apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We live on the 24th floor across the street from the Saddle and Cycle Club in Edgewater and have an incredible view of their fireworks show. It's pretty awesome to sit on your couch and watch the fireworks go off in your living room windows!

On the 3rd, I had the good fortune to watch the fireworks from a sailboat in Monroe Harbor; a fantastic experience.

On the 4th, I watched several displays from the north, and northeast all at one time from the roof deck of my apartment.

I haven't been to the "official" downtown fireworks in ages. Instead, we walk a block to my kids' school, where a bunch of people from the neighborhood hang out and watch the dads put on a show. The fireworks are always outstanding, and it's so nice to be able to walk a block and be home once it's all over.

The barrio was a rockin' last night!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/sets/72157600664526902/

From our west loop location we were able to look out across the southern skyline and see a panoramic view of July 4th fireworks across much of the city. It was amazing... at least for the first 20 minutes, after that we finished off our beers and went to bed (work the next morning).

I thought my neighborhood of Humbolt got it on come July 4 but oh no sir! I know now that Little Village totally knows how to do the fourth!

We had a great 360-view from a newly-tarred rooftop in Pilsen & while they were going strong until 10:30, Little Village just did not stop. It was great.

I have ad the pleasure of going to the top of Marina City dozens of times (my ex lived there), and seen several of the semi weekly fireworks shows over Navy Pier. Great place to take in the city, truly a fantastic amenity to have at your disposal.

I used to live a couple of blocks north of the Horse and Saddle Club in Edgewater, and have fond memories of fantastic fireworks shows. My building used to have a huge 4th of July party on the garden level.

I was more focused on the Lindbergh Beacon last night, If you want to see a bit of what I saw last night, you can take a look here.

Yankee........Hotel.........Foxtrot.....

I had to turn on a few fans and play Pink Floyd on the stereo to keep the dogs calm. Figured it was a good alternative to drugs.

They slept right though most of them except for the M-80s going off next door.

My boyfriend and I were out on our bikes, riding around, so we got to see a variety of little fireworks as we rode all over the city.

We just turned the furniture in our living room to face the windows in our 9th floor apt. and watched a wonderful display over Lake Union.

4th of July fireworks...another year of exploding depleted uranium tipped bombs in Iraq...sky-rocketing cancer rates, especially among children and newborns in Iraq...consequences dwarfing 9/11...

another year of the after-affects of 2003's explosions that is...
there's been WAY too little attention given this, so i'm not sorry for being a killjoy here

orangered, I think about this all the time. You are right, and it's worth reminding us. For me, too, it was hard to hear the fireworks going off without thinking of all the gunfire and bombs exploding elsewhere. I was looking at the pretty lights shooting off and felt such a despairing sadness, it's difficult to come to grips with.

"Baghdad" was the first word that popped into my head when my neighborhood started with the aerial 1/4 sticks of dynamite 2 weeks before the 4th. Then it kept popping up all night long on the 4th when it really sounded like a warzone. I guess when you take the beauty out of the display and think about what the fireworks symbolize, it's hard to attach them to a battle fought for our independence. It's easier to attach them to the things happening right now like a war in the Middle East. Or gunfire in my or anyone else's neighborhood.

Thank you Kyle, I was going to say the exact same thing. Maybe not too many Wilco fans around here...

thanks Sea and art,
we would all so so so love it if people could prove that Iraq has not been turned into a massive, radio-active nightmare, of course...anyone?
It's unfathomable, what these Republicans (and apparently some in the Clinton admin, too, uranium tipped wise) are getting away with!! Staggering!! Why is the left, the center, the intelligentsia so freaking weak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
there is no fight....people are waiting?...
if the careers of the Bush regime do not go down in scorching flames i will be even more livid...
the karmic repercussions, future terrorists and doom they are denying and creating are so very apalling.......

i know this is not the place, but that there is so little outcry and organized resistance is nearly equally heart-brteaking

i'm sorry for the hysteria-- the verdict on DU in Iraq is still out: occasionally messages from 2007 cut thru all the possible hype, such as the following, from PubMed--this may put the mind at ease (unless, of course, how much was this author paid by the Dep't of Defense...):

Gulf war depleted uranium risks:
Marshall AC.
1Consultant for Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
US and British forces used depleted uranium (DU) in armor-piercing rounds to disable enemy tanks during the Gulf and Balkan Wars. Uranium particulate is generated by DU shell impact and particulate entrained in air may be inhaled or ingested by troops and nearby civilian populations. As uranium is slightly radioactive and chemically toxic, a number of critics have asserted that DU exposure has resulted in a variety of adverse health effects for exposed veterans and nearby civilian populations. The study described in this paper used mathematical modeling to estimate health risks from exposure to DU during the 1991 Gulf War for both US troops and nearby Iraqi civilians. The analysis found that the risks of DU-induced leukemia or birth defects are far too small to result in an observable increase in these health effects among exposed veterans or Iraqi civilians. The analysis indicated that only a few ( approximately 5) US veterans in vehicles accidentally targeted by US tanks received significant exposure levels, resulting in about a 1.4% lifetime risk of DU radiation-induced fatal cancer (compared with about a 24% risk of a fatal cancer from all other causes). These veterans may have also experienced temporary kidney damage. Iraqi children playing for 500 h in DU-destroyed vehicles are predicted to incur a cancer risk of about 0.4%. In vitro and animal tests suggest the possibility of chemically induced health effects from DU internalization, such as immune system impairment. Further study is needed to determine the applicability of these findings for Gulf War exposure to DU. Veterans and civilians who did not occupy DU-contaminated vehicles are unlikely to have internalized quantities of DU significantly in excess of normal internalization of natural uranium from the environment.Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology advance online publication, 14 February 2007; doi:10.1038/sj.jes.7500551.
PMID: 17299528 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]