July Americana

Hello everyone!!!!

I know it has been awhile, but life has been hectic, and full of new decisions, new directions, new locales, and most importantly new unknowns. I hope that everyone is well. Expect fascinating and new announcements in the coming months, but for now I would like to share my experience of July in the US. July will always have a place close to the American heart as the month in which this anarchical hodegepodge we call a nation state declared its independence from the dominant politico-economic-imperial power in the World Great Britain.... My oh My how things have changed.

My first taste of Americana in July came on the weekend of July 4th when I was invited and treated to a wonderful weekend in that "ancient" American city Boston Massachusetts. Aside from some dramatic games of Pinochle, I also experienced what is colloquially known as "Southy" in Boston. Southy is South Boston. Some of you may know the neighborhood from the DEPARTED. It is where Leo's character spent half of his time growing up. I had the good fortune of being invited to two "keggers" in southy, care of my Boston friends Kyle and Daniella. One of these keggers was complete with an ice luge for vodka shots and a game of extreme flip cup.... I am amazed I survived this early afternoon party; however, later in the evening we made our way to a second south kegger, full of strange people who were quite interesting. I cannot say the same for myself. From this second locale we had an amazing view of the fireworks over Boston Harbor....THE site of the boston tea party and overall a beautiful spot on the earth in July. Here is some video from the fireworks:



Whilst in Boston I also did a good amount of walking, which allowed me to see Boston Commons and Cambridge as I had not seen them before. It was also my friends Kyle and Phil's birthdays, which we celebrated on the 5th. (How we were able to survive July 4th is a mystery to me.) Kyle's party was full of current Harvard grad students and Harvard alumni, which made for great conversation and eventually awkward yet exciting situations. We even had our good friend Mikey show up raving about his persuasion robot, which he has been working in the MIT media lab. (http://web.media.mit.edu/~mikeys/)

All in all my 4th of July in Boston was awesome.... except for the South Station on Sunday afternoon.... I am pretty sure that I wandered into one of Dante's circles of hell when I spent a few hours in there. Thankfully, I was able to join my friends at the Barking Crab restaurant while I waited for my bus to depart:




My other experience of Americana in July (aside from the general malaise known as New York City in the Summer) came this past weekend in Minnesota, the coldest state in the union.... during the winter. However, the weather this past weekend was amazingly pleasant, sans July 11th, when the county we were staying in experienced, not one, but two tornado warnings within a 24hour period. I personally had never been in a tornado warning, but let me tell you.... These two storms were INTENSE, and I dont me like Camping in tents, I mean seriously scary and exciting. Our first warning came in the middle of the night. The night sky had been constantly lit up by lightning for approx. 20 minutes straight... something that is rather surreal. The most frightening thing about said lightning is that the air was completely still and calm for those 20 minutes. Then the alert siren across the lake where we were staying began to sound and a wind the likes of which I had never seen descended upon our little hovel and sideways rain began to pummel our cabin and the wind was blowing so hard that it appeared road signs were about to fly off of their moorings. Frightening and exciting. We awoke the next day to fallen branches and lawn chairs in the lake, but and otherwise beautiful day.... Later in the afternoon the storm clouds began to build once again and I sat outside and watched as a storm front from the west sped in around 40 mph carrying spiraling clouds with it which threatened to turn into the proverbial midwest tornado. I thought I was ready after the storm from the following evening... I was wrong. I have never seen a storm move in that quickly with such ferocity. the Wind was literally pushing the rain sideways, and clouds were beginning their descent towards the ground in spiral formations. Thankfully the front passed by our cabin around 7 minutes before the tornadoes hit the ground in Wilmur Minnesota. Here is some video from the storm which passed over our resort.



WOW


Other than the storms, the weekend was wonderful. The occasion was the annual reunion of my Step-Father's family, who live in Minnesota and Iowa. My step dad is the youngest of three sons raised on a family farm in Iowa, and his immediate family has grown to 24 persons, seven which are under the age of 16. Overall a fun and restless weekend.

I guess that is all that I have for now. Talk to you all soon I hope. Take Care.

mmm...illican