October 31, 2012
Katy Perry Wears Obama Ballot
Mark Thompson READ TIME: 1 MIN.
LAS VEGAS - Katy Perry's doing her best get-out-the vote effort: At a rally for President Barack Obama, she wore a tight white dress imprinted like a ballot, and a square box on her right hip filled in the names of Obama and Joe Biden.
Perry gave a free concert at a park in a historically minority neighborhood just northwest of downtown Las Vegas to screaming fans at about 9 p.m., the same time Air Force One landed at McCarran International Airport across town.
Obama later told the crowd, "I believe in you. I need you to keep believing in me."
The Las Vegas campaign event drew more than 10,000 people, according to fire officials and organizers, with long lines still on sidewalks during Perry's 30-minute performance before Obama arrived.
The singer opened with a rendition of Al Green's soul hit, "Let's Stay Together," and played five songs, including "Teenage Dream," before ending with a thumping bass drum version of "Firework."
Perry, who recently also played a free concert at an Obama event in Los Angeles, paused before the last song Wednesday to exhort people in the Las Vegas crowd to vote early.
"Don't wait. Go tomorrow," she said. "How many of you are 18 here? It's going to be your first time, right?"
A long-term New Yorker and a member of New York Travel Writers Association, Mark Thompson has also lived in San Francisco, Boston, Provincetown, D.C., Miami Beach and the south of France. The author of the novels WOLFCHILD and MY HAWAIIAN PENTHOUSE, he has a PhD in American Studies and is the recipient of fellowships at MacDowell, Yaddo, and Blue Mountain Center. His work has appeared in numerous publications.
