Talk Description to Me

Episode 58 - The 4th of July

July 03, 2021 Christine Malec and JJ Hunt Season 2 Episode 58
Talk Description to Me
Episode 58 - The 4th of July
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

It's the 4th of July weekend, which means there are lots of celebratory visuals for a couple of curious Canucks to talk about. From red-white-and-blue picnic foods, to stars-and-stripes fashions, and fireworks exploding in the sky, Christine and JJ consider it all.

If you are interested in taking your fireworks experience to the next level, check out the innovative verbal description technique we discuss in this episode:  "FingerWorks", developed by the good folks at VocalEye. Below are links to an article on the VocalEye website, and a series of workshop videos posted on YouTube. Happy 4th of July, friends!

http://www.vocaleye.ca/fireworks/
https://youtu.be/AajT1Y1R6vA

Support the show
JJ Hunt:

Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt.

Christine Malec:

Hi, I'm Christine Malec.

JJ Hunt:

And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to Me where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashed-out in description rich conversations.

Christine Malec:

Today we're gonna be talking about fireworks. And in Canada, the United States, it's a big weekend. It's July 1, which is Canada Day, and also the Fourth of July, which is American Independence Day. And so we want to talk about the festive parts. And we also want to acknowledge that in Canada, there's a lot of people who won't be celebrating Canada Day in the traditional way. And for many of us, it will be a time of reflection, and more somber consideration. And so we've talked about the memorials for Indigenous children in a previous episode. And we, we just want to put it out there that we also are approaching Canada Day with with a different sensibility this year. But we also have a lot of American listeners and for for those listeners, and for the Canadians who are are going to be attending fireworks celebrations or having some of that in their own in their own observation of of July 1, we're going to talk about some of that stuff and the visuals around that today. fireworks are a traditional part of lots of people celebrations on many occasions, but there's there's a particular stress on them in in the US on the Fourth of July. And there's lots of culture around that too. And so we thought we would we would have a bit of a little celebratory episode and talk about fireworks. So, JJ, for me, fire as a totally blind person. fireworks are lots of noise and an opportunity for my dogs to hide in the bathtub.

JJ Hunt:

Ha ha!

Christine Malec:

So I'm not really sure where to start here. Where do you think's a good place to start for someone who's kind of looking at fireworks as an anthropological experience?

JJ Hunt:

You know, it's fireworks are tricky. You know, I've been in the position of trying to describe fireworks live before and you're right, it can be a bit of a it's a chaotic experience, right. It is a very audio experience. If you're not, if you're not taking in the visuals of the fireworks, it's just noise. It's in it loud, and it's chaos. And if you do happen to be in a position of receiving description of fireworks, sometimes the description interferes with the if you want to if you want to take in the soundscape. The description interferes with that. And maybe you're at a performance of fireworks performance, where it's time to the music and you got the describer in one year, you got the music in the other and it's just it can be a bit chaotic. So maybe what we can do with this description is talk about some of the basics of fireworks talk about the kinds of the in general terms, what's what different types of fireworks look like. So that if you are participating in a fireworks display later on in the evening, or sometime in the weekend, you'll have some of this in the background, we'll try and reference sounds that some of the fireworks make as well. So that while you're listening to the fireworks, maybe you can key back to some of these descriptions. There's also I did want to mention a very cool outfit in Vancouver called vocal ly. And they in the past have done some description of fireworks and they found some some of their experiences similar to experiences that I've had with the frustration of trying to describe the fireworks and people not really fully appreciating it. And so one of the board members of vocalize back in I think this was 2014 2015, one of the board members, Colin van Uchelen, and the founder and executive director of VocalEye, Steph Kirkland, w om you and I Chris have both ad the pleasure of working wi h, they came up with a rea ly interesting technique to m ke fireworks description m re enjoyable. They call it fin er works. And the way it works is the describer stands behind he description user both facing he fireworks display. And as he fireworks goes off, he fireworks go off in the sky, he describer stands behind and t ey draw the shapes of the firewo ks they recreate the patterns on the description users back nd at the same time. They provid a little bit of ver al descriptions of things l ke shapes and colors and ot er elements of the event that re going on like smoke trails or happenings in the picnic or P rk grounds or whatever. And I th nk that descriptions we're going to provide today, if you were a so interested in in roping a fri nd or family member into try ng this kind of this finger wo ks technique, you know, into y ur fireworks display, I think t ey would marry together rea ly well. So we're going to p st some, some links to videos t at the vocally folks have ut together in our social med a. And in maybe these things can be worked together to can w rk together to create an interesting fireworks experie ce for y

