Pyro Spectaculars by Souza took the Cup of the Gods (First Place) at the recent North American Pyromusical Competition. The competition […]

When talking about his work as a pyrotechnician, Jeff Thomas is quick to address the misconceptions.

"Still have all my parts," he chuckled, holding up his hands as evidence.

Having spent the past 41 years launching fireworks over the Bay Area, Thomas is just as quick when it comes to talking about the explosive craft he describes as an art form. As he and his crew with Pyro Spectaculars by Souza prepared Friday for their biggest show of the year — the Fourth of July spectacular over San Francisco — Thomas spoke of an artist's process of lighting up the sky and an entertainer's vision for dazzling millions.

"We're painting the sky with color and effects and pyrotechnic devices," he said, as crews loaded the explosive shells and mortars onto a barge at Pier 50 in San Francisco. "The way you send it up in the air to match the feel of the music, the different sequences you choose, it's very much an art form, and you try to outdo yourself every year."

Planning for next year

The 25-minute show, set to begin along the Embarcadero at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, culminates a year of planning and testing, Thomas said.

"We pretty much begin planning this show the day after," he said. "All throughout this year, we'll get the orders placed, they start getting shipped over, we do testing of the products, see what they look like, get a feel for them — and that fills our palette of paint for the next year."

Saturday's show will feature 10,000 effects, with "every color you can think of and every shape you can imagine," he said.

Much has changed in the industry during the time that Thomas has been putting together the fireworks shows. What used to be just random effects fired here and there into the sky is now charted on computer software, with technicians taking into consideration how high to shoot them, whether to compensate for the fog line and when to bring out the big guns.

With fireworks, "it's easy to entertain," Thomas said. "They're great on their own. But this just allows us to take the art form to a higher level. It's not just about making noise."

'Hurry up, let's go'

Many of the dozens of people sweating in the sun as they loaded the barge Friday said they shared Thomas' passion for the craft.

"I was always the kid saying, 'Hurry up, let's go, I can hear them!'" said Lisa Conley, an operator for the show. "I always wanted to participate in making this experience for people."

Saturday's show will be 27-year-old Alex Jessup's first foray into the pyrotechnics industry.

"I'm nervous because it's my first show, but I'm excited," he said. "My mom is nervous, but I told her I'd take pictures."

Though he never expected to participate in a show, he said he is happy for the experience.

"As a kid, you say, 'I want to do that,' but you don't really expect that it's going to happen," Jessup said. "I've always been the one watching, and now I get to see what goes into it."

Thomas said viewers should expect some surprises in Saturday's show, which he is dedicating to his mentor, Al Souza, who died this year.

'We are entertainers'

"There are a whole lot of people besides myself that are working on this stuff, and there's a sense of accomplishment," Thomas said. "We are entertainers for that 25 minutes and although we're behind the scenes, not the ones up in the sky doing the dancing, it's a good feeling knowing people are enjoying what we're doing."

They won't have much time to celebrate once their work is done Saturday — Thomas says as soon as the show is over, the crew is focused on cleanup. And then the next day, the planning begins again.

And he wouldn't have it any other way.

"I can't sing, I can't dance, but I'm able to entertain," Thomas said. "Each show is different and unique. I get to change it up and put some of my style into it. I enjoy it and I can do it, so I will keep doing it."

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo

Original Article -- http://goo.gl/Lz9Vvb

Attention fireworks lovers: This is your dream job. Fireworks may be your family's tradition on July Fourth, but dazzling explosives are in Jim Souza's blood.

He's a fourth-generation fireworks master and CEO of his family's business, Pyro Spectaculars. You've seen the company's displays at Super Bowls, Olympic ceremonies, Disney World, Kiss concerts, the Statue of Liberty, presidential inaugurations and, of course, Macy's Fourth of July show in New York City, the country's biggest. It is set to conduct 400 major fireworks shows this holiday weekend.

Basically Souza gets paid to create colorful explosions. Sound like fun?

"It's like producing a movie. You try to evoke emotions, drama, pride," he said.

The art form's history can be traced back thousands of years to the Han dynasty. The Souzas' fireworks legacy began more than 100 years ago with Jim's great-grandfather, "Papagaio." The Souza family's imprint on the industry is a big one.

Jim Souza started working on shows with his father as a teenager. After graduating from the University of Portland with a business degree, Souza set to work on one of the family's biggest achievements.

"In 1975 when the nation was preparing for its bicentennial celebrations, we were preparing for the fireworks show at the Statue of Liberty. That's when fireworks really began being recognized as entertainment," Souza said.

Another of the industry's crowning achievements came in 1986 at the Statue of Liberty's 100th anniversary celebration and, of course, the Souza family was involved. According to the American Pyrotechnics Association, the show included 22,000 aerial fireworks, 30 barges, 22 miles of wires and 777,000 pounds of mortar tubes.

Much of Souza's time is spent traveling the world in search of the best fireworks. He buys much more than he needs for a show because everything is tested, and tested, and tested again near the company's headquarters in the California desert.

"During the tests, we log color, hue, shape, effect, pattern, launch time, burst and effect duration all down to a split second. Then I head to my computer to choreograph the whole thing and decide how I want my fireworks to perform in the sky," Souza said.

Next he creates a simulation, which used to be a sketch before the technology developed. Then it's on to the operations side where the plan is put into motion. It takes Souza and his teams about a year to plan a big show.

The fireworks business is booming. Last year total revenue was more than $1 billion, up from 2000 revenue of $610 million, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association.

So, how do you get in on the action? Julie Heckman, the association's executive director, said she sees a pattern among the greatest talents in the fireworks industry: They're artists. Souza happens to be a painter and photographer.

"Jim has that creative gene that helps him visualize how he wants to paint the sky," Heckman said.

Pyro Spectaculars has 50 full-time employees and about 2,000 operators and crew members on July Fourth weekend alone. It offers training at the trademarked Pyro University.

"Just send me an email and we'll talk," Souza said in his familial tone. "There's lots of opportunity. This is show business!"

The big payoff for Souza is hearing the "ooohs" and "aaahs" during a show.

His favorite effect of all time?

"The 'Golden Camaro' has been my favorite since I was a kid. The entire sky lights up with gold weeping willow and twinkles that come down and just touch the water," Souza said.

Keep an eye on the sky this weekend during Macy's Fourth of July fireworks to see the "Golden Camaro" and maybe even some new tricks.

Original Article -- http://goo.gl/cZsvSA

Rose Bowl Hosts Largest 4th of July Fireworks Show in Southern California

Recognized as one of the nation's largest and longest running 4th of July fireworks shows, the Rose Bowl presents its 89th annual AmericaFest™ celebration on Saturday, July 4th with a spectacular nighttime display of more than one ton of fireworks.

Thousands of special effects fireworks will be launched from the stadium as part of the Rose Bowl's daylong family-friendly entertainment extravaganza featuring live motorcycle stunts, a musical performance by the Grammy-nominated "Liverpool Legends," the ultimate Beatles experience that was hand-picked by Louise Harrison, sister of Beatle George Harrison. Also joining the musical entertainment will be Brandon Bennet as Elvis Presley. He stars as Elvis Presley in the Tony Award winning musical, "The Million Dollar Quartet."

To celebrate the golden anniversary of when The Beatles met Elvis, both Elvis tribute artist Brandon Bennet and Liverpool Legends as The Beatles will perform their biggest hits from the mid '60s to the early '70s including an epic grand finale which will showcase both Elvis and The Beatles performing together. Following the fireworks extravaganza, a screening of Despicable Me 2 presented by Universal Pictures will be shown.

AmericaFest™, presented by Honda, is a Rose Bowl tradition celebrating its 89th year as the longest running 4th of July show in California. The Rialto-California based company Pyro Spectaculars by Souza will once again produce the Southland's largest fireworks show at the Rose Bowl.

"AmericaFest™ has been a family-themed 4th of July tradition and celebration for southern Californians for nearly nine decades," said Darryl Dunn, general manager of the Rose Bowl. "Each year the Rose Bowl strives to provide families with the best fireworks show in the West, and this year we will surpass anything we've ever produced for our Independence Day celebration."

Pyro Spectaculars by Souza has been family operated for five generations and has provided fireworks entertainment at the Rose Bowl Stadium for more than 35 years. Known worldwide for extraordinary firework displays, Pyro Spectaculars produces shows for the NFL Super Bowls, the Olympic Games and major events throughout the world.

