The Adventure School » 4th of July

We threw a patriotic bash for more than 1000 community members. The Cal Anderson Park Alliance hired us to produce their signature event to celebrate our nation’s favorite holiday, Independence Day! The event was free to all and featured free cotton candy, free root beer floats, free tie-dye, free spin art, free family portraits and a free root beer tasting garden. Bands played all day on the main stage including kids jammers Recess Monkey, urban Latin beat makers Picoso, Lo-fi pop from Katherine Hepburn’s Voice, and the funky soul sounds of Lady A and the Baby Blues Funk Band. Guests enjoyed pizza from Via Tribunali and dogs from Wandering Wieners. Caffe Vita served coffee and guests were free to participate in a hotly contested pie-eating contest and Pet/human look-alike contest. This was the celebration the founding father’s were waiting for!

Hi, if you had your portrait taken at Cal Anderson on Saturday, your portrait will be posted on our backend some time this week. Thanks for your patience! Can’t wait to see all of your smiling patriot faces! Thanks again for attendin the 4th of July celebration at Cal Anderson Park.

UPDATE: The pictures are up! Check them out! No password needed. Here are some samples:

Last Saturday saw another 4th of July come and go. Yesterday the Adventurer Profile interview with Rosanna Bowles, aka my mom, gave you a taste of where I come from. Combine these two forces of nature from the American cultural scene and you’re liable to get an explosion. But in a good way. Mostly.

Many years ago, my mother remarried a man from the Italian region of Umbria. Talk about cross-cultural education…Living with a bona fide Italian had its drawbacks, like my stepfather’s initial, limited grasp of the English language and his abiding refusal to accept that here in America men wash dishes. But there were some fortuitous perks to the marriage as well…like spending a month of each summer vacation living in a gorgeous farmhouse in the Italian countryside.

Our stay in Italy always lasted from the end of June to the end of July, leaving the 4th of July stranded amongst foreign wheat fields and people who had little appreciation for Yankee Doodle and the serious consumption of beer coupled with an abiding love of setting off fireworks. After a few years without all this, my mother, American to the core, decided if we couldn’t be in America for the 4th, she’d bring America with us.

Thus began the increasingly elaborate annual 4th of July with-an-Italian-twist party. It began with PAT’s (Pancetta, Arugula, Tomato sandwiches), a tart with USA spelled out in berries, and some paper plates printed with the American flag. But the next year, she bought tiaras. And the next she insisted our entire family wear Old Navy American flag shirts she’d bought for the occasion. Pretty soon, an entire suitcase was devoted solely to the transport of Independence Day decorations across the ocean. As the years passed, the Independece Day celebration doubled then tripled in size until it gained a reputation as a much-anticipated summer event by all of my parents’ Italian friends. Sitting at a long table on as the sun set on the 4th, they’d listen with rapt attention as my mother gave instructions on how to construct the perfect American hamburger in grammatically flawless Italian.

The celebration kept growing and growing. We hadn’t yet figured out how to smuggle fireworks through customs the year my mother proposed to mount an interactive theatrical production of the birth of America from Paul Revere’s ride to the signing of The Declaration of Independence. At that point, we drew the line. But one thing’s for sure: the woman knows how to throw a hell of a party. The Supreme Court has ruled: Rosanna Bowles is a true patriot.

p.s. The 3 artful and obviously professional photographs at the end of the post were taken by the inimitable John Granen. The rest are by yours truly and fam.

Good God y’all, 4th of July at Cal Anderson Park was SO MUCH FUN! There were hula hoops and face painting and awesome bands and root beer floats and tie-dyed underwear and spin art pieces and pizzas from a wood-fired oven and hoards of small children. We have some fantastic pictures coming soon to an Adventure School blog near you. In the meantime, here’s a teaser to show you exactly how great the day was:

Tomorrow is America’s 233rd birthday! Let’s do our patriotic duty and fete her right with a rousing round of songs. Here are a few links to lyrics you may want to print out in anticipation of the Big Day:

The Star Spangled Banner (my aunt used to have a cat that would stop whatever she was doing to come sit on your lap when you sang this)

Let The Eagle Soar music AND lyrics by John Ashcroft. Video of J. Ash singing included

The Cal Anderson Park Alliance 4th of July Community Picnic and Celebration is going to be hella rich and bomb (it’s 2002 (slang-wise) up here in The Adventure Studio, holla). Everybody’s talking about it!

We at Adventure School are pleased to present Recess Monkey, another one of the superfly bands playing at the 4th of July Party in Cal Anderson. So you all can get to know them better before the 4th, we put together a ‘lil interview with the band. These guys got it goin’ on. For realz!

Daron: How can you not? I love to make up songs about what I’m going to do that day. My favorite is the “buying veggies at the Farmer’s Market” song. It’s kind of a funky James Brown ditty.

Drew: Of course! There’s a great song off Sandra Boynton’s CD Blue Moo called “Singin’ in the Shower.” I always sing that and wish I’d written that song.

