4th of July

I honestly enjoyed the Fourth of July this year. I really did. I started the day by sleeping in until about 11:30, a rare treat for me. With distractions like television, Internet, and short bouts of going back to sleep, I finally got up and moving by 1 PM. Considering that I did jackshit last night and had no real reason to be tired, this entire episode was pure decadence. Quite American, isn't it? I spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting outside, working on my tan (which is now a semi-painful sunburn), reading a book (Centennial Crisis by former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist (Shorewood, Wisconsin's own)), listening to the Brewers game (which I could have and should have gone to), and drinking whiskey. No parenthetical is necessary for the last one.

In the evening, I briefly participated in a family cook-out before leaving for Summerfest. Dave, Nikolai, and I met at a local bar for a few beers before jumping on the shuttle bus. The shuttle bus (drunk bus) had its usual cast of characters: the loud obnoxious guy, the obviously stoned out of his mind hippie, the dumb as a brick hot girl, etc. The drunk bus is a microcosm of Summerfest itself, minus the underagers.

I have a love-hate relationship with Summerfest. I'll be the first to admit that I bitch about it all the time. Yeah, I'm one of those people. "It's too crowded, the beer is overpriced, the food is expensive, there are never enough bands that I want to see..." Basically, I complain endlessly about it. But deep down, I do love Summerfest. It may be a flawed institution, but it's our flawed institution. Summerfest is Milwaukee, the good, the bad, and the ugly of it. When you really get down to it, a ten day long music festival a few miles from your home is pretty damn cool.

The music was pretty good. We saw The Championship headline the local music stage. I've been a fan of theirs for a while now, so I was especially happy to catch one of the t-shirts that they threw into the crowd. At ten, we checked out The Roots over at the Miller Oasis. The place was absolutely packed. It wasn't easy to see the band (which is too bad, because they put on a great show), but we had no problems hearing them. With my somewhat bizarre music tastes, it's a real coup for me to find a night at Summerfest with two bands that I really want to see.

All in all, no real complaints. I only got beer spilled on me once and it was just on my shoe. The company was good, the music was good, and I got a free t-shirt. Add that to a morning of relative leisure, a Brewers win, and some great grilled food, and it was a great Fourth of July. Go America.