Christine Malec:

I love that idea. It's so innovative because it brings a certain visceral somatic kind of experience to fireworks, which is kind of what they're supposed to be any way and the sound sort of does that. But I'm super intrigued by that. I'd love to, I'd love to experiment with that sometime. So yeah, if you have a informal describer in your life, someone who's kind of innovative and you know that you don't mind being touched by have a look at the videos in our show notes or send them to your to your sighted family or friends because that I'd love to and then and then please do like, poke us on Twitter or Facebook or email us and let us know how it went because I'm really intrigued by such an innovative approach. So where should we start with the visuals, JJ? What does this whole thing look like?

JJ Hunt:

Alright, so let's start by describing some of the most well known fireworks. These are kind of like the core fireworks. And the thing to remember about these is these different kinds of firework techniques can be combined in a variety of ways. So different colors can be matched with different effects. Maybe one of these fireworks though, the fireworks maker will add a sparkling tail to the rocket that ends with a willow. So there are all kinds of combinations and options and every commercial firework manufacturer designer is going to have their own take. And also keep in mind that local or backyard displays, they tend to be of course smaller, and you tend to get one off, so like one firework will go off, and everyone will cheer and that's that moment, and then the next one, and then the next one they separated. Whereas if you had a bigger display, not only are the fireworks themselves larger and higher and grander, they're just more grand in the sky. They're big and huge. But they're also overlapping, they play off one another and a proper designer is going to use the different fireworks. Like they're putting on a performance that has an emotional arc to it, right. So there'll be moments of relative calm and beauty and times when it's loud and chaotic. And the designers are playing with rhythm and pattern. And of course, usually it ends with the big grand finale with the bigger fire or the biggest firework you've got at the backyard display, or a wild epic barrage that goes on and on at a professional show. So let's start with some some of the specifics like there's there's a firework called a willow, or a brocade. This is a single shot fireworks. So in a backyard or local display, you'll hear it start with a bang, bang. And then there's a pause where nothing seems to happen because often the actual rocket that's going up into the sky doesn't have any kind of illumination to it until it explodes. So you're a bang, it shoots up in the air, and then two or three seconds later high up in the sky, there's another bang, and from a central point golden streaks of light burst out in all directions. And then the tips of those streaks all flash simultaneously. And this could be red, purple, yellow, a golden orange color. And then all of those streaks of light begin to sag like the branches of a willow tree as they slowly fall toward the ground and disappear. Some times those trails they stay visible for quite a while as they drop and then sometimes they dissipate quite quickly. And that's the willow tree because the the the shape of that as the as the trails are arching down toward the ground and slowly falling has this shape of a willow tree canopy. Sometimes the streaks shoot way out. And so by the time they start to fall into instead of looking like a cohesive willow tree, sometimes they're really quite far apart. They're quite separated. So it looks like they're just falling stars, and it can last 10 seconds. One of these giant willows can last 10 seconds. And sometimes the trails themselves are they have a crackle sound or a sizzling sound, those tend to look like sparklers. So that's the willow or brocade. Then there's one called a crow set. This is very similar to the willow. But there's another layer of simultaneous explosions. So you get the you get the bang, it goes up in the air, probably invisible and then up high in the sky, secondary bang, all of the streaks of light shoot out from the central point in all directions. And then in this case, all the bright tips of the streaking lights. They have a secondary explosion so they explode again. Boom, boom, boom. So it's like a fractal firework, where the ends they blowed again and sometimes the ends of those explode again. And that can sound like a few seconds of popcorn popping overhead. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like there's lots of different fireworks going off off of one rocket. Another firework called a chrysanthemum. Very similar again, the big explosion from a central point, with hundreds of bright dots bursting out in all directions. But with the chrysanthemum, they tend not to have the same Ember trails with the willows. So what it looks like is a big, expanding ball of colorful dots. And those dots often will change color in the sky. So I don't like not flickering so much, but they shift through a range of colors up to a dozen colors. As these chrysanthemum like slick snowball a giant ball in the sky expands with the shifting changing colors, I have seen a twinkling element to it. So the expansion of the ball of dots as it slows down, there's a there's a secondary chemical in the sky that that provides a twinkling in the sky behind it, that can be really pretty. Then there are the comments. So comets shoot into the sky with a tail. So right from the moment it leaves the ground, it's got a tail on it. And these comets it's it's really all about the tail, it's not about the the the secondary bang or the additional bang that follows up in the sky, it's all about the shooting from the ground with a clear tail. Sometimes the tails will corkscrew as they as they shoot into the air, sometimes they will dissipate into a fine shower of twinkling golden lights, they often arc across the sky. So if you angle your the firework on the ground, it will shoot into the sky on an angle and then that will encourage it to slowly curve or arc as it drops back down to the ground. So if you if you have two of them at a central point, and you angle them away from each other, or you can have multiples, not just two, you can have 2468, whatever songs, their pairs, and they're angled in opposite directions from the ground, you can then shoot them up there go up into the air and they'll arc away from each other. And you end up with this palm leaf pattern in the sky of these golden twinkling tails as they go up into the sky. Or you can do the opposite, you can shoot them from two ends of a field and kind of angle them toward the center. And then what you get are these overlapping arching comments on the one side, then the next side then the next side. And then big shows, they sometimes use these comments, the line them up straight in a line and shoot them straight up into the sky. And you can kind of create a wall of light a wall of straight tails that go all the way up. Or you can tie them such that one goes off just a fraction of a second after the other. So it creates a wave pattern. So the height, you know there's a wave to the height of this wall as At first, they all go up and then they all start fading away again. So you can shoot these off at all in all different ways. Another way they're used in big fireworks displays is if you have a moment of amazing chaos, like the grand finale while other fireworks are going off. If you want to add another layer of crazy chaos, you shoot off a couple of comments as well. So like on top of all the explosions high in the sky, you get these long comets, these rockets coming straight off the ground. So that's a comet, then you've got rings. So rings are like it's a.of light that shoots into the sky. So again, you've got the explosion from the ground, the one ball of light goes straight up into the sky, no tail, but then when this ball of light that's going up into the sky explodes, it explodes in a perfect circle of individual lights. So similar to the willow or chrysanthemum. But instead of being a sphere of lights, it's a ring. And they can actually do some very cool things with the way they place the chemicals inside the rocket. So the same kind of ring can be made to look like Saturn so it can be a ring with a ring around it. Or you can arrange the chemical so they explode into a smiley face. And it's really pretty amazing that had see these like faces these very simple pictures basically being drawn in the sky. Lots of different colors. Sometimes they have flashes or flickers associated. But what it ends up being in the sky above you once it has exploded is a Picture Made of points, little dots of light. That's what the rings look like either a single ring or a simple picture using dots of light. And then there are ghosts shells. So go shells are very cool. And there are lots and lots of variations on ghosts. shells. One example is there's an explosion on the ground, and then there's silence, no tail leading up to on the rocket that's going into the sky. When it does explode high in the sky, again, it's exploding from a central point, like the fast chrysanthemum. But it explodes very, very quickly. And then there are a series of subsequent explosions from the tiny dots that make up the expanding ball. And there's usually a little moment a gap between one and the other. So it goes up in the sky, it explodes, and then all the little dots that explode off of it, they explode again. But they're there these gaps in between, so you think it's done. And then suddenly, in another part of the sky that you know, it goes off again, and then it goes off again. So maybe the dots will flash red or blue and then disappear. And then a full second later, all of them will crackle back to life, like tiny half second sparklers. And I think it's that multi layered element with the hidden effects. That's what makes it a ghost shell. And then there were horse tails. So horse tails are rockets that shoot into the sky. And they might be visible as they as a rocket shoots in the sky, there might be a tail, and then when it explodes, there's a cluster of very bright stars that burst out and they really are star shapes, they look clearly like stars. And it's this cluster that shoots out, and then they start to fall back toward the earth, and they leave this bright, clean tail of light behind them. And it's the shape of those tails. That gives the horse tail the name the firework, the name horse tail, because it ends up arching back down to the ground. And then sometimes the stars will explode or twinkle or change color as they fall. Then our minds so minds are fireworks that are shot from the ground in a V shape. So kind of like a very tall, thin straight palm leaf. Straight up from the ground in a V shape, often sparkly, often red, white and blue for for the Fourth of July. There's not a single explosion here, it's more of a shower of sparkling shape like that. This is the kind of firework that, that designers will use to draw attention to the ground. So it's not necessarily a high in the sky firework. So for example, if you're if there's like a speech at a fourth of July celebration, and at the conclusion of the speech, it's an exciting moment, you want to draw attention to the end of the speech, you might have a pair of these behind the podium, and they shower red, white and blue sparkles 30 feet into the sky. That's kind of what a mine is.

