Lights! Music! Fireworks!

I was a block captain for this year's Lights Festival on Michigan avenue. What that means is that I was in charge of a group of volunteers that assisted the police in maintaining crowd control during the procession. We moved blockades and kept an eye out for people wanting to cross the blockade to move into the street. I also put together the music that was played during the fireworks. It was a 10 minute mix of non-denominational holiday music. I found it challenging to find upbeat holiday music that didn't have any references to Christmas or Channuka or other religions. What I found that worked was swing music, mostly. I did a lot of cutting and splicing to keep the music moving and dynamic, and then put it together as one long song that was played along with the fireworks. The fireworks were watched by about 1,000,000 people. YEAH! I love my job.

--Jonathan