Well done. Would see it too if I had your energy, but alas, I do not. As I’m watching your fireworks display video two thoughts come to mind. Most fundamental, is the absence of feurerwerksmusik for a spectacle that deserves some Handel. My second thought is that I have not seen a fireworks display in years and despite it being sensational, I can’t see it without thinking about technical issues. I’m thinking about that truck-load of potassium perchlorate must have been used to make all those stars in each aerial shell and how expensive that chemical is. I’m thinking about the chemistry implicit in the palette of colour in the sky: strontium nitrate, barium nitrate, copper oxide, oxalates, antimony sulfide, pulverized aluminum and titanium, etc. I’m thinking how perfectly those shells disperse into a chrysanthemum when all I could ever manage to construct is an asymmetrical sideways blow-out of a box shell because the round shell was just too difficult to engineer. I’m thinking about the shear volume of exquisite black powder that propels everything, mixed without a flaw, because it was done under controlled factory conditions. It’s like staring up at a clear starry might sky in an area of minimal extraneous light pollution and not being quite as awed as in childhood because now I see only constellations, and am preoccupied with the task of triangulating Messier objects, like nebulae and galaxies instead of just breathing it all in.
Sometimes one can't see the forest for knowing all the tree species. I can't enjoy the fireworks without treading through the chemistry. I'm going to watch it again though ... maybe with a glass of Primitivo.