Who’s your favorite cartoon character on TV today?

Jack: Wall-E.

Daron: Yoda from The Clone Wars… He’s the OJ…The Original Jedi!

Drew: I’m a little out of the loop…I’d probably have to throw back for the original Optimus Prime.

What’s your favorite thing on the playground?

Jack: I really like watching kids play imaginary games where they turn into horses. It’s hard work to learn how to whinny like a horse, but it’s totally worth it.

Daron: I love the Monkey Bars. As a teacher, it’s so cool to see a kid take on the challenge of the monkey bars as a Kindergartner. Then see that same child as a Second Grader skipping bars like a pro.

Drew: The sport court. When I’m on recess duty I try to chase down some speedy Kindergarten b-ballers. I’m pretty good with the 6-foot hoop!

What’s the best part about being a kid?

Jack: The same thing that’s the best thing about being an adult: LAUGHING!

Daron: The best part about being a kid is that you are allowed to be a kid! That’s why I’m in Recess Monkey. I get a second chance to be a kid.

Drew: From the perspective of a teacher and dad, being a kid is so zen! Kids are in the moment, constantly making new discoveries and connections-It’s absolutely beautiful.

What made you guys decide to play kids music?

Jack: We like kids a lot and we liked BEING kids a lot, so it really didn’t take much discussion.

Daron: It was a great way to put our two worlds together…teaching and our love of music. Plus, we quickly realized that kids love to rock! It’s a great experience, as a musician, to have the entire crowd bopping along to your music.

Drew: We are all so immersed in our work as teachers it seemed like a great way to share our love and passion for music.

Best story from a gig?

Jack: Back when we used to play at Ravenna Third Place Books on Saturday mornings, my phone fell out of my pocket directly into a glass of water. I can still hear the “plopping” sound like it was yesterday.

Daron: To celebrate the release of our fifth album, Field Trip, we played all over town including a show on a Ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge. We had to stop during one of the songs because they spotted a whale breaching near the boat. Suddenly, everyone left the show to watch the whale. Then we all returned to the sun-deck and continued the song where we had left off!

Drew: We just played Golden Gardens Beach a few nights ago. Because it was un-amplified, we moved between groups of fans picnicking on a gorgeous night! It was magical monkey mariachi!

Any significance behind the name Recess Monkey?

Jack: It’s a pun on “rhesus monkey,” a cute little monkey that lives in India. Plus, we’re teachers, so we spend a lot of time on the playground.

Who is your biggest fan?

Jack: My wife, Ellen. She’s usually at our CD table after each show. You should say hi! She’s nice!

Daron: Besides my wife, Nami, it would be my gaggle of nephews (four of them) and my adorable niece.

Drew: Mayor Monkey, our hand puppet band manager.

Where would you like to travel most in the world?

Jack: Probably all around the Mediterranean. Such a beautiful part of the world!

Daron: I want to go back to Iceland in the winter (I was there in the summer when there was 20 hours of daylight). However, right now, I would like to go to New Zealand.

Drew: Daron says everyone should visit Iceland and I’d really like to. That and Great Britain. I’m a bit of an anglophile.

What musical instrument do you wish you knew how to play?

Jack: Accordion

Daron: The Hurdy Gurdy

Drew: Piano

If you could have any great musician in the history of the world play with your band, who would you choose?

Jack: Not many people know this, but Abraham Lincoln was an exceptional flute player. He’d be my pick.

Daron:I’m going with Gandhi! He played a mean concertina in his day.

Drew: Paul McCartney. Hands down.

Do you have a band motto a la ”One for all and all for one?”

Drew: Go bananas?

What’s better: recess or monkeys?

Jack: Definitely Monkeys! They are so energetic and quite helpful. I would give anything to have one as a pet! (Can I change my pet answer???)

Daron: I’m definitely going with the hybrid…recess with a bunch of monkeys.

With the Cal Anderson 4th of July Party getting nearer every day, we wanted to remind everyone to bring your pooches to the party! We’ll be hosting a dog-owner look alike contest with prizes for the winners, both human and canine. We’re not promising anything, but they might involve liver treats.

Boy oh boy! Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream is unveiling a brand new, super duper great, amazing like fireworks in your mouth ice cream sundae especially for the Cal Anderson 4th of July Party!!!!

This culinary creation will be called The Cal Andersundae. A very, very apt name, isn’t it?

The sundae will include: the ice cream flavor of your choice adorned with balsamic strawberries, sprinkled with fried basil leaves, lavished with candied walnuts, and drizzled with a delicious strawberry coulis! Mmm mm good is right.

Hurry in quick to try one for yourself starting this Friday to get pumped for the best Independence Day Celebration ever. We’re going to. But, really, we are. Because everyone knows that there’s no saying no to good ice cream.

Seattle band Katharine Hepburn’s Voice will be performing at The 4th of July Party! Check out their newest music video here and in person on the 4th at Cal Anderson!