Christine Malec:

Am I right in thinking that it matters a lot where you are when you see these, these displays go up? Because what you're describing sounds like you want to be at just the right distance and just the right angle.

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, really, there are different I mean, different people have different take different pleasure of being in different places, right. So if you're in a park, for example, and these are going off in the park, some people want to be really close. So you're almost you know, head tipped back, looking straight up in the sky right above you. And doubt the volume is incredible. When you're when you're taking in fireworks that way, you feel really close and connected. And frankly, there's more of a sense of danger, because these are explosions that are happening on the ground. And it can you can feel more of that if you're really close. Some people like to be like on a rooftop or a on a balcony of an apartment building looking out across a you know, in Toronto, we've got the waterfront and lots of fireworks displays down to the water. And if you've got a lake front or a condo or apartment, you can stand on your balcony and look out and it's all across the sky and you're not so much hearing the noises even if you do the delay is pretty, you know, significant for the sounds, it's more about seeing these distant lights flashing in the sky and and those are more it has a more delicate feel to it. It doesn't feel as raw and visceral. It's more this pretty light show in the sky. So if you're far away, it really does have a different a different impact than if you're close up and you're and you're feeling the explosion and you're seeing the smoke.

Christine Malec:

Are there any fireworks that don't make sounds?

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, there are. So I mean kind of any of these. You can, the fireworks creators can tweak the sounds. So a good example of that is a strobe there's a strobe firework that's a broad effect firework, it's often used as a backdrop to other fireworks at a big show. So what a strobe does you shoot them up in the air and they spread way out and then they flash and it creates a blanket of twinkling lights in the sky. It makes the entire sky sparkle, often with white or golden flickering lights can be colors, reds, blues, whatever. And depending on the weather conditions, it can look like lightning in the clouds if you've got a cloudy backdrop really cool, really dramatic, but there are a couple of different ways you can do that there's going to be an explosion as it shoots up into the air. There's going to be a secondary explosion as it bursts into the air and spreads those are definitely going to have sounds to them. But then the actual twinkling the the strobing can be silent so that it's just a look in the in the clouds and you're what you're looking at then are the other fireworks that are going on in front of it and listening to those. But you can also make those crackle like you can have like a, like a sizzling crackling sound, or they can also create a popcorn sound to them. So there are different chemicals that put into the fire that get put into the fireworks to create different sound effects to go with. And you can I don't know if there's any that or if there are any that are completely silent. But there are certainly some where the sound is not the emphasis.

Christine Malec:

What does the one look like where it's, um, it's a whistle?

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, so whistles tend to be comets. So you've got the tail as a cut across the sky, whistling as as they cut across the sky. But sometimes the whistles can be put on those that are invisible. So you hear the bang as they shoot off the ground. And then you hear a whistle, but you can't see anything. So it's just a way of adding to the drama. So the whistle comes in, something's flying into the air, but you can't see where it is you can't see the little dot, you can't see the rocket against the night sky and then suddenly, boom, it explodes. And you heard the whistle, you know it's coming, but you don't know where it's going to end up. So the whistle can be used in different ways it can be used with a visual, like the comet going across arching across the sky or can be used with the invisible rocket that's going into the sky. To add to the drama.

