The Other McCain

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VIDEO: Rick’s Awesome Fireworks

Posted on | July 5, 2010 | 18 Comments

This year, for the first year in . . . well, forever, I didn’t get to shoot my usual super-awesome Fourth of July fireworks show. Darling Daughter scheduled her wedding for this week, so I was forced to scrap my annual Alabama expedition. One day, I’ll find it in my heart to forgive her, but Sunday night I was profoundly depressed.

Anyway, my good buddy Rick — about whom I could tell you some hilarious stories — was able to shoot his customary super-awesome Fourth of July fireworks show and, now that I’m beginning to emerge from the depths of my daughter-induced pyro-deprived depression, I’ll share his videos with you:

This show was produced with consumer fireworks and, as I’ve often explained to friends, a well-organized consumer fireworks show is actually better than most professional shows. Why? One word: Proximity.

Professional shows require “set backs” of at least a hundred yards between the audience and the launch site, and the shells burst several hundred feet in the air. Bigger shells, but they’re seen at quite a distance. Whereas with consumer fireworks, the safety distance between shooter and audience is only about 50 feet, and most of the shells burst less than 100 feet overhead. As people have often said after seeing my shows for the first time, it feels like being inside the show.

Anyway, if you really know what you’re doing with consumer fireworks — as Rick does — it’s pretty doggone awesome, and completely safe. (Unlike the idiot who got his arm blown off in New York.)

So enjoy the videos, and if you want to cheer me up, contribute to Darling Daughter’s wedding fund. Proceeds in excess of the actual cost of the wedding will help ensure that next year’s Fourth of July is extra-awesome.

Category: Fireworks

Comments

18 Responses to “VIDEO: Rick’s Awesome Fireworks”

  1. Joe
    July 6th, 2010 @ 3:41 am

    You can get some pretty decent mortars if you know where to go. They are very impressive. I love doing my own fireworks. Always a lot of fun.

  2. Joe
    July 5th, 2010 @ 11:41 pm

    You can get some pretty decent mortars if you know where to go. They are very impressive. I love doing my own fireworks. Always a lot of fun.

  3. Joe
    July 6th, 2010 @ 3:57 am

    Actually most firework injuries are kids with sparklers (those suckers are really really hot and you have to be careful with them). My kids love to do them, but you have to space them carefully and keep a very close eye on them.

    As adults, we blow off the mortars. They go up about 200 feet with a most excellent array and report. You can get a decent box of mortars for $50 to $100, with plenty to do a a very impressive show (I love a box or two of Excaliburs).

    There is an anticipation of danger that adds to the fun. But all in all, the biggest danger by far is fire and you have to take that very seriously. They do throw embers and you have to watch for them. If it is dry, you may have to curtail the show or limit it to a location over or near water.

  4. Joe
    July 5th, 2010 @ 11:57 pm

    Actually most firework injuries are kids with sparklers (those suckers are really really hot and you have to be careful with them). My kids love to do them, but you have to space them carefully and keep a very close eye on them.

    As adults, we blow off the mortars. They go up about 200 feet with a most excellent array and report. You can get a decent box of mortars for $50 to $100, with plenty to do a a very impressive show (I love a box or two of Excaliburs).

    There is an anticipation of danger that adds to the fun. But all in all, the biggest danger by far is fire and you have to take that very seriously. They do throw embers and you have to watch for them. If it is dry, you may have to curtail the show or limit it to a location over or near water.

  5. Joe
    July 6th, 2010 @ 3:59 am

    What was Rick using? I liked the mulitple clusters.

  6. Joe
    July 5th, 2010 @ 11:59 pm

    What was Rick using? I liked the mulitple clusters.

  7. Robert Stacy McCain
    July 6th, 2010 @ 4:03 am

    (I love a box or two of Excaliburs).

    Rick buys Excals by the case.

    As a matter of fact, right before the finale (which starts about the 8-minute mark of the second vid), Rick was firing three Excals simultaneously — a series of 4×3, I believe — using his e-fire system.

  8. Robert Stacy McCain
    July 6th, 2010 @ 12:03 am

    (I love a box or two of Excaliburs).

    Rick buys Excals by the case.

    As a matter of fact, right before the finale (which starts about the 8-minute mark of the second vid), Rick was firing three Excals simultaneously — a series of 4×3, I believe — using his e-fire system.

  9. Joe
    July 6th, 2010 @ 4:40 am

    Very cool. Rick does a real show. Having the e firing system is great (I use the lit punk method so it is firing one at a time, although we have multiple tubes).

