It was a quiet day here at "the Hollow" (well, except for the pops, bangs and twizzles that have been driving poor Tucker mad all day). James teleworked and got about three calls; he got double time for it and built up a little karma (and made up for his doctor's appointment yesterday, too). I slept late and woke up sick, so that Tucker had to wait for his walk.

Things settled down and I was finally able to watch "Making a Revolution" from Alistair Cooke's America (watched the first two episodes last night). About one-fifteen put on 1776 and had a good time singing along, although even after all these years I miss "dancing" with Bandit to "He Plays the Violin." This is the new Blu-ray release and it looks spectacular. You can almost walk right into the picture and be part of the action. After 1776 went back to America for "Inventing a Nation."

Managed to get Tucker out late in the afternoon with a combination of treats and tugging. There were some pretty big pops and booms by that time, and I gave him a little treat each time he stood his ground.

We had our ribs tonight, but were originally in despair of getting them to cook in a reasonable time. James wanted to do them in the oven, but according to all the recipes this takes over two hours, and he didn't "get off" until five! Eventually he did them over the grill on the stove, having done a rub on them last night. Not too bad. Next time we need to do them at lowest temp, longer, with a better foil tent to seal in the flavor. Still moist and juicy. As a side we had gold potatoes with a thin coating of olive oil oven roasted. Forgot completely about the sweet corn, but my teeth probably wouldn't have taken it.  For dessert we had Marie Callendar chocolate satin mini-pies.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, we have been watching the broadcasts of the Boston Pops concert on (and off) television on the Fourth for years. Originally we watched on A&E, back when A&E was about arts and education rather than sleazy reality shows. This was broadcast in conjunction with WCVB-TV in Boston and hosted by Jack Perkins from A&E and Mary Richardson from WCVB. It took them a year or two to work out the kinks, and then it was aces from then on.

Then the sponsorship changed and went to WBZ (which was an NBC station when I was a kid but is now CBS), and most years there has been a simulcast nationwide with CBS—but CBS only showed the last hour, joining in progress the very end of the Pops' famous "1812 Overture" performance and changing the order of the concert performances to plug the latest pop stars and their new albums. Even the year or two they showed the whole concert the Pops themselves were downplayed to promote This Year's New Singing Sensation. Last year's broadcast was probably one of their worst, with the pop music loud, discordant, and intrusive. The only really good broadcast we saw was the year CBS dropped the showing and it was streamed live on the internet.

The sponsorship ended last year and we were faced with a drought of Pops once more, but some investment company stepped in to fill the gap. For the next three years the broadcasts will be on Bloomberg Television, and also streamed live on Bloomberg.com.

Well, so far Bloomberg has blown CBS out of the water (of course, given CBS's dismal coverage, that wouldn't be hard). Everything is back where it belongs and the pop star they had on (Andy Grammer) actually sang some good songs. Guests included Brian Stokes Mitchell, who sang a brand new Alan Menken song, Leslie Odom Jr from Hamilton, and Melissa Etheridge.

Labels: concerts, dogs, food, Independence Day, pets, television, work

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