Why the State College Fourth Fest Fireworks aren't what they used to be

As I do every year, I feel the need to explain to the world why the State College Fourth Fest sucks now, and why it used to be great. But I'm typing on my iPod and also I've blogged about this before, and I'm tired of making the same complaint every year.

The short version of the story: A guy named Dan Barker created the software that choreographs the fireworks with the music. He was a great artist and a genius. When he used to be responsible for the fireworks, he chose great music and also did great choreography. But later, he left, and he is no longer responsible for the show.

It could have been a scene from "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. I read the news articles about it and I also emailed Dan Barker himself a few years ago to ask about it. A government committee took over and tried to create great art that would appeal to mainstream patriotic sentiment at the same time. The fireworks flopped for several years, but most people were too musically untalented to notice any difference. Only a minority of people noticed how bad it was. I won't go into detail on how and why it was awful, because I'm thumb typing on my iPod, but basically, they have no sense of the music and no artistic ability. It has gotten slightly better, but it still triggered a few "Oh my god, what the fuck?"s from me.

You can't just make a bunch of fireworks go off at the same time that you notice loud noises in the song. It's not that simple. It's very subtle. There are multiple approaches and interpretations to each piece of music. But they did things that were random and temporary and inconsistent. Okay, let's do THIS now, and, okay, then let's do THAT there, and then do this other thing! Yippee! Random. But it was better than it was the first year that the committee did it.

The news articles really were like a Fountainhead scene, about the conflict between an artistic genius and the government committee that tries to steal his fireworks software for free and then can't create anything anywhere near as good as he used to do.

But large numbers of people go there and can't tell whether or not the fireworks are choreographed and don't even care! Many of them can't see that a particular type of firework represents a particular musical voice or instrument in the song, for instance. They don't know that the fireworks are exploding at the same moment that musical events occur. They just want to see big things exploding, and that's enough for them.

But for me, the fireworks are an external representation of my brain's way of experiencing music. I can dance to music too, and make the movements represent the song - not the way people dance drunk in a club, but a dance that represents the music. Choreographed fireworks are doing that same thing.

I don't celebrate July Fourth, but I try to watch the fireworks, in memory of when they used to be great. We no longer have "freedom," which is what we are allegedly celebrating. Even if you don't take into account the fact that large numbers of people, including myself, are unsafe in their own homes and are constantly tortured, harassed, and controlled like puppets by people using electronic weapons, even without that, we still have had a lot of freedom destroyed. We are better off than a lot of other countries, but far from being what we could be. And it's even worse when you take into account what we are doing to people in other countries, people who are not American citizens.

So I don't celebrate. But I look at the fireworks when I get a chance, and this year, July Fourth fell on a Monday when I was off work, so I watched them. I felt sorry for the cashier stuck behind the counter at Sheetz when I bought my snacks. But I've done my time, I've had my share of years when I was stuck at work during the festival, so it was my turn this year to be off.

As soon as they were over, I started my car and got the hell out of there. You DON'T want to be stuck in July Fourth after-fireworks traffic in State College.