I love fireworks. It looks like you're blowing things up, but nothing actually gets destroyed... The smell of sulfur lingers in the air for hours afterwards... There's a lot of loud booms...
My only problem with fireworks is the way people describe them. All you hear about are the "saturns". Nevermind that only one in every ten is a so-called "saturn", but there are so many better descriptions. So here are some of the ones that I came up with while watching this evening.
1. Flashbulbs. For those that don't know what a flashbulb is, it's that giant light that you always see old-time photographers holding over their heads in old movies and pictures. We had some form of that tonight where they shot something up and it was like a hundred flashbulbs all going off at once. Tres cool.
2. Weeping Willow. I've actually never seen this one before, so that was awesome. They lit it off and after it exploded, the lights from it trailed down and just kinda hung in the air like the branches of a weeping willow--it took almost a full minute for them to fade.
3. Sunflowers. Pretty self-explanatory. The had wide leafs and green and red middles.
4. Dreadlocks. These were pretty thick and a little swirly through the thickness as they fell.
5. The Violet Beauregarde. For those that don't get the reference, she's the avid gum chewer from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. When she turns into a blueberry, she gets all found and her belt is all tight around her waist, it's almost like an inverted Saturn. The ring, instead of being wider than the ball in the middle, just barely went around the ball.
6. The pinwheel. These were cool. They shot up into the air and then twisted out in opposite directions, giving a little swirl before dispersing.
7. The Rain Stick. Remember when you were a kid and they had you bring a paper towel tube to school and then you poked a ton of toothpicks through it and sealed on end, then poured a bunch of rice in, then sealed the other end, and it would make that cool tinkling sound (like rain) when you turned it upside down? These fireworks sounded just like that, and they way they fizzled in the sky made me think of the way the rice must fall as it hits the toothpicks.
8. The Plantains. Plantains are a type of banana. They're thick and green and really good fried. These fireworks looked like a bunch of plantains branching out from a white tree trunk.
9. The Uterus. This isn't as disturbing as it sounds. These fireworks were like this giant oval, and in the middle of the oval was a weird shape that sometimes looked like a fetus all curled up on itself.
10. The Bludgers. Harry Potter fans rejoice! These fireworks, after exploding, darted off in weird angles that forcibly reminded me of a bludger changing direction to slam into a quidditch (I think I might have spelled that wrong...) player.
11. The Exploding Star. Formerly known as the Saturn. For some odd reason, every time I picture a star exploding, I picture a ring of onlookers all around it to watch it die (like in the Restaurant At The End Of The Universe---that's a Douglas Adams "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" reference, for those who didn't know).
12. The Mushroom Cloud. This is all those tiny fireworks that they shoot off to announce the beginning of the end. They're pretty low-flying and they end up making this column with a wide, rounded top.
And that's all I can remember right now. So, come on, people, no more talk about Saturns. There are so many different kinds! Let's be creative here!
Comments (1)
yes! there's so freaking many of them.
my personal favorite (though watching it makes me want to puke) are the Strobers. they flash white light so damn fast it's almost like they want to put you into a seizure. i can't stand to look at them as they go off, but i just can't look away!
i also like what i call the X-Mas tree. It's one of those ground level ones, where all the sparks that come out are green, dotted with red every now and then. and when they showed back down to the concrete, it looks like a christmas tree. it's kinda cool.
oh! and of course, bottle rockets. what's fireworks without those things. they're so fun to fire off at people. XD