Obamarama: Hail, Stanford, to the Chief

Hearing the drum beat of change, students and alumni were inspired to pay homage to our new president, saying “yes we can” write a bluegrass ditty, a rap, a novella—or sink a jump shot against the commander in chief. Adam Cole, ’09, Ariel Marcy, ’11, Max McClure, ’11, Molly Thomas, ’11, and Austin Zumbro, ’09, form Nimbleweed. The group performs a bluegrass version of hip hop artist will.i.am’s musical paean to Obama, which can be found on YouTube. “We felt really strongly about wanting to support him,” fiddler Thomas told the Stanford Daily. Amani Green, ’12, won a ticket to the inauguration ceremony with a rap she penned for a contest held by Rep. Mike Honda. Sample lyrics: “My name is Amani/it means aspiration/I’ll tell you why I want to go/to the inauguration.” American Wife novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, ’97, wrote a novella on the swearing-in for Slate magazine called “All Along, This Was What Was Supposed to Happen.” In it, the protagonist reluctantly abandons her watch-it-at-home-with-friends plan to brave the crowds at the Capitol with her aging aunt. And volleyball player Spencer McLachlin, ’11—whose father Chris, ’68, MA ’70, was Obama’s coach at Punahou High—didn’t hold anything back when he played pick-up basketball with the president-elect during his Hawaiian vacation in December. A fitting tribute for a president who, in his inauguration address, celebrated the “risk takers, the doers, the makers of things” who make our nation great.