Academic

Stadium of Fire

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

We just returned from the Stadium of Fire in the Lavell Edwards Stadium. I would have preferred watching football, but this was a great show. We were enthralled by the sky divers who opened the show.

My 17-year-old son immediately took to the idea. "I want to do that." I see ROTC in his future.

More photos below the fold ...

Half of the field was occupied by a stage and spectators, but dancers soon filed the other half. This is usually the time for me to find a restroom or get some food, but these young women (and a few young men?) were absolutely fun. They did a seven and a half minute tribute to the Summer Olympics, acting out every sport. I can't tell you where the flags come in, but this should give you a sense of the pageantry ...

Somehow I had never seen the Blue Man Group live in concert. They had only a small role in tonight's program, but they were very clever and entertaining. This was their opening ...

No one should have to follow BMG's "Rock Concert Movements" and "How to be a Megastar," their homage to choreographed dance moves. But, of course, the headliner for this show was Miley Cyrus. Aside from a few signs like "We Love You, Hannah!" references to Hannah Montana were non-existent. This was mostly about Miley's new album, "Breakout." If Miley's Vanity Fair photos were not sufficient notice that she is trying to shed the bubble gum image of Hannah Montana, she just screams I'm breaking out! Even her fans didn't know the words to these new songs, so they just jumped and screamed, too.

Ok, enough about Miley. The best part of the evening was the massive fireworks show, which rained ashes on us and probably took several years off of my life. But it was spectacular.

Full post as published by Conglomerate on July 05, 2008 (boomark / email).