"You really get to be part of a larger-than-life show that transforms the evening sky into a shower of explosive lights and colors," said Paul Souza, Pyro Spectaculars' Rose Bowl show producer. "This year we have some surprises that will deliver many 'oohs and ahs'."

This year's celebration will take place on Saturday, July 4, with opening ceremonies, including the Presentation of Colors and the National Anthem, starting at 7 p.m. AmericaFest™ will feature live motorcycle stunts by TNT before the Liverpool Legends and Brandon Bennet as Elvis perform.

A Family Fun Zone outside the stadium will open at 2 p.m. and offers food vendors, entertainment, crafts, exhibits and inflatable rides for the kids.

Tickets for AmericaFest™, presented by Honda, are on sale now at Ticketmaster (800) 745-3000 or at www.ticketmaster.com and are priced at $13 for general admission and $25 for reserved. Children 5 years and under are admitted free. Event parking is $25 per car vehicle at all lots. Veterans who present a valid Military ID will gain free admittance; those tickets can be obtained from the ticket booth near Gate B beginning at 3:00pm on July 4th only.

For more information on AmericaFest™, presented by Honda, visit: www.rosebowlstadium.com.

Original Article — http://goo.gl/gW2etc Download All Things Considered Interview Designing a vast fireworks show is a bit like composing music. There’s the […]

Orginal Article -- http://goo.gl/vBccIX

Question: What does Atlantic City call 10,000 fireworks shells shot off from two barges in the ocean and closely choreographed to a 15-minute soundtrack that culminates in a rousing rendition of John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever?"

Answer: A nice little warmup for July 4th.

That's because those 10,000 shells are just what the Atlantic City Alliance is having shot off from the ocean side of the city at 9:30 p.m. Friday — July 3 — to welcome the weekend crowds to town.
The alliance will shoot off that same barrage of 10,000 blasts, and back it up with the same music, at the same time Saturday night, July 4. Only this time, the center of the action — and the noise — will move across the island to an empty lot by the bay in the city's Marina District.

Christopher Souza, a fifth-generation member of the family that runs California-based Pyro Spectaculars by Souza, says it will take a crew of 16 experienced technicians about 4½ days to put the two shows together, shell by shell, grid by grid and wire by wire. And it takes miles of wire to control and synchronize a show with that many shells.

Souza's crew has been working on the barges, which are anchored on Absecon Inlet across from the marina, since Monday. And they won't be finished assembling Friday night's show until Friday, said Souza, whose experience in the family business includes years of being the technical director of Macy's July 4th fireworks in New York.

He's been the "big cheese" in Atlantic City for two summers, and he says the crew here includes a variety of professions — everything from doctors to drywall hangers to electricians to sound engineers — all drawn by a love of working with fireworks.

"Most of these technicians bless me by taking their vacation to come out here and work," Souza said, because to them, pyrotechnics are "a passion, not just a job. ... It's really like a hobby."
Plus July 4th is basically to the fireworks business what Christmas is to shopping in this country. Souza says Pyro Spectaculars is scheduled to put on about 400 shows this holiday weekend, "from sea to shining sea" — and then across some more sea and into Hawaii.

And fireworks can still draw a crowd in lots of places. The alliance's Melanie Sole said there's a range of very unofficial estimates for how many people one of Atlantic City's full-blast fireworks shows can bring out — "I've heard anywhere from 150,000 to 250,000," Sole said. "I think it depends on the weather and the day of the week, that kind of thing."
The casino-funded alliance is "bound by a confidentiality agreement and not allowed to disclose the fees" it's paying for the two shows, Sole said. But she added that the two barges, both locally owned, are "among our largest costs, after fireworks."

Fireworks can make a boom for other local businesses, too. Jeff George, captain and owner of Atlantic City Cruises, was happy to hear about the two nights of fireworks going off over the city this year, because fireworks sell out his tour boat every year.

"Those trips will go out full," George predicted Wednesday, very confidently — although he quickly added that as of right then, some tickets were still available for the Fireworks Cruise scheduled to leave Gardner's Basin at 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

And unlike many other summers, fireworks won't end in Atlantic City this year when the smoke finally clears from the July 4th show.
Tropicana Casino and Resort plans to host free fireworks, shot off the beach every Saturday night from July 11 through Sept. 4, the casino announced recently. Those weekly 10 minutes of fireworks will follow a pair of shows the Trop held Memorial Day weekend, and they're designed to promote the same project — the casino's new "Multimedia Sound & Light Show," which now plays nightly on the Boardwalk, every half-hour from 8:30 to 11 p.m.

