I'm so funny.
Our town held their July Fourth fireworks exhibition last night. Used to be held at the high school stadium, but that got condemned one year, and somebody realised that the town could shut down the airfield for the day if they held an airshow on the same day as the fireworks, so now it's there.
Gates to the airfield opened at six. The program had a disclaimer that read TIMES ARE APPROXIMATED, which I found interesting since the only time actually printed on the program was the 6:00 PM time for the opening of the gates. So, you know....
Anyway. There was about an hour's downtime while people were let in and sound stuff was tested all about, and then at about seven we had the Colors presented (jumped down) along with the Anthem and the Pledge, and then a succession of everyone's favorite event: the talking heads. 'Round about seven-thirty or so we actually got to the airshow part, which was brief (ish) but enjoyable. The AeroShell Aerobatic Team performed for us, flying a wing of Advanced Trainer AT-6 Texans, made just a bit more exciting because it was just then dusk; I couldn't help thinking with the light, and the silhouettes of the planes only distinguished by their wing lights, that a lot of their maneuvers would have made excellent single-target strafing runs. I tell you what, it must have been a sight to be in Europe somewhere and see thirty and forty of those planes swarming around in dogfights.
And then when they all got back on the tarmac and had taxied up closer to the crowd, all four of them pulled a unison 1080 and blew the last of their smoke, and all you could see were their headlights and wing lights through this massive cloud and it was the coolest thing ever.
And then there was some more talking heads because they love to hear themselves go on and on and people pay them to say "Come to Stevenson's Jewelers" and crap like that, and finally got to the fireworks.
Which were great. But that's a visual thing, and not really fun to talk about. Plus I didn't bring my camera. (Still need to put up those pictures from Bonnaroo; now that I have MS Office back maybe I can do some straightforward size editing without having to figure out my way around a squirrely GIMP software.)
No, the fireworks were great, but then the people running the show had apparently decided to put a musical soundtrack along with it. And while it was pretty well-timed with the music—at least with some bits of it—the musical selection was very . . . um, odd. I didn't notice it at first because I was watching the first few bombs go up, but after the synth I'd been hearing had drug on for a while and I heard a familiar echoing snare hit and a big piano chord, I realised they put Chariots of Fire up first, and I laughed a great deal.
Following that selection was a very amusing shift to The Beach Boys. I have no idea who thought this was a good idea to play while firing off fireworks. I really don't. =P
That finally done, we shifted to Aaron Copland, which actually fit the holiday's atmosphere (I think), but then the mood was again thrown askew by freaking Johnny Cash (my gosh) and Rocky Top–with which I will not plague you all; you can look that crap up on your own.
We got back in the mood again with The Man, Ray Charles, and then some appropriate John Williams and semi-appropriate Neil Diamond (Coming To America; couldn't find anything but home-brewed crap). Then, for some reason, we finished with a weirdly-chosen but NOT disparaged Louie Armstrong.
I think that by the end of the song-picking, whoever was doing the selecting figured out what they were doing, but that was not the best song to end with (I'd have slotted it halfway through or something), and, really, Chariots of Fire?
lolz
And then some genius figured he didn't like the direction he was being directed upon leaving, so he decided to literally barrel through the directing policeman and flee the scene; a hit and run (and assaulting with a deadly weapon, technically) in front of about a dozen on-duty cops. The struck policeman wasn't badly injured. Apparently he was standing a little off to the side and managed to turn it into a knockback, and he got up pretty quick and on his own, but still. What a moron. I'm expecting to see him in the paper, arrested and with his ass in jail for a while. I hope someone thought to get his plate number.
