The Fifth of July

Mom didn't get up until almost 1 p.m. today. This is because she stayed up to watch fireworks on TV last night.

First was Washington, D.C. which was marred by the prominent display of celebrity and some really lousy camera work on the fireworks themselves. The shot which was supposed to be primary was obscured by gun smoke from the cannon used fir the truncated 1812 Overture but that didn't stop the director from using it so we got to see the back scatter form fireworks going off on the other side of the cloud. Other cameras kept missing shots by focusing in on boats in the river or marching bands or just close-ups that were so close up the screen turned a uniform red.

Next was New York which was fine (although some of the fireworks were lost in the lights of the city itself) except for the decision by some idiot producer to accept the idea of some moron artistic designer to include an endless sparkler effect in the upper right corner drawing attention to the fact that this was "Live." Seriously?

The last was Boston, which really pushed Mom's endurance. Before it started, she went out front where we could hear, but not see, the city fireworks going off. The commercialism during the concert part was crass, but once the fireworks started Boston didn't do too bad.

Neighbors were shooting off small stuff all evening and Mom got as much out of that as she did from all the TV hoopla. Anyway, it was close to midnight by the time she went to bed. The good thing is, her exhaustion trumped her insomnia, at least for last night, and she stayed in bed.