Here’s hoping everybody had a good weekend. Independence Day is a sacred day for our nation, and I am doing my duty by watching HBO’s “John Adams” on DVD. It’s really good. You should rent it if you haven’t seen it. Also, I saw a lot of explosions this weekend. If that doesn’t shout “patriot,” I don’t know what does.

The weekend started off great – got out of work early from an already early shift, meaning I was leaving the Loop at 2:30 PM on Thursday. I came home, had time to relax, got some food, and then a group consisting only of myself, Devon, and Trevor headed down to Grant Park for the Third of July fireworks.

We arrived at Grant Park and, through sheer luck, managed to find a small patch of unoccupied grass big enough for three people. We sat ourselves down to listen to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra play some music while we waited for the sky to grow dark so they could light it up again with giant explosives. The music was nice, but it was a little awkward when the conductor would introduce a suite by telling the people of Chicago about what a wonderful city New York is. Ah, well, he was from somewhere in Europe, what does he know.

But when the actual fireworks show started, for some reason the symphony stopped playing and who should come over the speakers but motherfucking 101.9 FM - The Mix. Their loser DJ ran 45 seconds of one three-year-old pop song followed by 45 seconds of the next three-year-old pop song, ad infinitum, and none of them actually had anything to do with being an awesome united country or celebrating independence or – really – anything at all. When the fireworks stopped, we were simultaneously impressed and annoyed. We didn’t sign up for The Mix. I was really hoping to get some Sousa. Where’s my Sousa during the explosions, you bastards?! It was like that one time when we went to see the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for the Fourth of July and wound up seeing Kenny Rogers.

By the way: everyone who joined the military, thank you. A lot. I don’t say it much, because half the time when I hear people say it, it sounds disingenuous and trite. But when I take the time to really think about it, I find I really do appreciate all the men and women who choose to enlist. I can’t imagine it’s an easy choice to make.

Moving on. On the night of the real Fourth of July, Devon and I went down to the North Avenue Beach with Chelsea and a friend of hers to get a less-crowded but still decent view of the Navy Pier fireworks. We didn’t really know Chelsea’s friend, and, as it turns out, neither did she. But he came to Chicago from Michigan with fireworks, so we accepted him as one of our own (temporarily).

After selling some of the fireworks to seemingly disreputable people and shooting some off ourselves (hoping the cops on ATV’s didn’t catch us), the Navy Pier display began. We were adequately entertained, and, although we were not nearly as close to the fireworks then as we were in Grant Park the night before, this show came with the benefit of not being DJ’d by The goddamn Mix 101.9 FM. (Seriously, this radio station blows.)

After the official fireworks were done, we headed back up to where Devon and I live for some unofficial fireworks. We got to the park by our apartment and the first thing we noticed was one of the trash cans was on fire. It was bad-ass. The entire park was under siege by local families igniting the neighborhood with all their illegal rockets and firecrackers and so on. At one point we saw the local undercover cop chasing a band of hooligans who couldn’t have been older than 12 or 13. It was like being at war, except it was a good thing. The noise, the lights, the festive atmosphere – all of it was way better than either firework show put on by the city.

And the best part? The morning after the whole park was clean. Like no one had been there. Or, better yet, like a raging party fraught with explosions and beer had occurred the night before and a team of stealth ninjas cleaned it all up. That’s our 10.25% tax dollars at work right there.

This was the first time we actually saw the Fourth of July fireworks in the city of Chicago. I do believe we will follow the North Ave. Beach –> near-to-apartment park route next year if we are in town, because it was so excellent. Not so sure about Grant Park; if some lame radio station doesn’t provide the soundtrack next year, I’ll think about it. Luckily, I have the freedom in this country to choose which fireworks displays I will observe and which ones I will ignore. Hooray, Independence!

Filed by Bil at 9:40 pm under General