It's JON not JOHN. And I think the lack of "relevant" acts can be attributed to the quick realization of this idea and the fact that a lot of people didn't quite know how to classify the event. (though I am not sure who you would have wanted to see- Taylor Swift? It's not Mtv/VH1. They did have Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock & TI.)

Relevant is subjective. Somehow I doubt Bieber, Taylor Swift, or any of the modern top-40 main-stream popular/"relevant" acts would have served any purpose other than making the event some sort of screaming fan star-sighting. Add in the fact that the so-called relevant acts (man how I absolutely loathe the writer's use of the word, go with popular) may seem more politically left-leaning than what the event was calling for - plus the fact that this was a rally, not a pop concert - and you have something that was still ridiculously entertaining, if a bit weak imho in that I wanted more speeches.

I thought the acts were very carefully selected to remain as moderate as possible. On top of that, this wasn't some celebrity telethon, it was a gathering of people of all ages and races gathering together to show that the nation isn't as divided as the media claims. To add a wave of celebrities, unless they had something relevant to say (which I think Stewart covered nicely by himself) and musical acts would have detracted from what the event was actually about. I was one of the 215,000+ people in the crowd and everybody had an awesome time, even though majority of them probably didn't know who Father Guido Sarducci was (he still got tons of laughs)

Whatever. Yeah, because whining about this - "The Roots are awesome, but not even ?uestlove is cool enough to balance out all that antiquation. Where were the current artists, celebrities, comedians and politicians? For something that generated so much media coverage beforehand, the absence of anybody relevant (other than the hosts) made it kind of feel like no one cared much about it -- at least not enough to get on a plane for it." - is so apropos to what the event was about and what actually went on at said event.

This rally wasn't publicized at all, so there's another load of crap. Mentions on Comedy Central for short of 2 months is hardly the way to generate attendance, and they succeeded anyway. Is that mentioned in the article? Oops, no. Further, tons of people got on planes to attend this, but I guess because it wasn't Mick Jagger it doesn't count. Oh, yeah that wouldn't have either as he's not from this decade.

This rally was an overwhelming success and it would have been nice if it had been portrayed as such.

Yeah, those are some observations! Too bad there couldn't be more "relevant celebrities" of interest to today's Bravo-driven TWoP. Imagine The Circus!Housewives of Wherever or that certifiable house flipper or Andy! But super-glad you were "delighted" with the rest of it!

I was there too - the vibe in the crowd was awesome, and the acts worked really well to keep that going. Can't say how it came off for people watching form the comfort of their living rooms, but if they hadn't tried to keep it broad and somewhat interactive, it wouldn't have worked for the people who were on their feet, shoulder-to-shoulder on the National Mall for several hours. Great atmosphere, great day, proud to have been there!

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