3 posts tagged “independence day”
In a few short hours, I will be hopping into Zipcar "Van Damme" and pointing it westward toward Pittsburgh. I'll be there for a few days, and thus will miss out on a full slate of local gatherings and soirées. MWG - if you're reading - I'm sorry I can't make it to your barbecue; I'm sure a good time will be had by all.
i'm tired of soccer. i am even tired of writing about how much
it hate it. so this is it: my last anti-soccer post until the
next world cup rolls around.
i have a good reason - especially this year. soccer ruined my
vacation. i am not supposed to be in DC today. i'm not even
supposed to be in this country. last fall when akaijen moved to the
netherlands i quickly identified this weekend as a potential trip to
visit. not only would i have several days in the netherlands, but
today's stage of the tour ended there. yeah - a trip to europe in early july sounded like a fine idea indeed.
but effing soccer got in the way. because of the goddamn world
cup, airfare was out of my price range. i checked everything; i
even considered trains from england and sweden and norway. there
was nothing. so i am here in DC with no great cycle race to
distract me. yes, the world cup ruined my holiday. even if
i didn't already hate soccer, i would now.
in honor of independence day, i'm stealing a page out of emma's book.
bruce springsteen often gets a bad rap among members of my peer
group - particularly those who recall both that he was immensely
popular and that ronald reagan misappropriated one of his biggest hits
for political means. i can't offer anything about either, except
to say that popular success should not always be a knock against an
artist and that reagan missed the point of the song.
"born in the usa" is not the anthem of defiant patriotism that
reagan misinterpreted. it's a protest song and was always meant
as such. for better of for worse, it was beefed up during the
album sessions to approximate a studio version of the e. street band's
formidable live sound. i suspect if it had been recorded in its
original version - which i have posted in audio - it would never have
been a huge hit, and countless of my peers would find springsteen less
unctuous.
