Charles River, July 4, 2006 [Rekha Murthy]
Charles River, July 4, 2006 [Rekha Murthy]
Some scattered impressions of my July 4: Steven Tyler’s voice, piped live to the entire Charles River Basin last night, sounded a little old. It made me sad. The 1812 Overture — say what you want, Brahms snobs — is the best piece of music ever written. (A close second might be Guns ‘n Roses’ “Paradise City,” but I can understand why “Paradise City” might have been a bad choice for the Boston Pops last night.) Also, walking with the wind down the Charles to find my picnic last night, I was passed by a canoe on the river filled with a dad and three sons, powered alone by the oldest son’s windbreaker, held aloft as a sail.
Your July 4? What did you see? Where did you go? Were you inspired? Disappointed? Reaffirmed in your faith in the principles of the Declaration of Independence? Reaffirmed in your faith in hot dogs? If you took pictures, email them to brendan radioopensource org, or post them to the radioopensource Flickr group and we’ll put them on the site.
Lolis Eric Elie summed up the 4th for New Orleans.
http://tinyurl.com/nue8u
At about 10:30 I taped a sign on the bookstore door that read “Be Back After The Parade� and walked down to the corner to watch Friday Harbor’s Fourth of July parade. It starts out with the American Legion and I think they really enjoy that gun salute. Then come the Pig War re-enactors. Same uniform as the Civil War Union but instead of Confederates we have Canadians in red jackets, no bagpipes this year though I am sorry to say. Anyone who wants to can be in our parade. A few years ago I was Betsy Ross accompanied by Ben Franklin and a colonial rabble. We passed out copies of the Bill of Rights. This year the League of Women Voters dressed up like 1890s Suffragettes. The Whale Museum had people and dogs in Orca costumes. That reminded me of the year I had the bad idea to dress up three Holstein calves (for you city folk those are the black and white ones) like Orcas. It was tough keeping a dorsal fin upright on a frisky calf. Then, while I was sorry to miss bagpipes this year the band was good! It looked the High School Band did some extra recruitment for the occasion. At the end all the fire trucks and emergency vehicles go by making lots of noise and throwing lots of candy. You can’t live on this small Island very long without gaining an appreciation for our volunteer fire department and EMTs. Friday Harbor is a tourist town and I think the Island I live on is a “Tristan da CunhaI� of sorts for some people but our parade is just a small home-town parade. I love my town. I guess that is why I love our parade.
to see photos of the Friday Harbor 4th of July Parade….
http://www.sanjuanislander.com/events/fourth_of_july/2006-fh-parade-1.shtml
A parade (including Gov. and Lt. Gov.) in my small town in Vermont that the fire engines had to bail out of in the middle of due to an accident on the interstate. An afternoon on a friend’s organic vegetable farm by the river. An evening gig on the green with my band that includes two local government officials and the local postmaster. Pouring down rain until the third song and then throngs of people and fried dough and Dave Alvin’s 4th of July and Aimee Mann’s 4th of July and tearing down the gear while the fireworks exploded above and my 2-year old daughter (with ear protection) shouted “boom” with every expolsion.