A Few Recent 4th of Julys

Although I'm not a big fan of the 4th of July holiday in general (most likely initially due to my childhood fear of fireworks), it seems that I tend to have fairly eventful Independence Days every year. The first interesting 4th of July I can remember having was in 2000, right after graduating from high school, when I went to my first rock concert alone with my friend Kenny; the concert also happened to be my first time to OzzFest, which you can imagine was quite the first unchaperoned concert experience. Jump forward past two years of forgotten celebrations to 2003, and you arrive at the 4th of July party my L.A. film scoring teacher Jack Smalley hosted at his house when I was there studying with him privately for the month. This party was notable both for the fact that we had a tremendous view sitting on his porch up in the L.A. hills, and due to the presence of a number of his liberal friends, including some gay and lesbian couples, one of whom was a writer for Law and Order.

In the Summer of 2004, I spent my 4th in Athens, GA with my friend George, where that night we went out dancing for the first time and happened to get so lucky as to go out during a foam party, which turned out to be the only good party they ever had at that club despite numerous visits afterwards. The following year (2005), I spent 4th of July weekend with Dave at his parents' house in Chicago. In addition to being probably the most all-around memorable 4th of July I've ever had, I had never been to Chicago, nor had I stayed at a friend's parents' house in a LONG time, so this was a really special trip. My second 4th of July during my time in Bloomington (2006) was spent having a kind of strange party at our house (805), followed by fireworks. Judging from these photos, you can tell that both wrestling and overly-patriotic clothing were involved...

Finally, my last Independence Day was spent in The Netherlands, coincidently seeing the Scissor Sisters live in Amsterdam with my friend Andrew Zamler-Carhart. The concert was really fun in and of itself, but the highlight definitely was being in the front row when the lead singers started mentioning that that day was a holiday for them (being American)...it was at this point that Andrew made a gesture to one of them that we were both American, to which the singer responded with a somewhat shocked expression and a smile. Nice.

So, that brings me to this year. Honestly, this year is probably going to be the chillest 4th I've had since my undergrad: Candace and I are meeting over here at my parents' house for some BBQ chicken and ribs, and then the two of us are going to see fireworks in Buckhead. I'm sure it'll be nice though, and besides, you can't have your 4th of July in random countries, cities, or concerts every year! =)