Could we get some Americans in our 4th of July celebrations?

Stephen | InformationLiberation
Jul. 04, 2010

Tonight I turned on the TV to watch the fireworks shows.

I turned on "The Macy's 4th of July" and found the opening act, Canadian Justin Bieber singing some techno song about how he "needs somebody to love."

Then I switched to "The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular" to find it was hosted by Craig Ferguson, a Scottish late night talk show host.

Then I switched it to "A Capital Fourth" and saw Lang Lang, a Chinese national classical pianist playing "Variations on the Stars and Stripes Forever" which Vladimir Horowitz wrote to celebrate becoming an American citizen. The arrangement is great but his playing of it felt lackluster to me, being that he's not from America and not an American citizen I can't imagine that this American tune would have held any special meaning to him.

There are plenty of great American pianists, any of whom if offered the opportunity, would have probably considered it one of the greatest achievements of their career, instead we get Lang Lang who probably sees it as just another day at the office playing songs he's barely ever heard before.

I mean, before Lang Lang came on they had "Hootie" from "Hootie and the Blowfish" singing "Proud to be an American," and he's literally crying!