I'm sure he'll kill me for this...

But I'm going to post it any way...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANCO!
(a.k.a. Princess Francesca)

It was our friend Franco's birthday today and we had a great dinner over at our friends Kenny and Richard's place. A full on Italian meal. Prosecco, Ministrone, Lasagna, more Prosecco and Tiramisu.

(l-r)
back row: Richard
front row: Kenny, the Birthday Gurrrrrrl, Franco, Jason, Didier and Ronny.

After Dinner, Dessert and Presents, we all came back to our place, headed on up to the rooftop, opened a bottle of Limoncino Evangelista and watched the Fireworks. (Australia)

A great time was had by all...

Fireworks 2008 - South Korea

We missed the first 2 nights of fireworks, but I'm not too terribly upset... after all we were in France!

Tonight was South Korea.

For me, it was all about ABBA.

- - -

Here are my three favourite pics from the night...

IdFLQ - And the winners are...

Normally the closing ceremonies are spectacular for the Fireworks competition.. this year... enh!

The Music was AWESOME all music from 1967...or there 'bouts...

But a lot of fun! The fireworks were ok, but nothing "WOW!"

None the less, even Ok fireworks are good Fireworks... so here are a few...


As for the winners... for the first year ever, I got all three... sorta right. I chose all three of the winners. The only difference is the order...

My selections as you will recall were:

GOLD: Germany
SILVER: USA
BRONZE: England

In the end the winners were:

GOLD: England
SILVER: Germany
BRONZE: USA

IdFLQ - GERMANY

Well tonight was the last competitor for this year's fireworks competition (International des Feux Loto-Quebec) And it was really incredible! There was a consistent display of fireworks both low and high with a couple of lower moments, but overall you could see this display from a fair distance and it never lost my attention.

Their music was mostly classic in nature, although they did not stick to only German composers. The opening piece was an excerpt of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d minor - one of my all time favourite classical pieces, and certainly one of the most recognized pipe organ peices by him or any other composer. It's a heavy piece, very much at ease next to the bombastic accompaniment of Fireworks. And what was even more interesting to me was an excerpt from Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev (The Duke's Command) that I felt was missing from France's display, this past Saturday; although it was not my preferred OSM rendition, it was played nonetheless. The music continues along it's classical bent, and included Offenbach's 'Galop' from Orpheus in the Underworld (you know... the music you always hear when French 'Ladies' are dancing the Can-Can) which was a hit with Didier and two other French guests. And then th music changed into more contemporary instrumental peices, must enjoyable for me was some of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. It's got a slightly eerie feeling (he also well know as the composer for the music to the movie The Exorcist) and that too lent itself well to the pyrotechnics.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say these were my favourites. Not because they were the biggest, or the loudest, or the most original (see Hon Kong's '2 0 0 8' fireworks) but because for me they had the full package: Great music that stood out for me as not being the 'Pop' and current, rather simply selecting music that would go well with the fireworks and be able to hold it's own. They were consistent in their display fully using the sky for their canvas. Great colours and interesting individual sizes and shapes. Well choreographed and synchronized to the music. And finally their Finale was easy to spot (You know some times you're like.. 'Is this it? is this the Finale? no wait, This is it. Is it?) ... and the real test for me... I actually clapped at the end. :-)

Ok enough yammering... here's some pics...

And now... my final tally on this year's competition...


GOLD: Germany
SILVER: USA
BRONZE: England

HONOURABLE MENTION: Canada

And then you have...
Hong Kong
France
Spain
Mexico

Come back on Saturday night to see if I was even at all remotely close.

IdFLQ - FRANCE

Vive La France? I'm no so sure after their fireworks.

Ok here's the thing, even bad fireworks displays are good, IF you just like to look at things exploding in air... and I CAN see the beauty in that, really I can. but... I think I might be getting jaded, I'm requiring more and more to impress me. And I know that what pleases one person or group will not please others but WOW I don't think I've ever been so unimpressed.

The night's music was 'Romeo and Juliet' I cannot say that I recognized any of the music from any product of R&J I've ever seen including (TV, MOVIE, BALLET and ORCHESTRAL) I'm particularly fond of Prokofiev's music (R&J and otherwise, I think he was a music genius), and it's a shame too because certain excerpts of it would translate VERY well to fireworks... specially "Dance of the Knights" and "The Duke's Command" . Instead we got music from 'Lord of the Rings' ??? (huh? what?) , some Rap Music (which I cannot stomach at the best of times) and some other various music that I could not recognize from anything. At least there was a certain romance and traditional folksy appeal.

The fireworks themselves were ok, but there were very few high ones. and I mean VERY few. The majority were on level with the Jacques Cartier, which while tall, is by no means impressive when you're talking pyrotechnics. It's a difficult thin I am sure creating tableaux in air that encompass high, and medium level fireworks as well as sparklers, and twizzlers and such on the lake itself, but sadly that didn't happen here. Yes it's true we do not have a perfect view from our roof top, but I know what's high and what's not, and these were 'not'.

Keep in mind I was watching these fireworks with a group of people ALL from France.... 2 from Toulouse, one from Nantes and 3 from Aix-en-Province and while the children screamed 'Vive Le France" a couple of times, that was about as far as their pride went...

So here are some pics, the few that turned out and were at all impressive (ie above the Bridge) I take on average 70 pics a night... and about 25 to33% turn out good... for tonight's, I took 77 and I have 9 here to show, or 11 %

Oh well, again any fireworks are fun, these were ok.

My standings remain unaffected...

GOLD: USA
SILVER: England
BRONZE: Hong Kong

HONOURABLE MENTION: Canada

And then you have...
France
Spain

Mexico


- - -

Seems Misster-Kitty and the TickleBear are coming to odds with the last few Fireworks displays. Only one to go... Germany on Wed night and then the closing ceremonies on Saturday night...