Happy Fourth of July!

Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!

Happy Fourth of July! ... Independence Day!

The Garlic wants to wish all a very happy, safe, enjoyable holiday, wherever, and whatever the manner in which you celebrate it.

This may be our only post of the day, as we haven't finished, what has been a burgeoning tradition the past two years, of penning a "Garlictorial" (see today's This Date ... On The Garlic, for the previous efforts).

If we don't get it up later in the day, perhaps tomorrow.

In the meantime, kick up your heels, with this well-worn classic;

Stars and Stripes Forever



If, you want something, a bit off the beaten path, we can hip you to another, that, unfortunately, almost, exists exclusively on jazz radio stations, invariably, blared out today on many a playlist.

It is the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, "Doodletown Fifers", performed, faithfully, by the Bill May Orchestra

The Doodletown Fifers

This, as it turned out, was the only big hit of the short-lived Sauter-Finegan Orchestra;

Sauter-Finegan was an extraordinary 21-piece band, the like of which has never been seen before or since. The music was so complex that it depended on first-class musicians, many of whom contributed on three or four instruments each . The exquisite music of Sauter and Finegan frolicked in every range of the band, with fife and piccolo at the top and tuba and bass trombone at the bottom.

Although never a raging success, the band was able to go on tour between 1952 and 1957 and it recorded a dozen or so albums. Its biggest hit was "The Doodletown Fifers", based on an old Civil War song. "Midnight Sleigh Ride" called for horse's hooves as an introduction and backing, and Finegan achieved this sound by stripping to the waist and beating his chest before the microphone.

You can go HERE, for the Sauter-Finegan rendition, just scroll down to "Doodletown Fifers"

(Jazz Freaks will know, that it was Eddie Sauter who arranged the Stan Getz album, "Focus")

So, once again, Happy Fourth of July!

This Date ... On The Garlic

4 July 2008... On The Garlic

Garlictorial: He Did What? ... Where?

What Better Way To Capture The Essence of the Day

Have You Thanked America?

Garlictorial: La Cage aux Florida


4 July 2007... On The Garlic

Garlictorial: Happy 4th of July ... Okay, It May Be Down To This .... Citizen's Arrest!


4 July 2006... On The Garlic

Garlictorial: Happy 4th of July - To Be A Fly On The Potato Salad Up In Kennebunkport Today

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons New Superman Isn’t Fighting For Truth, Justice and The American Way

What Better Way To Capture The Essence of the Day

...no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.

Mark Twain, The Gilded Age

Ahhh ... July 4th ... The jingoist of holidays!

March in a parade of flags ... Wave a flag ... Oou-and-Ahh over firework displays of flags ...

Have Flag/Am Patriotic

Well, we don't need to discourse on what a flag is (Barry Crimmins has a "Holiday Salute" today).

Or, that, while everyone has unfurled their flags over the past seven years, the Bush Grindhouse has waived goodbye to the rule of law, and our civil liberties

Jane Hamsher, over on Firedoglake, has a good civic exercise, very much in the spirit of the above-mentioned Twain quote, you can engage in today;

"But Christy was dogged, and thanks to her efforts (and those of our fabulous readers) we now have almost 40 events set up across the country where you can join together with fellow like-minded FISA buffs and tell your member of Congress in person exactly what you think of the upcoming capitulation they plan."

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

* The Senate will soon be considering immunity for companies that helped President Bush illegally spy on Americans. Do you think the President should be able to collude with corporations to cover-up his crimes—does our constitution allow the president to be above the law?

* Will you join Senators Feingold and Dodd in standing up for our constitution by filibustering any legislation that lets president Bush and the phone companies off the hook for wiretapping American citizens without a warrant?

* Alternative phrasing of the second bullet: We need you to show backbone and not help Bush's cover-up. If these lawsuits get thrown out of court, Americans may never know how far Bush went in breaking the law by spying on innocent Americans. Will you join Senator Russ Feingold's filibuster of any bill that gives retroactive immunity to phone companies that helped Bush break the law and spy on Americans?

Check out Jane's FISA: Whip It Good!

Now, with or without a flag in your hand, how much more can you be a good American patriot, then by holding your elected representative accountable for the welfare of our country?

Bonus Bonus

Eddie Izzard - Do you have a flag?

Have You Thanked America?

A little something for the holiday ...

George Adams Quartet - Have You Thanked America?
(with Ray Gallon, Santi Debriano and Lewis Nash)




Happy 4th - However you celebrate it!