Greetings,
Yet again, unsettled weather threatened to interrupt another display, but unlike last week, it was a warm front that made its debut through Eastern Ontario and Southern Quebec, bringing with it some bands of light to moderate precipitation, although nothing to the severity level we’ve seen last week Wednesday. The cool conditions and the breezy winds made it a little uncomfortable, but the winds lightened and left us with nearly calm conditions. Near 10 p.m, things were looking bright for the grand return of the Mexican team and the skies were filled with stars and some surrounding low level cloud, giving way for this anticipated team to present their interesting display: "Chocolate".
In commencing, the show began with some bright low level mines and some very unique shots of large and loud unique shells in the center that released a distinctive rich gold color. However, I noticed that the firing was not on par with the music altogether, while the rhythm of the firing was slowing some. This then led me to believe that there were problems associated with this predicament, and it was not surprising to me that there would be a following pause due to whatever problem may have been present (so much for 777). More on this later. The effects themselves were in good variety and I was enamored by many of them; they include screaming serpents integrated with large shells at high levels in one or two segments, many shells of swirls that had light purple stars at their center (or farfalle shells), and most notably, there were sightings of long lasting flares of red and green that both transitioned into sparkling stars of silver as they trailed towards the river. There many shells of scattered shots of purple and yellow, green and red. Large salutes often were seen both integrated at times with the shell of shells and multi breakers while salutes exploded in clusters at mid levels as well; and then there's my personal favorites: the extensive use of the double-ascension gold glittering girandolas in the more tranquil areas and the glorified unique simulation of the purple and light red photoflashes near the end, which reminded me of the good 90s disco. The feeling simultaneously gave way to a typical apocryphal scenario, which made me feel as if I’m in another dimension and, in this case, served as good nostalgia.
The structure was a nice addition at ground level with the red cross, the 1 spinning wheel (which was followed gradually by 3 others; 2 on top and 2 on the bottom), and the first appearance of the small bright white ring near the beginning. Other low level effects often included some low level cracklers, sparkling fountains and mines of red and green ball stars, along with later mines of serpents and swirls that sometimes exploding into bright flashes and loud assisted booms. Others included large brown and white mines that made a thundering echo.
Synchronization was actually mostly well done and it went practically perfect with the music, so this made it very enjoyable for me. However, there were times where music continued and small moments of silence were apparent at the same time. The choice of music was equally enjoyable, but it did not do it justice in defining the theme; there was more of a sense of it helping to define Mexican culture than anything else rather than focusing on the theme itself.
The colors were well chosen, but many of them were a little too repetitive for my tastes, especially the patriotic colors and the whites and browns, too. The effects revolve around the same argument as the colors, but the general design of the show was fairly good and a lot of the effects were outstanding. Some of the color mixtures with the effects, particularly with the shell of shells parts, were also nicely done, but there just simply was too much redundancy in many aspects.
As for the finale, I found it was personally the best one so far this year with many teasers and a feeling that it was always going to end quickly, but of course, it didn't. There were excellent crescendo and beautiful color choices that really captivated the audience most of the time. At the beginning, I thought it was going to be a series of one big umbrella of kamuros, but it really blasted off after that series of red and green transitioning stars following the clusters of kamuros.
Trav's personal rankings:
-Synchronization: 8.5/10-While the fireworks were generally fluid with music, there were some parts that were either off track or just nothing happening for brief moments.
-Colors: 8/10-There was a reasonable variety shown, but some were just too concentrated and perhaps even a little hackneyed, particularly the patriotic colors that were quite apparent for most of the display. However, there were some brilliant color contrasts, which often became quite impressive.
-Creativity/Originality/Concept: 5/10-This was the weakest section, I think. I thought the concept, or idea, of the show was a little poor mainly because there was very little effort to enforce and build around it. There were strong points, however, with many effects in terms of creativity, especially the little structure at ground level, but again this did not build on what was intended to be demonstrated: the idea centered on "Chocolate". A lot of the effects (especially the girandolas and photoflashes) and contrasting colors were very enjoyable, nevertheless.
-Choice of music: 7.5/10- The music was actually very enjoyable, but there was a problem with its consistency in relation to the theme. Also, most of the selected music made it sometimes difficult to give off effective and dramatic transitions in speed. Finally, the most of the music gave off similar feelings because of their rhythm, in my mind.
