the kanye west fireworks appreciation society

As part of my ongoing commitment to enjoying the city I live in, me and my friend Jesse have been organizing soul-filling 'outings'. So far, I've taken him to the wonderful Cherry Blossom picnic put on by the folks at Promise. If you've never been, make a mental note to go next year. It's basically an afternoon in High Park where DJ's play a meditative selection of ambient electronic music as you lay on blankets under the gorgeous and fragrant cherry blossom trees in one of the city's best parks. It's actually a tradition of the Japanese - who, as you can imagine, celebrate their traditional cherry blossom in a similar fashion every year. It's been a while since I was that relaxed.

Tonight, the outing led to meeting at the Humber bridge. I've always loved that bridge. I rollerblade over it throughout the summer and it has a special kind of energy, not to mention an iconic architectural design. Our crew met up and walked through the butterfly habitat (noting that we were a little ripped off as there are no wildflowers yet in the wildflower field yet) past the improvised inukshuk rock structures, and as the sun was setting, into the small island like park in the lake. We found a lovely spot away from any lights, and near the overwhelming full moon that at one point was glowing an ominous orange. Our blanket neighbours soon moved in with a child whose attention was not on the fireworks over the water, but on his little sparkler that he was waving around like a maniac. Salima and I kept having "vancouver revisited" moments where we were almost certain that the lake was the ocean (save the telltale salty smell) and the etobicoke condos was actually a yaletown backdrop.

I made a stupid Kanye West reference about his glow in the dark tour, because nearby there were kids with glow in the dark headbands, and it reminded me of the P-Diddy sanctioned tour that I'd heard about recently. The fireworks began and we started naming them - there was the Tina Turner, the classic, Jesse's favorite ones were the more free Jazz experimental type bursts, the science centre ones (another Vancouver reference for you)...

Something about being able to enjoy the night sky, even being able to see the little dipper above us with some clarity, the blankets, and the good company, filled the soul to a level I hadn't felt in a while. Good way to end a long weekend!