Last week, I planned to do it big about America with two more parts of the essay, "I'm loving it," posted in time for Independence Day. And I do intend to finish up that work with an eye toward regionalism and "realness," but more like this week and maybe the next, because "doing it big about America" this July 4th long weekend involved visits and actions and inactions and television (not writing)-----
---I tanned (which is a really big deal).
---I stared at my manicure (red, white and blue) and pedicure (gold and copper glitter) submerged in the pool, and then held up against the sky and sun, the white clapboard garage, the lawn and flower beds, the deck...
---I drove (finally!).
---I (Pillow and I) went to Walmart. I bought a pink t-shirt (elongated baby-tee?) that says, "YOU'RE AS FAKE AS YOUR TAN" in blue and gold block letters (as Petrova predicted in 2009, tanning is very important right now, and I've always loved that sub-genre of teen tops that accuse people of things in a general broadcast sorta way). I bought a pair of NASCAR pajama pants that are covered with Jimmie Johnson's signature and the Lowe's Hardware logo. I bought a NASCAR t-shirt that features the Crown Royal car, riffs on the Crown Royal logo, driver Matt Kenseth's signature. I bought a NASCAR Racing hat, comme ça. It's incredible (totes pertinent to that first part of "I'm loving it") how naked the promotion is on official and non-official NASCAR gear and of course the cars. NASCAR is the height/peak/best of sponsorship, American business celebration. I also bought a pair of men's half-jacket wrap around sunglasses, like baseball sunglasses, with the oil slick blue and yellow and purple polarized lenses, and then a friendship bracelet and some razors, striped composition notebooks...
---I ate (sat down inside and ate) at one of the last last-generation Taco Bells, the kind that still has the green, faded red and brown stripe around the exterior.
---I went to see Twilight: Eclipse. And oh my goodness how fantastic! Taylor Lautner tour-de-force---the dynamism of jean shorts and a deep tan set against snow-capped mountains! Kristen Stewart looks phenomenal in no-make-up and trucks and forests. All of those forest scenes with vampires appeared to be filmed in some super-complex greyscale. Paleness, Darkness. Cold, Hot. Twilight is all about skin and cars and living and dying. High School stories, y'all (are the best)!
---A friend once asked me offhand if I wanted to do a top ten list for artforum.com----I'm not sure she was serious. But I then asked if it had to be about a-r-t, like art shows (because I don't want to go to Chelsea). And she said yeah, so it was dropped, because I can't write that top ten list. I could, however, offer a top ten list of best art on television or the Internet or restaurants or shops and stuff. In that vein, the 2010 Macy's Fourth of July fireworks would take a sure spot on a year's comprehensive list. My mouth was literally agape throughout. I also gasped, clutched my breast and said "OMG" several times. That BIGGEST cruise ship ever made, Epic, made an appearance along with Justin Bieber and Nick Cannon and Sammy from Days of Our Lives! The computer-driven bursts faded slowly, often in time with the music, canned versions of "Yankee Doodle Dandy," Sousa marches. The effect was totally UNREAL. Strange, massive and fleeting jellyfish and jewels, projected creations of planets and moons. The whole show was imbued with this delicious sensation of FIRST PLACE, BIGGEST, BEST, BLESSED. Yes!

------I got to thinking (is that a Bradshaw-ism?), over the weekend, how FIRST PLACE was the American Revolution? Was it the very first of its kind? Can you think of any other colony going post-colonial in that sort of singular, self determined way at any point in history prior to 1776? I imagine there must have been some distant (or unknown to our Fathers) precedent, but I can't think of one....perhaps we can say with certainty that it was the first post-colonial revolution so followed by equally revolutionary government-building? Also, Pillow asked the best question, "Can you believe [the Founding Fathers] had no idea what California looked like?"---OMG!