-Finale/General appreciation: 9.4/10-The finale was quite exciting and had a lot of build up on it, but it was also very pleasing because of the faux finale series before hand, which was, in my opinion, a little more vehement than England’s. As always, there were roars of approval moments after the large volleys of salutes and accompanied shells ended the performance! It was amusing when the little extra crackling mine after the Ferris wheel came on caused many people to turn around and thinking that more was to come (I love when that happens).
Besides the difficulty at the beginning, they often received positive responses throughout the show, too, especially with many of the glamorous beautiful effects involved.
-Overall: 7.6/10
^^^
Again, I'll probably have to adjust scores later on to accurately compare the participants, but this should still give an idea of where I stand with each display in terms of rank. *These are also my personal rankings based on my viewpoints via De Lorimier and Notre-Dame streets.
Despite what was said, this was a particularly interesting display because it was very traditional, very patriotic and was a well concocted and enforced good representation of culture. However, the major problem that we're dealing with was that the show was disorganized in the sense that there was no relative build up and design around their central thematic premise
and the fact that there was little variation with special effects in support of that. I personally enjoyed the display because it was quite exciting at many points throughout and I was dazzled at the good mixture of the flamboyant colors (deep purple and bright yellow shells, in particular) seen in the penultimate piece as well as late in the climatic segment. Much of the effects was also very well demonstrated and was at times quite authentic, but I was quite surprised and baffled to see a good deal of redundancy with their usage, particularly the appearance of the kamuros and the shells farfalle shells. The music was enjoyable, but the dilemma in this criterion was that the rhythm was, to me at least, remarkably similar, or at least the feeling, so to speak. Furthermore, I simply could not establish a link with the selected music and their theme, which sort of took away some of the enjoyment, especially when compared to the way England supported their theme beautifully with "Day and Night". The design of the show was typically good, but not on par with what we're typically used to, mainly what was seen in recent years in terms of complexity in direct relation to creativity.
In essence, the display was fairly good in my mind, but I got the impression that it fell apart because of its lack of consistency with the theme. The theme itself was apparent, but there was little effort in representing it with many things that could have been taken advantage of, particularly with that structure positioned at ground level. As canuck mentioned, much of the effects served little relevance (like the red cross) to what was supposed be demonstrated, and similarly to this, there was quite a bit of repetition in firing scheme, effects and colors, which did not really suit the theme as well. Finally, I felt that there were moments where there was a lack of balance from left to right (at mid levels predominantly), but this is a relatively minor criticism.
Despite what was said, it is obvious that my argument is constructed based on a well concocted thematic framework merely because this is the essence of all the performances and it is therefore very important that the entire show revolves around this. That said, this was still an enjoyable performance from our long awaited Mexican team, and there were many moments that were quite exciting and most thrilling. However, with the level that England is at (and even Spain to some degree), I'm afraid that Mexico may not make it on that podium given the circumstances (of course anything can happen; remember the results of 2005), especially with the remaining participants set to still present. Moreover, with the statement "the jury will be invited to judge what they have seen", I suspect that the problem at the opening will probably work against them, although extra time was given since the display closed at about 10:33. As Fred also said, after the pause the fireworks quickly resumed with nice synchronization; in my mind this made a returning good impression and may denounce any implications of that statement altogether because it certainly did not set us off track from the excitement of the performance. It still was also going with the flow once it resumed as well; an excellent recovery, mind you.
The general idea of the show could have had a little more distinction and thought to have a better well enforced design because the chosen theme, as I somewhat initially expected, exhibited constraints in the display to be effectively diverse, but unfortunately there wasn't much connection. It may have been better off if the display was constructed under a central focus of Mexican culture due to much of this performance being very consistent with patriotic colors, (let alone the music choice itself), so I think it would have been more successful in that regard. However, it was nice to see a good effort from the team, especially after their faithful entrance after 22 years; I was only a year old in 1985.
On a side note, I noticed that there were comments of smoke accumulations seen moreso from La Ronde's perspective, which rendered some points in the show nearly inconspicuous, particularly the effects of the structure positioned closer to the ferris wheel. From my viewing perspective on Notre-Dame and De Lorimier, we could see practically everything, including the red cross and the 4 spinning wheels. While some additional winds would have been welcomed, I believe the main story was obviously with its direction.
I'm still curious as to what may have caused the problem in the opening piece of the display.
Trav.
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