Fireworks
Monday, 31 December 2007
Let’s end this year with some musical Fireworks by the great Perez Prado, who for mysterious reasons has not yet been mentioned in this Soundtrack. It is from his LP Prez, a true gem from 1958.
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I guess that it was in the late eighties or early nineties that the packaging of the fireworks used in Holland changed. Before that year, every morning after December 31 the streets of Amsterdam were covered with beautiful Chinese artwork. Of course, it was all a little burnt and a bit dirty, but I remember walking the streets and thinking what a pity it was that so many million of guldens were spent on fireworks, and that nobody cared about the packaging.
I never gave much about fireworks. Even as a child I didn’t like it. And later I began to dislike it. I have really no idea why people like it.
One year, the morning after the fireworks, I picked up a few examples of the leftover fireworks designs. I had noticed that there were alarmingly more modern designs than the previous years, and these new designs lacked all the magic of the old.
The next year hardly any of these old designs were no longer to be seen. It makes me wonder how beautiful these designs were in the years before I realised their beauty. I am sure that there must be books about Fireworks design, but I gave never seen any.
Here are some of the snippets that I rescued long ago:
