4th of July fun

What did you do on the Fourth of July this year? I'm not huge into it, but Santa Rosa had outlawed all consumer fireworks*... and you know how when something is taken away, even if you were ambivalent before, you really really miss it? So for the past two years I've joined a few friends at the top of one of Santa Rosa's "skyscrapers" (I think it's 4 or 5 stories high) to view the city's fireworks show shot off at the nearby fairgrounds.

The fireworks show is okay - nothing fancy - but the excuse to get a bird's eye view of deserted downtown, hang out with friends, and take pictures is priceless.

I'm still enjoying playing with very very dark nighttime photography:









And the fireworks! Still far away, but fun... I love how humans try to make their own, ephemeral stars.











And, lastly... this is my friend Matthew. He just cut his hair like this and worked on his mustache. He's pretty proud of it:





He also quelled any fears I had of climbing up and down this ridiculously tiny ladder you have to go up to get to the roof... "have no fear; I have a mustache!"

(* I really wish I could find this online - when they were trying to make fireworks illegal here because some irresponsible people caught a house or two on fire a few summers back, there were these crazy campaign posters which featured the "Santa Rosa Next Exit" freeway exit sign, photoshopped to be engulfed in flame as though the whole city was on fire, or a pit of eternal damnation, or just a really really bad place to hang out. It was totally awesome, and so over the top, and really punk in its way - and apparently it did the trick, cause now we have no more fireworks. Oh, except for all those illegal ones that are still blasted off everywhere and now have to be hidden... so much safer!)


Update! My friend Lila saw this post and emailed me a tiny jpeg of the campaign photo I refer to above... so awesome...