I love fireworks

Yeah, last night at 3am when the gf said she just had to have me. Or maybe that was stars, I'm not sure. There sure was a lot of cheering though. I tell ya, these fantasies have got to stop.

i had to work tonight... i felt so un american. until 9pm went up to the roof of our building with a direct line of view of newark, nj to the west and nyc to the west. behind me was 7 different sets of fireworks (various towns) and jersey city, bayonne and the macy's day nyc extravanganza in front of me. UN FUCKING REAL i was a kid all over again and i truly love this country.

This guy down the block put on great fireworks. I'm not talking about bottle rockets. This looked like professional pyrotechnics on a smaller scale. It was even timed.

doh i don't like how people in the west define jihad. or militants for that matter.

rar!!

well, that's the western media's definition of it. perhaps that's even how militants with their shitty understanding of islam and english define it, but a copy & paste definition that explains it fairly well :

"The term Jihad has been grossly misrepresented in the media, and often mistakenly translated as Holy War. Jihad simply means the Struggle for the Path of God. Hence, it is every MuslimÕs duty to establish GodÕs kingdom on earth, to command good deeds and forbid bad deeds. Occasionally, Jihad takes the form of warfare and is called Qital (or fighting). Unfortunately, many so-called Muslims use the term Jihad to preach violence and unjustified aggression. This has nothing to do with Islam, and therefore, a separation should be made between what Muslims do and what Islam as a religion dictates. The same separation should have been done between blaming Christianity instead of Christians who used to carry crosses and rape the women in Bosnia. Since the issue of Jihad is very complex, we suggest at this point to be careful from un-objective media that portrays Muslims as violent fanatics."

just bothers me because i was a practicing muslim for 3 years and that terms was used against me often when it really is more spiritual in nature.

I like the ones that make a smiley face! Oh, oh, and the ones that explode and release all those little glowing things that fly around in curvy patterns like a bunch of fireflies! Yah, those are definitely my favorite! I like the loud ones too.



This post was sponsored by the five-year-old that lives within Requiem.

Pyrotechnics by Hakim Bey

INVENTED BY THE CHINESE but never developed for war--a fine example of Poetic Terrorism--a weapon used to trigger aesthetic shock rather than kill--the Chinese hated war & used to go into mourning when armies were raised--gunpowder more useful to frighten malign demons, delight children, fill the air with brave & risky-smelling haze.

Class C Thunder Bombs from Kwantung, bottlerockets, butterflies, M-80's, sunflowers, "A Forest In Springtime"-- revolution weather--light your cigarette from the sizzling fuse of a Haymarket-black bomb--imagine the air full of lamiae & succubi, oppressive spirits, police-ghosts. Call some kid with a smouldering punk or kitchen match-- shaman-apostle of summer gunpowder plots--shatter the heavy night with pinched stars & pumped stars, arsenic & antimony, sodium & calomel, a blitz of magnesium & shrill picrate of potash.

Spur-fire (lampblack & saltpetre) portfire & iron filings-- attack your local bank or ugly church with roman candles & purple-gold skyrockets, impromptu & anonymous (perhaps launch from back of pick-up truck..)

Build frame-lattice lancework set-pieces on the roofs of insurance buildings or schools--a kundalini-snake or Chaos- dragon coiled barium-green against a background of sodium- oxalate yellow--Don't Tread On Me--or copulating monstersshooting wads of jizm-fire at a Baptists old folks home.

Cloud-sculpture, smoke sculpture & flags = Air Art. Earthworks. Fountains = Water Art. And Fireworks. Don't perform with Rockefeller grants & police permits for audiences of culture-lovers. Evanescent incendiary mind-bombs, scary mandalas flaring up on smug suburban nights, alien green thunderheads of emotional plague blasted by orgone-blue vajra-rays of lasered feux d'artifice.

Comets that explode with the odor of hashish & radioactive charcoal--swampghouls & will-o'-the-wisps haunting public parks--fake St. Elmo's fire flickering over the architecture of the bourgeoisie--strings of lady-fingers falling on the Legislature floor--salamander-elementals attack well-known moral reformers.

