peruse the three categories -- dropout, concession and victory -- and rehearse online at http://www.karaokeconvention.com, where clips of others rehearsing -- in Sweden, in Japan -- can also be viewed.)

Not to be outdone, Minneapolis has its own large-scale project in the works: the 300,000-square-foot CivicFest, a sort of Hail to the Chief theme park at the Minneapolis Convention Center ( http://www.civicfest.org).