Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong

Happy 231st Birthday

Happy Independence Day to one and all! I don't consider myself overly patriotic in any way but I do really like July 4th. One of my very favorite things in the world is fireworks, which, admittedly, I'm only watching on TV tonight. I'm watching the Boston Pops July 4th show that I know people who worked on it. They just played "Stars and Stripes Forever" which is such a great masterpiece and of course, has perhaps, the greatest piccolo solo ever written. It's quite difficult to play and in certain cases, it's a piccolo audition piece. If you can play the picc solo from "Stars and Stripes" you pretty much can play anything on the picc. I played it in college in Symphonic Band where we had 5 piccolos and we all stood up to play it. I got through it but certainly was nowhere close to mastering it. But I do get excited every time I hear the song, especially when it's the underscore to fireworks like at the Hollywood Bowl. And according to Wikipedia, who knew that there were lyrics?

I won't even discuss right now that the Boston Pops show is showing fireworks (which I understand last about 25 minutes) to needle drop music. It just went from Kenny Chesney to the Sesame Street theme. HUH? I've never watching this before and I think I now know why. Fireworks on TV is somewhat boring, and the music snipets are beyond comprehension. I'm not getting it. I guess I shouldn't question to those higher on the production food chain who produce this. Wow, this is not good.

How was your day? Did you do anything special? Did you see fireworks? Were they spectacular? We had C's class from school over for the 2nd annual BBQ Swim July 4th soiree. 8 families which translated to about 35 people here at the house. Most of the time. the kids were in the pool plus a few of the Dad's. I really wanted to go in and cool off (it was over 100 here today) but I was too busy on chip patrol making sure all the bowls were filled. I think everyone had a great time and of course, there was more food than we knew what to do with. We did well on the hot dog and burger count although lots of extra buns. But lots of salads, potato salad, pesto pasta salad, beans, and left over desserts. Okay, that's not the worst thing the world but G's out of town again for the Live Earth concert in New Jersey on Saturday. (He flew out tonight) Anyway, that leaves me to eat the cookies, pie and cupcakes. I've got a horrible sweet tooth but no one could eat all that's left. Anyway, we had a great time. I'm exhausted from being on my feet for the past 10 hours. I need to get some stuff ready for scrapping this weekend and I just don't have the energy.

May God bless our men and women who serve this country here and around the world. They're the ones who are continuing the fight for independence. May they be watched over and kept safe so that they can return home SOON. God Bless America!

Labels: Fireworks, Hollywood Bowl, piccolo, Stars and Stripes Forever

posted by Juls @ 10:31 PM