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Louisville Waterfront July 4th

What happened to the long weekend? On Saturday morning, I felt like the weekend was going slowly but now all of the sudden, it’s Monday night. I guess that’s how it always goes. I’d love to give the full weekend review, but we’ve got company – of course, it’s my fault for waiting until the last minute once again. But anyway, it was a great weekend all around here in Lou.

Louisville Waterfront Festival


Jon’s dad and nephew came into town on Saturday. We see them often, although everyone in the house this weekend was coming or going in different directions, so I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them.

Azung and I were excited to check out the downtown activities last night at the free Waterfront Independence Festival. We didn’t feel like braving too much heat during the 2-day festival, so we got there around 7:30 to catch a few Arrested Development songs. Speech sounds exactly the same (as he did in the 90s when “Tennessee” was released) and it’s quite a pleasure to watch Montsho Eshe dance (picture & video below) and inspire the crowd. They did indeed “take me to another place”.

Michael Franti & Spearhead headlined the event. While they kept the crowd happy with their hip hop-reggae-jazz-infused tunes, it was a little too pop-cliché for this music critic. Franti has the heart, but not really the voice or head to be a successful artist. He also ran a little long and I think the city decided to interrupt the show since he was running about 45 minutes overtime! The pyrotechnicians started up in the background around 11pm – it was odd to watch fireworks to a finale live musical act. Eventually, they got the usual old recorded tunes in – like Indiana Jones, Ode to Joy, and Born in the USA – that was more like it.

I’ll go again next year if the right bands play. To me, fireworks belong to no better holiday than Independence Day. They always make me think of the bombs bursting in air and what it means to live in these great United States. (Watched Green Zone today and it inspired similar thoughts.) That’s all I can muster about the fest for this Tuesday Zep. Keep me inspired to stay on top of it this week and prepare early!

World Cup update: Sadly, the US was knocked out by Ghana on the 26th. It was nice to see Uruguay take them out (although unfortunate to see the last African team lose) on Friday in their quarterfinal match. To add to the mixed feelings, it was a sad day for the spirit of the game due to the Suárez “Hand of God” – the ensuing failed penalty kick and final shootout added to the disaster. I’m looking forward to the Netherlands handing it to Uruguay today (Tuesday). I was surprised to see Brazil lose, but my #1 pick, Spain, is still in it – they’ll have quite a match against Germany on Wednesday.

Here’s a performance of Tennessee from last August:


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Comments

4 responses to “Louisville Waterfront July 4th”

  1. Amber Hurdle Avatar

    Woohooo! We're cheering for Spain, too!

  2. Luke Avatar
    Luke

    Hey J.J!

    It's Luke Grossi from your old hometown of Media. Just stumbled across your blog; really loved the “Honest Man” entry. I've got your blog on my feed now, so I'll check in from time to time.

    Hope you are well!
    Cheers,
    Luke

  3. zepfanman Avatar

    Hey, Luke! Guess you're one of thems who abandoned Facebook. Saw Derik's
    post of your piano tune on YouTube from last year. Quite impressive. What
    else you got up your sleeve?

  4. Luke Grossi Avatar
    Luke Grossi

    Yes, I am one of those indie losers who decided to part ways with facebook…on the bright side, I adopted a new blog, so we can still keep in touch! check it out – aubadecollage.blogspot.com

    And re: music; I posted that song as a bit of closure to my first real relationship. It was never intended for mass distribution, but alas, I should not have been so naive as to upload it on YouTube! My Dad somehow stumbled upon it and, in T-minus one hour, it was sent to his entire address book…c'est la vie, no?! But I must say I appreciate all of the support I've received…so much so that I think I'll be posting more in the near future!

    As of now, I'm just prepping for the church's mission trip to Cairo/Kenya. We're departing this coming Friday – crazy crazy!

    How are things on your end?