Getting In Sync With the Convention
Denver, Minneapolis Ramp Up the Action

By Scott Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 17, 2008

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).

Opening three days before the Republicans' Sept. 1 shindig at the Xcel Energy Center and continuing for a week, CivicFest will have such exhibits as an "Oval Office," where patrons can sign bills into law while posing for souvenir photos; an Air Force One fuselage replica they can tour; live bald eagles; and the White House in Miniature, a spectacular 50-foot-long scale model. (Through Sept. 4, $15 admission for adults, $10 for students, those 60 and older and active military; children younger than 8 free.)

For its part, Denver's Invesco Field will play host to "The American Presidential Experience," a traveling exhibit of memorabilia complete with its own Oval Office and Air Force One fuselage and such offbeat fare as an actual Florida voting machine from 2000 and china table settings from eight presidential administrations (Aug. 22-27, $15 for adults, $10 for those 65 and older and children 2 to 12; http://www.presidentialexperience.com).

Museums in both cities are getting into the act, of course, and here again the offerings range from the inevitable to the capricious. As to the former, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is showcasing "Hail to the Chief: Images of the American Presidency," an exhibit of more than 70 works, including such miscellany as Richard Avedon's portrait of Eisenhower and a signed Christmas card from the Kennedy White House (free, through Sept. 21; http://www.artsmia.org).

Similarly history-minded are two shows focusing on the only other Democratic Convention held in Denver (in 1908, when William Jennings Bryan was nominated a third ill-fated time), at the Denver Public Library (free, through Oct. 31 at the Central Library; http://www.denverlibrary.org) and at Regis University (free, through Sept. 25; http://www.regis.edu).

If those are too serious for you, try Denver with its "Dr. Seuss for President" at Gallery One Writer's Square. There you'll find imagery from several of the celebrated author's books with political overtones, including "The Lorax," that thinly veiled screed against environmental devastation; "The Sneetches," Seuss's meditation on discrimination; and "The Cat in the Hat," his wholesale embrace of nonconformity (free, through Sept. 1; http://www.galleryonedenver.com).

Moving on to that other staple of convention irreverence, the satirical revue, Denver's Bovine Metropolis Theater will play host to "Convention?," where the laughs purportedly will fly when one presidential candidate makes a campaign promise to build an Amazon-to-Texas footbridge (Aug. 20 and 27, $8; http://www.bovinemetropolis.com).

The Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis, meanwhile, will try to generate its own yuks via a salute to the 2008 primary season called, ahem, "The Lion, The Witch and the War Hero; or Is McCain Able?" (Fridays, Saturdays and some Thursdays through Nov. 8, $23-$25; http://www.bravenewworkshop.com). You're strictly on your own with those.

The looming question, of course, is whether Minneapolis and Denver will be able to share the spotlight generated by the parties' high-wattage candidates during the most important electoral moment in modern American history or whether they'll merely bask in the reflected glow.

Maybe they will if conventioneers take their politics to the streets for Minneapolis's spark24, a daylong barrage of performances celebrating the city's prodigious arts scene on Aug. 30 ( http://www.spark24.org), or Denver's aforementioned karaoke-soaked Dialog:City.

Which reminds me, I have to go. I'm working on this Ron Paul "End the Fed!" number that will absolutely slay them.

For a list of more convention-related activities in Minneapolis and Denver, visit http://www.minneapolis.organdhttp://www.denver.org.