Happy 4th of July!

[charby]

Happy 238 Years America!

I hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July!

[Ben]

Happy 4th all! Don't blow yourselves up with the BP bombs I know you're all making!

Also Charby, we're 2014 years old today (I honestly can't tell if they're joking or not):

http://twitchy.com/2014/07/04/wow-america-is-2014-years-old-today/

[Fly320s]

Of all people, the members of APS should know better.  This holiday is Independence Day, not the 4th of July.

/rant

[Perd Hapley]

Of all people, the members of APS should know better.  This holiday is Independence Day, not the 4th of July.

/rant

Thank you, Mr. Grouchy Pants. 

And Happy Independence Day.

[230RN]

Of all people, the members of APS should know better.  This holiday is Independence Day, not the 4th of July.

/rant

QFT

Mr. Grouchy Pants II, 230RN

(I can't tell if the "2014 years old" is a joke or not either.  Might be an inside joke relating to the "Anno Domini" thing....?  Like we go on about bacon and detcord and how Pierre has a long moustache...? )

[vaskidmark]

QFT

Mr. Grouchy Pants II, 230RN

(I can't tell if the "2014 years old" is a joke or not either.  Might be an inside joke relating to the "Anno Domini" thing....?  Like we go on about bacon and detcord and how Pierre has a long moustache...? )

And here I've spent all these years thinking it was Jean who had the long moustache.

For all the trivia players out there, yes they do have a 4th of July in England (and the rest of the known world) too.

Also for all the trivia/thread drift buffs - when did acts of Congress stop being dated as enacted mm/dd/yyyy and the xxx year of independence?  Double bonus points - name any of the several States that still follow that or a similar format for their official acts.

stay safe.

[onions!]

For all the trivia players out there, yes they do have a 4th of July in England (and the rest of the known world) too.

Well I'd hope so!
It be weird if their calendars went July 1,2,3,5,6...

[Angel Eyes]

Patriotism explained:

http://www.vox.com/2014/7/4/5868747/july-fourth-what-is-patriotism-fireworks

I understand the story of my life in such a way that it is part of the history of my family or of this farm or of this university or of this countryside; and I understand the story of the lives of other individuals around me as embedded in the same larger stories, so that I and they share a common stake in the outcome of that story and in what sort of story it both is and is to be: tragic, heroic, comic. A central contention of the morality of patriotism is that I will obliterate and lose a central dimension of the moral life if I do not understand the enacted narrative of my own individual life as embedded in the history of my country. For if I do not understand it I will not understand what I owe to others or what others owe to me, for what crimes of my nation I am bound to make reparation, for what benefits to my nation I am bound to feel gratitude.

[Perd Hapley]

We just saw the D-Day: Normandy, 1944 IMAX show. Pretty neat. Has anyone else seen it?

[230RN]

Also for all the trivia/thread drift buffs - when did acts of Congress stop being dated as enacted mm/dd/yyyy and the xxx year of independence?  Double bonus points - name any of the several States that still follow that or a similar format for their official acts.

Hate to admit it, I know neither.  I'm sure I've seen that phraseology here and there, but really didn't put it together.

Hope you get some answers from others.

[vaskidmark]

Hate to admit it, I know neither.  I'm sure I've seen that phraseology here and there, but really didn't put it together.

Hope you get some answers from others.

I'll give you a headstart - The Commonwealth of Virginia dates it's official acts (not just legislation) with the Julian date and the number of years from the founding of the colony in 1607, even though they call it the "founding of the Commonwealth".

There are at least two others for trivia buffs to find.

stay safe.

[Perd Hapley]

The. Army:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5bcpjUjLpU

[wmenorr67]

Was watching The Revolutionary War on AHC the past couple of days and they brought up that the war lasted 8 years and for England/Great Britain it was a World War.

[Hawkmoon]

The. Army:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5bcpjUjLpU

Good grief! A lot of those musicians look pretty young, but I didn't see a single one who wasn't either a staff sergeant or sergeant first class. Except the two percussionists, who were sergeant majors!

I knew one guy who reached Staff Sergeant within a two-year (drafted) hitch, but promotions came fast in some units in Vietnam. I need to decide if I'm bothered by the fact that fiddlers and piccolo players are making rank when the guys dodging bullets and IEDs in the sandbox aren't.

[BlueStarLizzard]

Good grief! A lot of those musicians look pretty young, but I didn't see a single one who wasn't either a staff sergeant or sergeant first class. Except the two percussionists, who were sergeant majors!

