fireworks - flip 'em the bird?

i'm in columbus for a little family r&r.
it rules, per usual.

last night, my mom, brother vince & i stumbled upon neighborhood fireworks beginning, so we watched from my mom's beautiful backyard. it was quiet and pretty; usually i like the big choreographed-to-music red-white-and-boom-esque display, but i must admit i've always been pretty partial to smaller fireworks... it's cool when you can hear people audibly cooing at the spectacle. it never gets old. ever, to me.

last night, and ever since, i've had a kind of obscure song called independence day in my head. it's by ani difranco, and has a few lines like this:
there was an exodus of birds from the trees
'cause they didn't know we were only pretending
and the people all looked up and looked pleased
and the birds flew around like the whole world was ending

it is directly referencing fireworks, and i always thought it was a pretty stanza - but last night, i really noticed this family of birds doing exactly that, and i noticed since it was so quiet out. something in me felt kind of sad for the birds since they really don't know what the hell the deal is. that feeling went away pretty quick when my brother and i started doing bits about the bird dad in his robe calling the police for noise violations, or bird mom flying down and yelling with little bird curlers in her hair.

bits aside, listen to that old ani classic if you feel in the spirit. then listen to lee greenwood.