The Northwest Arkansas Times<\/em> noted that leaving the mall after the fireworks used to take 2.5 hours.)<\/p>\nWhat an evening it was last Monday, much cooler than most Fourths and the sky was nearly clear. Parking seemed ample.<\/p>\n
We entered the stadium and found about a thousand people seated. We could hear Oreo Blue but where was this cover band? We asked a vested official, and he said they’re outside the stadium, around the corner.<\/p>\n
There the rockers were, with just a hundred or so listeners — on lawn chairs and blankets. The folks in the stadium obviously brought no chairs (or coolers, which are banned in there, forcing folks to buy concessions).<\/p>\n
The vested official had said Athletics didn’t want the musicians to damage the field. I asked a trumpeter buddy. He said the Winds plays on the field for a commencement ceremony almost every May, and there’s often a few games left.<\/p>\n
So what did the live-music fans do? Nearly all left for the stands before the “headline” act, my pals, started, lugging their seats. My wife and I, and maybe 20 others stayed to watch the performance of the “Stars and Stripes Forever” finale then “El Capitan” as encore then went inside for optimal fireworks viewing and its too-familiar, canned patriotic soundtrack: a choir, Lee Greenwood, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, John Wayne. We stood at the back of the bleachers.<\/p>\n
From 6:30 to 9:45 those who parked themselves in the bleachers heard what they may well have thought to be recorded music, even though it was live, just outside.<\/p>\n
It took us a good hour to get home; the UA didn’t execute its usual supervised traffic patterns. Some police were directing traffic, but not the full plan.<\/p>\n
What’s a commenter to say? Write this up as I have, a lay person who doesn’t quite understand and makes a lot of reasonable, if sarcastic, guesses to explain it. I could phone up and down City Hall, then UA’s University Relations, and learn the rationale and explain it here. Then mock it heartily.<\/p>\n
A blogger likely would just spout off as I have, but some would have made even a couple of calls before posting.<\/p>\n
A columnist might well report this up for a half-day then write what he learns and opine. Yet some good columnists see themselves as extensions of readers not super-reporters and just would record their perceptions and assumptions with little research.<\/p>\n
As a blogger, I have no trouble just writing this up as is. If this was a column, at this point in my career, I’d make a bunch of calls and “ask a bunch of questions.” It’d make for a stronger piece.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, I can hope to remember that next year we should: See the Arkansas Winds when they play a regular concert some other night (and Oreo Blue at George’s Majestic Lounge). We’ll sit 1.5 miles away at the top of Razorback Road and watch the fireworks display with our own choice of music on the car stereo. We’ll drive home when it’s all done but still minutes before the first of the traffic arrive. Hah! -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, July 5, 2005: For a few weeks, newspaper house ads and broadcast public service announcements have proclaimed that the city of Fayetteville would host a Fourth of July celebration at Baum Stadium of the University of Arkansas. It would succeed the ones held for years at the local mall. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[29,36],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-body-home-street","tag-columnist","tag-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":283,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/wheres-the-band-wheres-the-band\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":0},"title":"Where’s the Band? Where’s the Band?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"*A line, near the end of The Music Man. I wasn't the only one Saturday afternoon on Fayetteville's Dickson Street to ask about the latest funereal Mardi Gras parade. A friend asked me the question, near the Walton Arts Center, before I had a chance to make my semiannual whine.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":120,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/08\/short-term-newspaper-memory\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":1},"title":"Short-term (newspaper) memory","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 21, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005. Saturday, in The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas the local column of my old Little Rock colleague Doug Thompson (an earnest journalist, sardonic in conversation) wrote glibly and at times carelessly of Wehco Media purchasing from Community Publishers the assets of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":123,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/08\/go-hogs-quickly\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":2},"title":"Go, Hogs, Quickly","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. PollockSaturday, Aug. 13, 2005: News item: The Razorback football team of the University of Arkansas is ending a decades-old tradition of open practice. Starting this summer, the sessions will be closed to the public in general and the press in particular. If a tree falls in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6336,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2019\/04\/your-vote\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":3},"title":"I Would Appreciate Your Vote","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Candidate Ben Pollock Official U of A photo, summer 2014 I am running this week for a position on the University of Arkansas Staff Senate. The online balloting ends Monday, May 6. If you are a U of A staff member, you may choose to vote for me, and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education, Coarsely"","block_context":{"text":"Education, Coarsely","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/education-coarsely\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My Razorback roots go deeper than I thought. My maternal grandfather, Ernest Mendel of Fort Smith (born in Hot Springs), evidently attended the University of Arkansas. I've checked the Senior Walks of several years; he didn't graduate.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ernest-Army-Discharge-1920.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ernest-Army-Discharge-1920.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ernest-Army-Discharge-1920.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ernest-Army-Discharge-1920.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ernest-Army-Discharge-1920.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ernest-Army-Discharge-1920.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7334,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2022\/07\/3-cheers-for-nea\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":4},"title":"Three Cheers for NEA \u2014 Ra Ra\u00a0RA","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"UA Takes Its First Seat at NEA Convention By Ben Pollock, Local 965 secretary This report first was published in the July 2022 newsletter of UA-Fayetteville Education Association \/ Local 965. Lots of us this summer have had to consider both mass shootings and reproductive rights. I ended up diving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brick Bats Reportage"","block_context":{"text":"Brick Bats Reportage","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/brick-bats-reportage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ben Pollock of UA-Fayetteville Education Association \/ Local 965 takes the minutes July 3, 2022, (left) of the morning Arkansas caucus meeting July 3, 2022, at Chicago\u2019s Drake Hotel. At right, Pollock listens to debate July 4, 2022, at the NEA Representative Assembly at Chicago\u2019s McCormick Place convention complex.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":225,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/08\/two-no-comments\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":5},"title":"Two No Comments","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A popular sportscaster in Arkansas , Paul Eells, 70, was killed in a head-on collision a little after 8 p.m. on Monday, July 31. Also killed was the driver of the car into which his sedan crashed, Billie Jo Burton, 40, of Dover, Ark., who also was traveling alone. 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