Steve Callender, Tropicana's general manager, said the public response to the casino's May fireworks was "huge and positive" — as it has to the ongoing outdoor show of sounds and light.
And speaking of huge, the mortars that Pyro Spectaculars is loading up for this weekend range up to 10 inches in diameter — and are packed with enough gunpowder to shoot almost-basketball-sized shells up to 800 feet in the air, Souza said. But other, smaller shells go up and make their booms and burst their colors just 100 or so feet above the ground.

"We like to layer the show," he said, adding that in his lifetime of experience, the perfect viewing distance for fireworks is about a quarter-mile away from the shooting site.
And even though he has the firepower to send his fireworks 800 feet into the sky, Saturday's second round of 10,000 shells — the ones shot off on land near the Marina District casinos — won't go quite that high.
That's because much of the crowd tends to be closer on a land-based show, and it gets uncomfortable for people who are that close to follow fireworks bursting that high. Souza likes to create lots of oohs and ahhs at his shows, but he'd hate to be responsible for a quarter-million cases of neck strain — especially on his favorite national holiday.

Contact: 609-272-7237
MDeangelis@pressofac.com

The OC Register
Original Article -- http://goo.gl/n1VYXt

The premise sounds like something drafted in the notebook of a daydreaming teenager, the kind of thing that starts with, "You know what would be totally radical?"

It's the stuff of fantasy; Journey is onstage at the Hollywood Bowl accompanied by a full orchestra. Guitarist Neal Schon is shredding on his custom green Paul Reed Smith, and just as he launches into the loudest part of "Anyway You Want It," with the entire crowd singing along, fireworks start to illuminate the sky. They're silent at first, but as they rise higher and creep over the crowd, thunderous booms accompany the white spirals, red flares and purple bursts that now spread to all four corners of the horizon.

Luckily, the notebook containing this rock fantasy belonged to the opening-night committee for the Hollywood Bowl, and on Saturday, Journey played with a full orchestra for the first time in a career that has spanned four decades.

Perhaps the group has never played with an orchestra before because every Journey song is an anthem already, and the five members of the band have had no difficulty filling arenas with their sound. Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conductor Tom Wilkins, a rock star himself in the eyes of Bowl regulars, understands that dynamic. That's what made the pairing work; his orchestra was there to complement, not upstage.

On massively popular tracks like "Wheel in the Sky" and "Who's Crying Now," Wilkins directed his players to let the band work its well-honed magic, only really stepping out of the shadows during guitar solos. The format made for a cohesive performance.

Aside from the monster singles, the band went for lesser-known tracks that could be reinterpreted with an orchestra without leaving the audience feeling defrauded. Singer Arnel Pineda won the crowd over with his passion for his Philippines homeland on the song "City of Hope." The band veered even further from the karaoke bar with the 1978 song "Winds of March." As the seven huge LCD screens behind emanated a sinister red, the song's harder prog-rock elements paired especially well with Wilkins' conducting.

As the crescent moon set over the tree line, leaving a very visible Jupiter and Venus on the horizon, those onstage, including the 20-member choir from the Youth Orchestra LA, may have had the best view of the night. When a gentle breeze picked up during the calm opening chords of "Patiently," it seemed as though Wilkins' baton had some authority over nature.

The few moments in the band's 2 1/2-hour set that lacked energy didn't last. By the end of the restrained "Mother, Father," the crowd was ready for fireworks. When the pyrotechnics began during "Anyway You Want It," they were incredible. As the explosions multiplied in size and volume, all eyes were turned skyward. Drummer Omar Hakim, filling in at the last minute for Deen Castronovo, leaned across his kit to catch a glimpse from under the Bowl's iconic arch.

The band left the stage after the fireworks and returned faster than you could say, "Yeah right, like they're not going to play 'Don't Stop Believing.'" The Bowl audience didn't need fireworks to get inspired this time, not for the best-selling song in the digital era. And they didn't need sheet music to sing along to an anthem so catchy that it was still being sung long after the orchestra's final bow.