Tag: 4th of July

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America’s Day in San Diego

Some last minute ideas came through for the 4th and I rolled down to San Diego with some boys to hit the largest 4th of July celebration on the west coast. Pacific Beach and all it’s dirty, ghetto, bikini clad, So-Cal glory. The residence was accommodating, complete with 3rd level viewing deck for watching the Marine World’s fireworks, or just practicing nude T’ai Chi Chi Kung. No rest for the wicked, but obviously the wicked were not at Larry Flint’s Hustler party. Apparently he was casting for some movies at his sex shop earlier that day and had the after party at On Broadway but I didn’t see any pornstars but of course I’ve never seen any porn so I probably wouldn’t know what to look for. I find it a little pretentious that they call this place an event center…it’s just a bank turned club and yes it’s nice but tell it like it is – a bank turned wanna be upper echelon club!

DJ Dan did play a wicked set, actually better than I’ve heard him in the bay lately…I guess he’s tired of the home town crowd. And I give props for Paulie P and his crew as we seemed to roll with to each event he had going on all week (respect D Reyes for the hook ups).

The beach was off the hook…about a million people on both the bay side and beach side of PB, cruzin’, boozin’, dancin’ and celebratin’ for America’s freedom. I can say I did here quite a few renditions of the Pledge of Allegiance with God in the verse. I was a little worse for wear thinking that my thin white shirt would protect me from the Hades like burn I received that day. I would have to say the highlight was the old skool feelin of groovin’ on the beach, having a great time and not giving a shit about responsibilities and regulations – just going for it!!!

Random thought: More burritos than toilets in SD but at least most of the time there decent…well at least the burritos are.

Managed to meet everyone in SD down at Ole Madrid’s in DT San Diego. Nice place except the first DJ was playing not only CDs but he was playing the whole Mixed CD disc of Mark Farina’s Session One. He was even pretending to work the board to Farina’s trademark filters and EQ tricks…. what a spoof! And worse the promoters thought we were hating on the DJ…well yeah?!?

After the close out of Ole’s we conjured up the cabs and headed to Club Montage located in the warehouse district of northern SD. It’s quite industrial and ghetto (2 porta-potties located ground floor by the entrance for bathrooms – build a toilet why don’t you!) SRH and Paulie P’s Studio 54 was going on/off this Friday with Paul van Dyke and Scooter & Lavell. They don’t like when the club boasts of the 5-room maze, my first time through got me twisted. Not a PVD fan but S&L DJ’s rocked the house with some dope scratch-hard house combos…yeah I said HH… I guess it helps when you 2×4 and you don’t have to listen to the same rhythmless beat for 4-5 minutes. Good party, but the roof is the spot in the summer.

The week didn’t end without a trip through the PB bars and relaxing the day away on the beach, by the pool and over all a great road trip with friends showing that socially American’s know how to live it up. What I still don’t know is how long will it take for the GP to learn respect for our environment and will we as a people learn to be as vocal within our own private circles as should be about our public/global portrayal of ourselves.

President Honors Veterans at West Virginia Fourth of July Celebration

“Sixty years ago, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall declared that “before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom, on the one hand, and of overwhelming power on the other.” This is our purpose again today. Once again, history has called America to use our overwhelming power in the defense of freedom. And we’ll do just that.” ~ President George W. Bush

Chewbacca: “Aaaaarrrgh!”
C-3PO: “He made a fair move. Screaming about it can’t help you.”
Solo: “Let him have it. It’s not wise to upset a Wookiee.”
C-3PO: “But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.”
Solo: “That’s ’cause droids don’t pull people’s arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that.”
Chewbacca: “Grrrrr…”
C-3PO: “I see your point, sir. I suggest a new strategy, R2 – let the Wookiee win.”

STAR WARS Episode III

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The 4th O’ July

The 4th O’ July

My cultural worth was satisfied tonight. Went to a BBQ, ate some apple pie, saw the family, drank some budwiper, and saw the standard fireworks show in Central Park San Ramon. Is that bitterness you sense? No, just wondering where all the free spiritedness went. Maybe I was just hanging with some serious cynics or maybe IT really is all controlled, forced and standardized. I guess I remember the times when Church groups were housing parking lot patriotism, with booths all over the town, selling every fire-sparkly-flaming-noisy device you could stick a match to…from firecrackers to smoke bombs, to spinning wheels to rockets. Now, you have to sneak half ass fireworks across city lines to limited areas that allow fire displays and set ’em off in bursts of controlled merriment. At times checking the corners of the street for One-Timers….

When your eyes are bigger than your world, everything is grand. I love 4th of July though for it’s originally feeling. Family gatherings, mass food and music. Staying up late to set off pyrotechnics, illegal or not, it’s still a great release. But now I’m wondering where the central communal party is. Shouldn’t this day be bigger? Huge in fact! I think Cinco de Mayo in downtown San Jose get’s a bigger party. We’re all living on Mexican land anyway so why not eh? But really… where’s that companionship, comradery and champion party us Americans clam to be celebrating? I want blocked off streets, beer gardens, hat’s with crazy sparklers, bands playing Bruce Springsteen and John Cougar Meloncamp songs and naked people with red white and blue painted all over their bodies…well maybe that’s a little over the top, but you know what I mean. Besides the party, where’s the spirit? The more I write the more I know… The spirit is clouded by American capitalism. Ironic, I thought… What we had fought for in the beginning is now smothering our own economic and personal freedom. We’re probably taxed more (proportionally) now than settlers were in 1774. Add on that: our environment is going to shit, inflation is rising at an uncontrollable rate, the economy… well let me stop here this is not the time for this (It’s past my bed time that’s why!). Where’d that all come from anyway…it’s like I was force fed too much Starbucks…wait…

My point of all this is very blurred, but I guess I’m just not ignorant any more. I love Forth O’ July now for the memories of what I thought it was for when I was 10 but now over a decade later, it’s become a reminder of what our people once were passionate about and what we as a nation should continue to work for, anyone remember what those faded important documents sitting under glass in Washington D.C say?….

Note to self: *Remembers the red firework at Funny Farm – What a celebration eh?*