4th of July with the Pops
The fourth of July was just unreal here in Boston.

I met up with six other people from school that morning and we marched down to the Esplanade to join a crowd of 500,000 of our closest friends. We were all there to spend the holiday with the Boston Pops, Debbie Reynolds, Cyndi Lauper and Arlo Guthrie.

It was just amazing, alternately wonderful, thrilling, and horrifying to be in a crowd of half a million people. We got marginally good seats, played cards, ate junk, and enjoyed each other's company. It was I, Courtney and Melanie from my Simmons hall days; my old room mate Jennifer, two other librarians from our program named Zoe and Jenn, and Jenn's boyfriend Erin. I was glad to hang out in the heat and brought a twelve pack of cokes and a big blanket. We lay around for eight hours before the show actually started.

The Boston Pops orchestra was fabulous. I loved it. I loved being in a crowd of people that knew the name of their city's head conductor. I loved the fact that all the women whispered about him as he came on stage - the conductor of the Boston Pops is as important here as a famous baseball player, or the president of a big corporation. I kept looking around and wondering where I was, that people valued their city's orchestra so highly!

Debbie Reynolds was wonderful, but her age really shows on a live performance now. She was great, and everyone loved her, but it was good that she opened. She warmed everyone up for Cyndi Lauper…

…who just blew everyone away. I really haven't ever been a big fan or anything, but she was amazing. All the singers were backed by the full complement of the Pops, but only Cyndi had the kind of voice that was right for it that night.

She really let it out vocally. She did a new song I didn't know, and a big orchestral arrangement of "True Colors", and the show stopper of the night, a rendition of "Money Changes Everything" that must have gone on for almost eight minutes. It was amazing, to hear a voice like that with a full orchestra behind it. I grew up listening to bands backstage and in small studios, getting the full affect of the players, but I had never heard anything that sounded that full, that note-perfect live. They all hit it just right, and Cyndi really does have one of those big, pitch perfect voices that could work with everything.

Of course, after that they had to take a break. They started the annual sing-along, which was fun - half a million people singing "America the Beautiful" is kind of fun. Also, it takes a crowd that perfect for me to let it out, because my own voice is so bad!

Then Arlo came onstage, and that was super-cool too, because he's from Massachusetts and so had a big loyal following present. He did two of his more popular songs (not Alice's Restaurant) and then started in on a Woody Guthrie song to wind up the fourth of July "This Land is Your Land". Everyone sung along, and he told stories and jokes all through it so it must have gone on for about fifteen minutes or so. He was great too.

After Arlo, the Pops played the 1812 accompanied by two howitzers that were only a hundred meters or so from where I and the rest of my group was sitting. And then there were fireworks with commercials in them. No kidding. There was a bloody big blimp with an ad on it that sat right in the middle of the fireworks, which horrified me. It was like seeing a Nike swoosh tattooed on Santa Claus' forehead. You couldn't watch the fireworks without looking at the advertisement. Which was wrong, and clearly one of the most evil things I've ever seen in my entire life. It was a special bummer because I was so hyped up over how good the show had been up until that point.

Then there was the special adventure of getting home with half a million other people who all wanted to cross the same bridges and ride the same trains as you at the same time. I walked back with Jennifer, and it was thrilling and scary and fun. Our whole group of seven people was sort of torn apart by the tidal flow of the crowd, the press of so many people. But it was also very neat because there weren't a lot of drunks and no one got hurt and the mounted policemen were everywhere, herding the crowd with their horses.

I fell down at home just a little past midnight. It was a good time.