Sunday, July 24, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Epic Cinema: Midnight In Paris (2011)

Do yourself another favor. This movie deserves a fine meal. Before. Not after. After, you want to be sitting by yourself, having a Calvados, listening to Cole Porter. Wondering about yourself. And about whether all times really do coexist. Having seen this movie I certainly hope they do.
I've made up my mind. In the early months of 2012, I'm going.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Independence Day

1. Kids decorating our bikes for the parade.
2. Old fellows wearing hats from the American Legion.
3. Pumpkin ball games [where the men would play baseball with a ball the size of a pumpkin].
4. Watermelon [available only one day a year].
5. Contests to see who could spit the watermelon seeds the farthest.
6. My Swedish grandma having my grandpa nail spinning fireworks to the pole that held up the laundry drying line in our back yard.
7. Waiting breathless for my Dad to come back into town from working far away, his auto trunk loaded with fresh yellow corn that we shucked and boiled in a big pot.
8. The sun setting long into the northern evening as bratwurst sausages cooked on a charcoal grill.
9. Fireflies dancing in the fading light, the only fireworks our town could afford.
10. Hearing a phonograph record in our small living room playing "Hooray For The Red White and Blue".
11. The odd feeling, even then, that those sort of days were rapidly dwindling in number.
12. Freedom, glorious freedom.
Happy Fourth of July to all freedom seekers everywhere.
ML
Photo Credit: Marthastewart.com