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1y

Join me Wednesday @⚠️ EXTRA SPECIAL TIME⚠️ 5:30pm EST/4:30pm CST when #MusComEnt pre-games #4thOfJuly with “Hamilton: An American Musical” (2020). Available on Disney+ and for free here (https://tinyurl.com/y3k37xh5)
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1y

It’s the cocktail hour. The air is still.
Mister gets busy on the charcoal grill.
Social-kissing women, backslapping men
has failed to break the ice. But then
Missiz appears like magic from the dusk.
Cool, ten years his junior, she smells of musk
and ‘Madame Rochas’. Two small spots of anger
high on her cheekbones linger…

—Liz Lochhead, “Fourth of July Fireworks”

Published in THREE SCOTTISH POETS, @canongatebooks 1992

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #4thofJuly #FourthofJuly

Fourth of July Fireworks
by Liz Lochhead

The guests are gathered.
Boston-Irish Nancy, half in huff
says, ‘Better help yourselves,
you all know Mister’s timing well enough.’
Aside at me she mutters.
‘Millionaires can afford to let things wait.
Honest-to-God Mister would be late
for his own funeral.’ Cigarstore Indian,
I hide behind my apron, wait and drink in all I can.

(We don’t exist. They pick our trays,
Tom Collinses, Martinis and canapés.)

Oh horror, New England night,
when I fetched the ice down and that snake
looped my feet in the kitchen garden! I still shake.
‘Harmless,’ says Nancy.
I hear her hiss, ‘Some host!
That beggar’ll only get here when he’s sure he’s last.’

Fourth of July. Cape Cod. Dead on cue,
last-man Mister comes running to his barbecue.
Arms flailing like a cricketer’s across the lawn
from his ‘so English’ house with a flame red shirt on.

It’s the cocktail hour. The air is still.
Mister gets busy on the charcoal grill.
Social-kissing women, backslapping men
has failed to break the ice. But then
Missiz appears like magic from the dusk.
Cool, ten years his junior, she smells of musk

ALT

and ‘Madame Rochas’. Two small spots of anger
high on her cheekbones linger.

When Mister says it’s done enough
the guests spread ketchup on the fatted calf.
The night hots up. Liquor flows. Listless
couples come alive. A bit apart, restless,
Missiz sways gently on her own
to Glen Miller on the gramophone.
All eyes are on the soignee cling
of this year’s leisure favourite, velvety stretch towelling
for patio-party wear. Those purples and electric pinks
‘Just far too hectic altogether,’ Nancy thinks.

(Ten years with Missiz, Nancy’s face
is quite professional, impervious.)

Ice melts in the Martini tray. Midges
drown. The whole night edges
to a thunderstorm. Maybugs big as golfballs thud
as screendoors bounce them. But, after our blood,
divebombing mosquitoes dodge the mesh and slide
in down their own thin whine.
They bite despite insecticide.

All at sea,
white and dayglo orange fins spinnaker the bay.
Music blares
from the jazzed-up clubhouse round the Cape, Cotuit way.
The whole damn town is two thirds empty after Labour Day.
These summer people
migrate to Florida, lock, stock and barrel.
Tonight their parked cars sprawl the drive and trail

ALT

behind those his-and-hers coupled custom Cadillacs
like a comet tail.

(Oh I can see it all quite clearly, feeling small
and stone-cold sober. But I do not count at all.)

Out on the lawn the sprinklers, oddly luminous,
sputter like Roman Candles, ominous
as the sudden snap of queer clear light
from one weird streak unzips the dark.
The German Shepherd guard dogs bark.
A wind gets up. These beach-house boards
are flimsier than playing cards.

(Over the bay, like flares
odd rockets go up with a shock of stars.)

Mister drags off his box of fireworks to the shore.
Missiz drains her drink and hits the floor
with someone half her age. His snake-arms slur
around her waist. Eyes glaze. Sentence endings blur.
Missiz (‘mutton dressed as lamb’)
comes in slowly as the false-calm
lead-slow sea that slicks the beach. Sinatra sings.
The tide ravels up slowly, shelving things.

Raindrops big as bullets dent the roof we all stand under,
watching Canute’s fireworks outrage the storm,
try to steal its thunder.

ALT

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1y

The Voice of America on the #4thofJuly traditionally informs audiences in nearly 50 languages about our nation’s most patriotic holiday. But Kari Lake and DOGE silenced America’s voice of public diplomacy and soft power because they ridiculously alleged it was radical, anti-American and controlled by China. https://www.voanews.com/a/episode_explainer-fourth-july-3938021/6103452.html #SaveVOA

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67d

watching INDEPENDENCE DAY #IndependenceDay, the #DieHard of the #4thOfJuly, as one should

Edited 67d ago

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68d

WTOP: America’s Independence Day Parade canceled due to extreme heat conditions

https://wtop.com/fourth-of-july/2026/07/americas-independence-day-parade-canceled-due-to-extreme-heat-conditions/

#heatwave #DCwx #4thofjuly #parade

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68d

#saturday #4thofJuly #newepisode of What's This Called? #radioshow for #FreeformPortland 6-8 PM Pacific Time.

90.3 FM & 98.3 FM: #TerrestrialRadio in #portland & #streaming #aroundtheworld: http://listen.freeformportland.org:8000/stream

#ExpunkimentalMusic #Drone #noise #PostPunk #postmetal #psychedelic #AvantGarage #strangemusic #undergroundmusic #noiserock #freejazz #freemusic #hiphop #soulmusic #plunderphonics #outsidermusic #garagerock #FreedomRock #freeform

#ARCHIVED (#listen anytime): https://whatsthiscalled.net/2026/07/04/4-july-2026/

Fireworks exploding over the Steel Bridge in Portland Oregon Circa 2012, used as a cover for the 4th of July What's This Called? radio show on Freeform Portland (NOT a "patriotic" program).

ALT

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68d

Be careful to my friends in DC. Looks like this racist nationalist group of cowardly assholes are going around the capital.

#dmv #politics #uspol #4thofjuly #july4

Patriot Front in Dc

Spotted several HUNDRED of them getting off the metro in Eastern Market. Walking in the direction of the Capitol

ALT

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64d

I shot a very well attended 4th of July Parade in Monterey, CA. I have some fun shots from the parade, but the ones I'm most pleased by are these face in the crowd shots I was able to get after the parade ended.

Every time I'm in a crowd, I try to get shots like this, but it's always hit or miss... mostly miss. This time, I got exceedingly lucky and very noticeable faces kept appearing out of the sea of humanity over and over again for me.

#photography #monterey #4thofJuly #America250