  10. Joe
    July 6th, 2010 @ 12:40 am

    Very cool. Rick does a real show. Having the e firing system is great (I use the lit punk method so it is firing one at a time, although we have multiple tubes).

  11. Patrick in Detroit
    July 6th, 2010 @ 4:43 am

    Detroit always does the best fireworks.

    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=detroit+fireworks+2010&aq=f

    😀

  12. Patrick in Detroit
    July 6th, 2010 @ 12:43 am

    Detroit always does the best fireworks.

    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=detroit+fireworks+2010&aq=f

    😀

  13. Charles Johnson
    July 6th, 2010 @ 11:53 am

    gg makes a good point. Thankfully there are still people like gg here who have some ethics. Of course I recently noted how RSM ran a picture of Elena Kagan in a Nazi uniform to show the poor humor of RSM’s wingnut racist site.

    Who knew white supremacist bloggers had such sparkling senses of humor? Robert Stacy McCain’s last comedic masterpiece was calling Mexicans “beaners” on Twitter, but today he really brought down the house by posting a crude photoshop of Elena Kagan (who is Jewish) dressed in a Nazi uniform.

    Because there’s nothing wittier than calling a female Jewish Supreme Court nominee a Nazi. Hurr hurr!(This hilarious joke originated at the site of another well-known wingnut wit, Pamela “Shrieking Harpy” Geller, who took a rare break from hating Muslims in order to hate a fellow Jewish woman.)

    I did not bother to actually follow the link which showed that Elena Kagan had cited in her thesis to a socialist who endorsed the Nazi Party. Which of course undercuts my argument that all Nazis are always right wingers and never socialists, which is the basis of my right wingnut jihad, and which…

    This was a trap RSM set for me? It is not posible for me to fall for such a trick! Now I have to kick the cat and swear.

  14. Charles Johnson
    July 6th, 2010 @ 7:53 am

    gg makes a good point. Thankfully there are still people like gg here who have some ethics. Of course I recently noted how RSM ran a picture of Elena Kagan in a Nazi uniform to show the poor humor of RSM’s wingnut racist site.

    Who knew white supremacist bloggers had such sparkling senses of humor? Robert Stacy McCain’s last comedic masterpiece was calling Mexicans “beaners” on Twitter, but today he really brought down the house by posting a crude photoshop of Elena Kagan (who is Jewish) dressed in a Nazi uniform.

    Because there’s nothing wittier than calling a female Jewish Supreme Court nominee a Nazi. Hurr hurr!(This hilarious joke originated at the site of another well-known wingnut wit, Pamela “Shrieking Harpy” Geller, who took a rare break from hating Muslims in order to hate a fellow Jewish woman.)

    I did not bother to actually follow the link which showed that Elena Kagan had cited in her thesis to a socialist who endorsed the Nazi Party. Which of course undercuts my argument that all Nazis are always right wingers and never socialists, which is the basis of my right wingnut jihad, and which…

    This was a trap RSM set for me? It is not posible for me to fall for such a trick! Now I have to kick the cat and swear.

  15. wombat-socho
    July 6th, 2010 @ 5:54 pm

    You should have come down to the ballpark on the 4th, Stacy. Not only did the Suns have a pretty decent post-game display, but apparently there was also a shoot at the fairgrounds that started up about the 8th inning.

  16. wombat-socho
    July 6th, 2010 @ 1:54 pm

    You should have come down to the ballpark on the 4th, Stacy. Not only did the Suns have a pretty decent post-game display, but apparently there was also a shoot at the fairgrounds that started up about the 8th inning.

  17. Joe
    July 6th, 2010 @ 9:27 pm

    gg, I think you mean the patriots who founded this country were classical liberals. And it is true that politically they were revolutionaries and certainly not conformist types like many mainstream Repubicans might be today (they knew that if they failed there was a decent chance they would hang or at a minimum lose all their property). But their foundation of belief was hardly what you would describe as “liberal” today. They would be close in spirit to today’s Tea Partiers.

  18. Joe
    July 6th, 2010 @ 5:27 pm

    gg, I think you mean the patriots who founded this country were classical liberals. And it is true that politically they were revolutionaries and certainly not conformist types like many mainstream Repubicans might be today (they knew that if they failed there was a decent chance they would hang or at a minimum lose all their property). But their foundation of belief was hardly what you would describe as “liberal” today. They would be close in spirit to today’s Tea Partiers.