Christine Malec:

JJ and I being from Canada as we are. We know what you know, first of July celebrations typically look like here. And but we wanted to talk about the culture of the Fourth of July because I think it has a different vibe and a different obviously a different look. But here's where we sort of approach it like a curious anthropologist. And so, Judy, what kinds of things strike you as someone who's not American Margie, you lived in the states for a bit too. So what what strikes you visually when you look at Fourth of July celebrations and what the visuals are there?

JJ Hunt:

I mean, really, it can be summed up as red, white and blue stars and stripes. Obviously this is no great revelation. But the amount of red, white and blue the indeed the way that the stars and stripes get incorporated into kind of any element of backyard decorating festive clothing, the food, it is it's next level and certainly in Canada. You know, on Canada Day, there are lots of Canada flag things right you go to the dollar store right now. And you can find Maple Leaf paper napkins and paper plates and you know maple leaf, plastic tablecloths, hats, whatever. And if you're in the UK, you know any time of year if you're in the UK, you can certainly find people probably tourists wearing union jack shirts or even union jack bathing suits. But the red white and blue stars and stripes around the Fourth of July is it's simply next level. It's really something. It's extraordinary. So again, like you said, I've lived in the states before, but it's been a long time since I've hung out you know haven't had the opportunity of late to be down there. So I don't have a personal visual reference right now. So what I did was I went online and I just started Googling Fourth of July with it with an image search just to see what was going to come up. And one of the very top predictive typing options when you start typing in Fourth of July is Fourth of July decorating ideas. Because every magazine every online purveyor of style or fashion or DIY tips are crafting. All of them have wisdom on the topic of Fourth of July decorating ideas generally in the form of a numbered list. So for example, a magazine called house beautiful has an article titled 35 Star Spangled decorations for your fourth of July celebration. And the photos of these of these suggestions are amazing to most of us who aren't living in that context. So, for example, a photo of a guest bedroom with a framed American flag on the wall, another framed photo of a photo of a flag on the bedside table. And then the sheets of the of the guest bed are red and white striped bedsheets. This is how to decorate your guest bedroom on the Fourth of July. Another image in their list is paper flags and pinwheels in patriotic patterns. So paper flags that are strung in lines or PIN wheels or little fans paper fans that when you unfold them, they are different patterns in in Stars and Stripes. They also had a balloons, so not only red, white and blue balloons, but they silver foil letter balloons, u s and a and then blue cheerleader pom poms in red, white and blue hanging on the wall surrounding the USA balloons. A mason jar holding a bouquet of Star Spangled biodegradeable straws, so white paper straws with tiny red and blue stars on them. And then I went to glamper life.com I found this glamour camping website called glamper life. They had some really interesting pictures, they had a picture of three pineapples, and each pineapple was spray painted a different color, one red, one white and one blue. And they were sparklers sticking out of each pine each pineapple. And they also had a wreath made of red, white and blue plastic solo cups. So these are the, you know, plastic beer drinking cups for picnics. And someone had made a nice wreath out of the red, white and blue plastic cups. Yeah, really next level, and then the picnic food. That's a whole other thing. So picnic food, specifically for Fourth of July celebrations. So you know this starts with simple stuff. I saw some pictures of red and blue lollipop bouquets. Very simple. Then you move into substance a little more complicated, like the flag fruit pizza. You ever had a flag fruit pizza, Chris?

Christine Malec:

No, I definitely have not. I've got nothing. What is it?

JJ Hunt:

Well, this is... I've never seen one of these at a Canada Day a celebration. But so this is like a rectangular, you know pan with either a sweet bread crust or even a cake crust or something. And then white cream cheese icing over the whole thing. And then a grid of purple grapes in the upper left, those would be representing where the stars would normally be. And then alternating rows of banana slices and cut strawberries for the stripes. And there's tons of different variations.

Christine Malec:

Sign me up for that. That sounds really yummy.

JJ Hunt:

Sounds goofd, eh? There are lots of different kinds of those, with different kinds of berries, usually berries, red berries for the stripes, and sometimes it's just the icing that comes through no bananas, whatever. I also saw a bean dip version of the American flag.