Blazing shellac, sugar of milk, strontium, pitch, gum water, gerbs of chinese fire--for a few moments the air is ozone- sharp--drifting opal cloud of pungent dragon/phoenix smoke. For an instant the Empire falls, its princes & governors flee to their stygian muck, plumes of sulphur from elf- flamethrowers burning their pinched asses as they retreat. The Assassin-child, psyche of fire, holds sway for one brief dogstar-hot night.

I'd like to do that someday. This site sells everything you need to make fireworks like the pros make. Here are how those big star shells are made

http://www.unitednuclear.com/shell.htm

i thought you meant the graphics program

You should check out Skylighter.com, they have a much more comprehensive selection of chemicals and metals.
And watch out when you're trying to construct your own shells, there are tons of things that can go wrong, and it only takes one mistake.
Otherwise though, it's an amazing amount of fun. Fireworks are a million times better when you're doing your own show, and double that when you're using your own pyro.
This year I want to build a control box and do an electrically fired show from the roof of my friends building. It'll mostly be class C stuff (though there's alot that you can do with class C if you're creative), but i want to put together some special mines and shells for the end.
Someday I'll have my own magazine...

Cool. I've made my own salutes from flash powder and PVC pipe, and rockets (no burst charge, just a rocket). No colors or stars or anything.

Salutes are about the most dangerous shells that you can possibly imagine (well, ok, breaking spider webs are, but only because a low break will spread dozens of little bomblets for hundreds of feet in every direction), and making them with pvc pipe is a bad idea.
Flash is dangerous because it's so instable and it detonates in very small amounts. I've heard of people trying to dispose of it by pouring it out and spreading it with their feet, and having the simple friction from that detonate it.
Standard PVC pipes are a bad idea because they shatter into sharp pieces. Get a low break and congrats, you've got an anti-personell mine. If you're going to make shells, spend the extra couple of bucks and get paper or plastic casings.
An easy way to add an impressive charge to a rocket, is to just attach a standard 1.75 inch class C mortar shell with the lift charge removed to the top of it. You need to use a longer/heavier guide stick, but it'll almost always ignite, and it looks damned impressive. You can add some quick and simple flashes to the effect by separating the shell from the rocket with a short cardboard tube, then filling it with lady fingers and a small amount of powder (to conserve, I just use the lift charge that I removed from the shell originally)..
The lady fingers will go off just after the shell, but because it's so high up the sound is lost completely, making a dozen small flashes of light that appear in the middle of your burst.

I'm very aware of how dangerous flash powder is, and I knew the pipe would fragment but I didn't want to take the trouble to roll a tube out of paper grocery bags like how my friend showed me in high school. I just made a quick, fast casing out of 1" diameter PVC and capped it.

BTW, I wasn't making an aerial shell, it was basically a giant M-80. Shhh.



[Edited on Apr 25, 2004 by stockula]

Oh ok, well that's actually somewhat safer, because you're not expecting the thing to go way up in the air, so you *know* how far away you'll be when it goes off (unless your fusing it fucked up).

Last 4th of July, I was flying home, and got to see fireworks from above, fulfilling a childhood dream.

duudhdhauhduah da da UGH! dudadududa da da UGH! dauduauudauda dudaaaaa duaduad aduad audaaaaa

That song doesn't come through so well in type.

last forth of july was spent driving up i-81 from southwestern VA to ithaca NY. i was very sad, because i thought i'd miss out on fireworks. but when we hit the wilkes-barre PA area, there they were! the interstate goes up and down long, low mountains there, and we got to see about 20 different displays. it was so awesome!

I love 4th of July Fireworks in Waukegan Harbour, IL. That is my favorite night of the year.

I love fireworks but they always suck around here. Only see them on Canada Day for about 9-10 minutes. My bf actually lit some off in the front lawn tonight Our own little show!

I thought this thread was going to be Macromedia-related, because that fireworks blows.