I knew one guy who reached Staff Sergeant within a two-year (drafted) hitch, but promotions came fast in some units in Vietnam. I need to decide if I'm bothered by the fact that fiddlers and piccolo players are making rank when the guys dodging bullets and IEDs in the sandbox aren't.

I remember the first thing they asked when I was thinking about joining the Marines was if I was a musician and the recruiter got a little excited when I told him I was a drummer.
It makes sense, too. The various branches have a lot of cerimonial stuff and music is a big part of that. They want the best to represent them.

[vaskidmark]

I want everybody on APS to note that I did not post my usual and trademarked/copyrighted rant about the Star Spangled Banner this year.  I just gave up - there was too much to even begin to give fair time to the horribleness presented.

Because a friend is a flautist for the Army and was playing for the extravaganza in DC I wantched PBS's coverage.  She did not make any obvious mistakes.  I also noted that the Combined Services Chorus (or whatever they are officially called) had no Marines, as well as that The Marine Band from 8th & I was absent.  Made me happy, oddly enough.

On to a serious question - are folks just not writing patriotic music any more?  Sure, there are folks who put stuff on YouTube, but I miss the public performances.

A second serious question - will anybody ever be as good singing 'God Bless America" as Ethel Merman was?  (Anybody besides me remember the Republican Convention where she stopped a floor riot several times by singing that song?  The lady had pipes!)

stay safe.

[230RN]

re Ethel Merman:  Well there was Renee Fleming at the Super Bowl this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7etXoNrwP8c

With respect to new, "classical," "orchestral" patriotic music, I'm not aware of any on that basis, but I'm sure I've heard some patriotic themes in the "Country Music" genre.  But that depends on what you mean by "new."  Morton Gould has done a modern orchestraition and arrangement of the old "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again,"  called "American Salute":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyT5YUpfYDk

Patriotism itself has been negatively semantically loaded by our friends on the left.  To be a Patriot nowadays connotes red-neckedness  --viz, "Oh, he's one of those flag-waving patriots."  (As if "he" cannot understand the delicate nuances of "modern" political theory.)

Instead of signing this, I will offer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TC2xTCb_GU

[Perd Hapley]

We went to see the Air Force Band of Mid-America last night, at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. Very disappointing.   They spent about half the time playing modernist, symphonic garbage, and then they decided to let their vocalist butcher "Georgia on my Mind," with his R&B vocal acrobatics. They did play a few marches, like "The Stars and Stripes Forever," in between asking us how many were on Twitter or Facebook, and would we please go and like them?

Then there was the audience. It seems most of them came at 7:00, to see the fireworks that started at 9:00. Why anyone waits two hours to watch fireworks, I don't know. So while the band played, they were all just sitting around, or standing around, talking to each other. And the band did not have the loudest sound system in the world. At a couple of different points, they asked the veterans to stand up to be recognized. I didn't bother, because there were so many yobs already standing up; their backs to the stage, yakking away.

[French G.]

Good grief! A lot of those musicians look pretty young, but I didn't see a single one who wasn't either a staff sergeant or sergeant first class. Except the two percussionists, who were sergeant majors!

I knew one guy who reached Staff Sergeant within a two-year (drafted) hitch, but promotions came fast in some units in Vietnam. I need to decide if I'm bothered by the fact that fiddlers and piccolo players are making rank when the guys dodging bullets and IEDs in the sandbox aren't.

Rank is awarded on entry in some cases according to musical merit and/or educational attainment. Dude was older than us but still a seaman recruit, at boot camp graduation he was promoted to E-6 due to his several music degrees.

[230RN]

That kinda makes sense.  Look at Glenn Miller... from wiki.

After being accepted into the Army, Miller's civilian band played its last concert in Passaic, New Jersey, on September 27, 1942.[3] His patriotic intention of entertaining the Allied Forces with the fusion of virtuosity and dance rhythms in his music earned him the rank of captain and he was soon promoted to major by August 1944.[8]

Terry

REF:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Miller#The_Army_Air_Force_Band_1942.E2.80.931944

[Monkeyleg]

For all the trivia players out there, yes they do have a 4th of July in England (and the rest of the known world) too.

Actually, in Islamic countries the 4th of July is Ramadan/Shawaal  7.  For Hindu's it's the 13th of something.  For the Chinese, the 4th is Geng-Wu 8, 4712.

[Ben]

Actually, in Islamic countries the 4th of July is Ramadan/Shawaal  7.  For Hindu's it's the 13th of something.  For the Chinese, the 4th is Geng-Wu 8, 4712.

For the Alliance, it's 20 September. Damn Purplebellies.