Some July 4ths

 

7/4/1960 

Inge Morath: "All day is dedicated to the drive through the amazing landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It almost seems to be an accident that we are going on such a smooth road, things around are so untouched, trees and small wooden houses and the endless waves of blue hued mountain crests. There are still rhododendrons blossoming and marguerites and arnicas and flowers that look like windblown veils. The air smells of pines warmed by the sun."

Inge Morath was a Magnum photographer. In July of 1960 she was on the road on her first trip to America. (When you arrive first in a place, you can really see it, and  the photos document this first glimpse at the culture of the American West, Vegas, etc.)

[See: The Misfits: Story of a Shoot]

6 years later The Beatles were in the studio recording Abbey Road.

7/4/1969, Friday 

(Beatles in Studio) 

Overdub onto the newly reduced Golden Slumbers and use of found recordings from the BBC Radio 2 broadcast of Britons and Jones winning The Wimbledon Ladies Tennis Championship beating Billie Jean King in a 71-minute three set. 

7/4/1997, Chicago

 Cool! 65 degrees (4th of July or 4th of April?)

Sojourner lands on Mars.

7/4/1998, Saturday

Interesting that Springsteen's Born In The USA (1984) was misconstrued by most (including Lee Iacocca and Ronald Reagan) as some type of patriotic anthem, which it wasn't, but sounded that way. The lessons here are: 1) if you write a song that sounds like an anthem, that's how it will be perceived, regardless of what the lyrics say, and 2) most people don't listen to the lyrics anyway.

Joni Mitchell coming to town at the tiny Old Town School auditorium. 

7/4/2002 

Piece on NPR how insects change climate to increase their survival. Humans do the same thing, but risk extinction.(Extinctions are a natural side effect of this type of manipulation of nature.)

7/4/2003, Friday

Skipped the local fireworks and in fact, I saw them clearly from the window of my air conditioned bedroom. 

On Live 8: Why does music have to be a "mission"? Why can't spirituality speak for itself? (The power of music is to get people's emotions in a better state, and hopefully that will impact the world in a positive way.)

7/4/2006

North Korea launches long-range missile capable of hitting the West Coast. They reportedly failed a minute after launch. They keep offering hope of diplomacy, but on the axis of evil, all everyone wants is to avoid the center.

7/4/2011

 

7/4/2012

Fireworks! Discovery of the "God" particle (Higgs boson) is officially announced. Higgs was jubilant.

Andy Griffith died at 86. He epitomized the American small town nice guy. Anyone wouldn't mind being busted by Andy.

7/4/2017

Unity Temple restoration complete, now flood-lit: 

 

7/4/2022

Highland Park massacre. The horror. It's not even suitable for a scene in a film. Everyone cringes at the idea of something like this happening on the Fourth of July.

Lake Mead at deadpool, the 23rd year of drought in the Colorado River Basin. 

Studio: finished The Road (End of the road for "The Road").