i don't like the fourth of july, people seem crazy and out of control. adults get excited about blowing things up, making loud noises, disrespecting other peoples acoustic space with a childish display of patriotism.

fourth of july in my neighborhood (east village near augusta and wood) is ridiculously obnoxious. the street is closed off and families come from other nieghborhoods to watch and participate in an illegal display of fireworks. the police station, less than one block away, turns a not-so-blind eye. they send a few cars over to watch the fireworks, but they do nothing to stop them. last year, a house burned down in our neighborhood as a direct result of bottle rockets landing on dry leaves on top of a roof. a few children (and adults) lost fingers because of improper handling of fireworks.

trying to escape the noise i headed over to my boyfriend's house. even though it was only a few blocks away, i hoped that the noise level was a little lower. my dog was terrified. to him the fourth of july might as well be the apocalypse. the noise hurts his ears, causes him to shake. he refuses to eat or drink. it becomes impossible to get him to leave the house, meaning he ends up having accidents on the floor. he keeps trying to escape the sounds of fireworks but there is no place he can go. so i fed him doggie sleeping pills, wrapped him tightly in a blanket, and ran outside to jump in the car and get him away from my neighborhood where the worst of the fireworks were taking place. he was still afraid when we arrived, but the doggie downers that the vet prescribed were beginning to take effect so instead of pacing around and shaking uncontrollably, he relaxed a very small bit and found a hiding spot on the bottom shelf in between some records, and hid for a while. once he relaxed i decided to walk back to my house and grab a few things i forgot in the mad rush to escape my house.

on the return trip i recorded some of the fireworks outside my house and some more fireworks on the way back to find a small amount of peace. though you can't tell by these sound clips, the worst of the fireworks were over. the big display takes place on wood street around 9pm. this was closer to 10:30 and many people had gone home. the ones who remained continued in the alleys until early in the morning hours when it began to storm. i'm sure they saved some of their fireworks and will likely be lighting them off for weeks to come. for a while my dog will live in constant fear. i imagine that in some very small way, this is what war must sound like.