Here are the rest of my photos from the fabulous Fourth of July.
John. Me.
Me, John, Megan.
Megan. Lady Liberty.
Seth, the MacDaddy. Get it? Haha.
Me being blue. Is the Fourth even the Fourth without one of those red, white, and blue popcicles? I didn't think so.
Jared, Seth, Me groovin' to Belle and Sebastian.
Belle and Sebastian.
Friends at the Concert.
Jason.
John.
Stilts.
Sunset.
Fireworks.
Donuts. Dunkin' Donuts.
Going home with some tunes and Chris.
Happy Fourth of July! Today I celebrated this great American holiday New York style with friends old and new, a free concert in Battery Park, free food, free fireworks and Duncan Donuts. Belle and Sebastian gave a lovely afternoon show to a stalwart crowd that hung out through the threatening thunderstorms. 
As the show ended we thought we were leaving, but really we were entering the VIP section of the park. We had no idea, but decided to take advantage of the piles of food that were there for our enjoyment. Ribs and Mac 'n Cheese. Yum. It tasted even better since it was free.
More photos to come later. I've got to get some sleep.
On Monday I went with Megan, Jessica and Travis to the Bowery Ballroom to see Jose Gonzalez. Psapp (pronounced sap) opened the night with a fun mix of electronica and repetitive melodic acoustic and electric instrumentation with an interesting use of children's instruments and noise-making toys that ranged from children's xylophones to farmyard noise-makers and squeaky rubber poultry. After each song Psapp named and threw a small plastic animal toy into the audience.
I'm going to Belgium.
Game Face
Game Shirt (my jersey is in storage...)
Game Shorts
Celebrate Brooklyn has yet to get me in the mood to celebrate anything. As a second attempt to appreciate the free performances that are Celebrate Brooklyn (after Savion Glover's intese yet uncaptivating performance last weekend) I journeyed out to the park for Celebrate Indie Rock night. It looked like a good lineup and was certain to impress even the most savvy critic of the modern music scene. As a sidenote, I took quite the detour on the way out to the park and found a great cemetary where the graves are just as crammed in as the people in Manhattan. I only snapped a picture from the subway, but I'll have to go back and explore more later.
So, when I finally arrived at Prospect Park, I was not alone. 
Megan, Jessica, Natalie and I were surrounded by every hipster in town (and an otherwise electic mix of father and son couples and women strangely sporting tin foil ponchos when it started to drizzle). We started out on the lawn, but a huge group of people standing behind the seated section kept us from seeing anything. 
I have been thinking about my life in a suitcase. It has pretty much been that way for the last six years. Between college, study abroad, a mission, and internships all over the place, I have spent a great deal of time doing my best to keep my most sacred belongings to a limit of 50 lbs per suitcase (or 70 lbs if you're lucky enough to fly on jetBlue). When this is the case, I always find it intruguing to sit back and really analyze what I have decided to bring with me - what I find essential to my existence. Generally this is mostly shoes and clothes, camera, laptop, scriptures, journal. But today as I was sitting at my desk, I noticed the books, movies and CDs I had decided to schlep across the country. Here were the winners:
So, books first:
Ever wonder what the subway does for a migraine? Last night I found out. I'll admit, I was starting to feel it come on before I even went to Madison Square Park for the concert, but it's a sacrifice I was willing to make for good music. But as I sat on the subway somewhere in the shadowy hollows between what felt like life and death, I wondered if I owed my agony to the infamous (yet delicious) Black and White cookie. We all know that it was the Black & White cookie that forced Jerry to break his 14-year vomit-free streak. But there's something about seeing that cookie in virtually every Manhattan bakery that had me craving it, even if there were a smiliar price to pay. I had to experience "two races of flavor living side by side" for myself. It's a wonderful thing isn't it? As Jerry's favorite method of consumption, I also tried to get a little black and a little white in each bite, but the sheer size of the cookie makes that almost impossible.
"Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate And yet somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie all our problems would be solved." -Jerry Seinfeld
Tonight I attended yet another great concert and had two more brushes with reasonably famous people. Tonight Glen Phillips and Jonathan Kingham (of Seattle) gave a free show at Madison Square Park. Happily, 'Toad the Wet Sprocket' was not attached to much of the propaganda that went out, otherwise I may not have had my front-and-center positioning at the show so easily. There were definitely a few die-hard fans there. While Glen did play a few Toad songs, he gave us a heaping spoonful of purely Glen stuff. He started his solo career a few years ago. Despite Glen having to re-tune between virtually every song in his set (dang this humidity), I was entertained. I was impressed. It was free. I was happy. After the show I got to meet both performers and add yet another CD (I bought Glen's EP, Unlucky 7) to my fast growing pile of autographed albums. Bonus.
Glen.
Jonathan.
Jonathan and Me. 
Glen and Me.