Christine Malec:

Ha!

JJ Hunt:

So layer of guacamole. And then like a corner of black beans in the upper left that's represent the or the star patch, and then alternating rows of grated white cheese and and sliced cherry tomatoes. Hmm.

Christine Malec:

Now you see this isn't going where I thought I thought there would be lots of hideous dyes and food dyes involved and food coloring. But actually so far these use natural foods.

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, if you want the food dye then you go for the rice krispie squares.

Christine Malec:

Oh.

JJ Hunt:

Layered Rice Krispie squares. So it's like, you know, blue on the bottom, a plain kind of beige tan color rice crispy in the middle and then the red on top. But honestly, in order to get that kind of brilliant red or brilliant blue, you got to use a lot of professional great food color. Okay, I also saw patriotic marshmallow pops is what they were called. So you first skewer a marshmallow that's rolled in blue sprinkles. And then just a plain white marshmallow and then a marshmallow that's rolled in red sprinkles. And you present them in a bouquet with all of the skewers standing in a jar of red, white and blue sprinkles Of course. And then my favorite in this was the patriotic cold cut kababs is how you get a roll slice of spicy red salami. See put that on there, first the skewer it. And then you take a little white like white book and cine ball little white cheese ball and you put that on there and then you get a purple all of to represent the blue so you and then you repeat. And so you end up with this you know layers red, white, blue, red, white blue with, you know cheese and meat, it's it looks pretty good. You can also space them out so you can arrange them on the skewers and then arrange the skewers on a rectangular tray such that all the olives end up in the upper left and all the cheeses line up.

Christine Malec:

That is beyond my entertainment. Yeah, I'm not that. Now, I remember someone cited telling me that blue foods are generally seen as kind of repulsive, how is that handled?

JJ Hunt:

That's interesting. So there just aren't that many of them. First of all, like there's just not a lot in natural, like you get blueberries. Blueberries in the in the fruit flags, you'll find a lot of those because that's what's blue, but real that's why you end up with olives. Because that purple color is kind of you know, that's what you can find there just aren't that many natural foods so you have to go and you kind of right if you're gonna if you're if you're going to do it, you might as well go wild because trying to make something a little bit blue is not appealing. So you instead go like neon blue with blue sprinkles and put it on a marshmallow. Download like that's almost as appealing as trying to turn it something vaguely blue because blue doesn't really work.

Christine Malec:

I remember last year at the at the Summer fair things that the rainbow grilled cheese was the big thing that kind of made me go. Yeah. Did you see any red white and blue attempts at grilled cheese?

JJ Hunt:

Oh, no, I haven't seen that. But that'd be... what could you do there? You could use a dyed red piece of bread on top of blue piece of bread on the bottom and then white cheese in the middle or something. You can have your red white and blue.

Christine Malec:

Blue cheese? Could you put blue cheese in there?

JJ Hunt:

Blue cheese. You know, I've tried to use blue cheese to make blue foods.

Christine Malec:

It wouldn't melt.

JJ Hunt:

No, it just doesn't work and it ends up becoming

Christine Malec:

Way worse!

JJ Hunt:

It just doesn't look right. this like gray death stuff.

Christine Malec:

How about apparel? What are people wearing?

JJ Hunt:

