I missed Canada Day by a few days. So here's wishing all you Americans out there a happy Fourth of July. The earliest Fourth of July I have any clear memory of was probably 1973 or '74 in Nairobi. We went to the American embassy -- the same one that al Quaeda blew up many year later -- and hung out with bunches of other American ex-pats who lived in Kenya at the time. My mom and dad weren't much for hanging out exclusively with other Americans, as were many of the Americans who lived there. So I can't remember ever seeing any of those people again. But they had fireworks and watermelon and hot dogs. I remember learning that the closest equivalent to a hot dog you could get in Kenya was a Vienna sausage and that they were not pre-cooked as were the ones you got in the States. So you couldn't just go into the 'fridge, grab a hot dog and eat it cold.
When I lived in Japan I never bothered with any of the Fourth of July celebrations put on by the embassy. I tended to avoid contact with most Americans living there since they were generally kind of disgusting people. Loud, obnoxious, drunk. Wooo-hoooo!!! Look at me!!!! I can drink beer on the street and make a lot of noise!!!!!! Nobody stops me!!!!! Yacccccchhhhhhhh!!!!
Not my kind of crowd, really.
The Fourth of July before I went to Japan, which must've been 1992, I was attacked on the street for no reason. That kinda made me decide it was time to get out of the country.
Today I'm s'posta go to my friend Greg's swimming pool in North Hollywood and hang around. That sounds like fun.
When I went to Japan I was completely disgusted with the USA and wanted nothing to do with it ever again. Now I don't feel like that. The USA has some good points. For one thing you can eat hot dogs right out of the 'fridge. Though I don't eat hot dogs anymore and I guess it wouldn't matter if you ate a raw soy dog anyway.
Interesting diff between Japan and America: In Japan, fireworks displays are an on-going thing all Summer long. Sometimes they're tied in with holidays like O-bon. But sometimes they just decide to have one on some random weekend night. But over here we only do fireworks on one particular day.
The graphic today is from a CD I bought yesterday by a local Los Angeles experimental duo called "ing". Apparently they put out a new CD every month. I love the cover of this one and bought it having no idea what the music would be like. I still haven't listened to it.
