Hello Peggy,

What a great time it is to be in the U.S. - I was amazed to see so much interest in the election! When I got your DART Election Day Special, I tried to find an interesting party to go to here in L.A. I searched in the web and the papers, then headed downtown where many bars were doing something special.

After crashing a couple of parties, my friend and I stopped at a pizza place to eat, thinking the returns would take a lot longer. That's when CNN projected Obama's victory and everybody was wondering whether it was true or not. We ran out with our pizza to the nearest party, underway in a former bank, where we watched McCain's speech. Then we heard Obama's speech on the radio and watched the people celebrating in the streets.

Left: Gio at the Obama Victory Party. Right: Collage of images from election night by GDB.

In the end we decided to go to the main Democratic Party event at the Hyatt, not very original. When we got there, firefighters were blocking the entrances and telling people to leave. An organizer said there were 6,000 people in excess of the 7,000-person capacity and the papers later estimated 18,000 in all. When most of the people waiting outside had left, we finally got in.

It was a real melting pot of social classes, styles, ages and ethnic backgrounds (some of them can be seen here). It was really nice to see - it was definitely the U.S. at its best. When I got home that night I made this collage (above) for my blog.

I' m sure you are having a great time at this "historic moment." Art and ideas are important now more than ever.

All the best,

Giovanni

Milan-based Giovanni Del Brenna is represented in Europe by Grazia Neri.