Wow. So again, like t shirts, hoodies in any country's flags those are absolutely commonplace you go anywhere in the world, you can find a souvenir t shirt that's got a you know, whatever the country's flag and that's totally commonplace. But the American flag clothing is entirely next level again, right? Like it's you take the design elements of the stars and stripes and apply them to fabric in a way that is really not done anywhere else that I've that I've seen before, a little bit in the UK with the union jack but really, it's it's next level. So okay, I don't know if you're going to catch these fashions at every fourth of July barbecue or local fare, but they are certainly available online and often sold by completely mainstream stores. So for example, I found a picture of an American flag suit. And I mean a proper men's suit jacket and tie suit. The left side of the suit, from shoulder to pant cuff all the way down the arm is bright blue, with palm sized white stars all the way down one side. And then the other side is vertical red and white stripes. And the model wearing this is like wearing a white shirt with a white tie and his you know handsome man and he's doing that you know catalog model thing where he's adjusting the cuff of a suit like there's nothing goofy about it. He's like, the model anyway, is proud to be wearing this to work, apparently. I mean, this is a bold choice. I also saw the exact same design but in an overall. So instead of being a suit, it stars on one side and stripes on the other of overalls. I also saw blazer. So a navy blue blazer that's blanketed with American flags. And this was worn with red pants I saw available at Walmart, matching women's and girl girls dresses. So the top half is blue sleeveless top with white stars with a very wide white belt. And then a big long skirt all the way down to the floor with a horizontal red and white stripes. Another version an off the shoulder beach shirt, long sleeved with an oversized neck. And it's it's blue with white stars from like the elbows all the way across the bus line and up and then horizontal red and white stripes below. So really what's different here from most places that I've seen these kinds of clothing is in most cases in you'll get a picture of the flag or an element of the flag on a shirt on a background. And what's different here is that the the design elements themselves, that's what the fabric is made up right that's the real difference that i don't i don't see a lot of in other countries so that that's really different. And then they're the graphic tees. So graphic t shirts. Always popular. And there's a there's a whole subset of graphic t shirts for the Fourth of July. So for example a pair of Stars and Stripes. Ray Ban sunglasses, so these are like the Joe Biden sunglasses we've talked about before. And on one lens you've got the you know the stars and then the other side the other lens. You've got the stripes and big bold white letters beneath it. Merica so not America, apostrophe M-E-R-I-C-A. And that Merica thing really plays out in the T shirts. You see a lot of Merica. So have you ever heard of this celebrity internet chef named Salt Baye? Have you heard of this guy? Nope, no I haven't. So Salt Bae fronts this amazing pursed lips, pony tail, sunglasses attitude, and he seasons food by pinching salt in his fingers. And then he kind of pushes his elbow forward and puts his and bends his wrist forwards like almost like he's making a crane shape. And then he he sprinkles the salt on to his forearm down the forearm off of his elbow onto your food. It's very 2018. Ew. Sorry, but ew. Iit's all attitude. It's like the way this guy, pursed lips, you know ponytail and he's sprinkles the thing. So internet marketers have taken this meme chef and turned it into a fourth of July shirt. So it's a cartoon of Donald Trump with the same pursed lips attitude and sunglasses. But instead of sprinkling salt down his forearm, he's sprinkling red, white and blue stars on to the word Merica. And I have seen that on a T shirt, but I've also seen it on a miniskirt, which is that was pretty bold. Another shirt that I must be popular just this year, different images, right cartoon presidents flags, whatever, but the sentiment is the same in Stars and Stripes block letters it says vaccinated and intoxicated. That's, that's this, this drunken t shirt thing is a big big seller online anyway, so lots of like partying and drinking t shirts for the Fourth of July. The classic seems to be a cartoon Abraham Lincoln with stars and stripes sunglasses and a Stars and Stripes bandanna, and it says underneath it says Drinkin' like Lincoln.

Christine Malec:

Heh heh heh.

JJ Hunt:

And then there are lots of variations on that. So like there's also Abe Drinkin, or Teddy Roosevelt. Or Ben Ben Drankin, instead of en Franklin. My personal fav rite, George Sloshington.

Christine Malec:

Oh my gosh, wow. Well, wherever you are, and whatever you're commemorating, we hope you get to do it with family and friends. We love making this podcast. If you love hearing it, perhaps you'll consider supporting its creation and development by becoming a patron. We've set up a Patreon page to help cover the costs of putting the show together. You can contribute as a listener or as a sponsor to help ensure that accessible and entertaining journalism continues to reach our community. Visit patreon.com slash talk description to me that's pa t ar e o n.com slash talk description to me have feedback or suggestions of what you'd like to hear about here's how to get in touch with us. Our email address is talk description to me@gmail.com. Our Facebook page is called talk description to me. Our website is talk description to me.com and you can follow us on Twitter at talk description.

FingerWorks Description technique
Fireworks
4th of July decorating
4th of July picnic food
4th of July clothing