I never could have, even in my most wild and expressive dreams, imagined the incomprehensibly awesome scope of the presentation I witnessed last eve. It was 7:45, almost twilight (the time frame, not the estrogen-pleasing facade of sparkly vampires); the air was cool and energetic. My ears heard little else than the music played, as the speaker arrangement was larger than any I had ever seen; with amazing clarity at a great distance, the music set the perfect tone of the spectacle about to commence. The girlfriend, her family, and I were standing between two very large structures in the Dallas Arts District, attending a celebration of the grand opening of the new AT&T theater and opera house. The fireworks display was about to commence.
In the occasions previous to this evening where fireworks were presented, they were always just "neat," or "scientifically astounding." Never before tonight had I ever seen them in a truly, wholly artistic fashion. What happened was not a simple fireworks show, but it was also not an over-glorified show of grandeur. Independence Day always presents us with a slew of impressive and powerful exploding powders, and tend to leave one in awe... or at least with a great feeling of patriotism for one's country. So why, then, was this superior? When it wasn't the largest performance, nor for an occasion already associated with something of importance? Simple: pure poetic genius. The people who designed this act could be no less. Now, back to the cool October air...
Suddenly, all of the lights in the city went completely dark; streetlights, building windows, every light as far as one could see had been diminished. That's when the music began. Pure, clear, unequivocally loud -- but not unbearable. None of the thousands of people we were squished against knew from which building the fire would rain, so it came as a great shock as a thousand breaths drew a gasp at once: there were two rooftops, one on either side of the thoroughfare, firing the blazing beauty of the night. Not only this, but the colors fit the mood of the music, and the music was spectacular: a mix of all genres, trumpeting snippets of each familiar tune to the grandeur of the dueling precipices before us. Yet there was one final element that drove this from cute coincidence to pure poetry... every nerve in your body would tingle, my own eyes poured tears of sheer joy, as every single burst of light was impeccably displayed in perfect synchronous harmony with the music. A fireworks display one can only imagine possible; every culture, every walk of life captured in beautiful burning glory as the sounds and imaged drowned out every other sense and feeling; each genre genuinely represented by the firelights in the sky, thousands of people instantly connected to each other in perfect unity, unity as calculatedly perfect as the show itself.
Never before had I uncontrollably burst with tears of complete joy and happiness. There was such a feeling! Words can only scratch the surface on what it feels like to go from moderate day-to-day joy and instantly be filled with so much glee and amazement that you can do nothing but cry out, and the incomprehensible giddiness pour from your eyes so unexpectedly. My hat's off to the beings responsible for the montage. I am forever moved.
