Saturday, August 16, 2008

Air and Water Show 08

Oh buddy!!! I went to the Friday opening of the Air and Water Show with my friend CK and a visiting sister and her BF. Managed to snag a location just to the right of the concert stage, and next to an area that had been blocked off (with what looked like temp bike racks) for disabled guests. Turns out the disable guests were disabled vets and their families.

Oh and uh, yeah I took the pics so give credit where it is due if you decide to snag 'em for viewing later. Thanks.


Of course the highlights of the show were not the Blue Angels, beautiful as they are. Nope, this year it was Bill Murray falling out of a plane and Gary Sinise giving a free concert with his Lt. Dan Band. Let me pause for a moment and say that it's very easy to diss on Hollywood's denizens, whether or not they live there, as all being a bunch of leftwing, "limousine liberal" types who don't understand the real world. Whatever their politics may be, Murray and Sinise are giving their time to the USO, and certainly gave of themselves yesterday afternoon.

So I got my wish and found myself pretty near to ground zero, and watching Bill Murray float to the ground attached to Sgt. Joe Jones of the Golden Knights.

But it didn't end there. Murray, who is working with the USO thus the freefall out of the plane, offered to buy a drink for every soldier he saw during the next 24 hours. He introduced Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band, suggesting at one point that Sinise run for mayor.




























Sinise went to work for 90 minutes straight, while Murray worked the vets in front of us for about a half hour.




That's Daddy in the orange shirt. After Murray was done, it was Sinise's turn to visit with fans while playing Superstition. Sinise's band, as you will notice at the MySpace link, tours for the USO.



We broke for dinner at CK's condo, then came back for the Golden Knights falling from the sky with pyrotechnics, followed by another aerial performance by a plane with pyrotechnics, and then a short but intense fireworks display. Happy people all around, especially those vets who got to hobnob ever so briefly with Bill Murray.

2 comments:

Fargo said...

It's very cool to see folks like Gary Sinise and Bill Murray giving their time to the USO.

I got to see part of Saturday's air show, including quite a bit of the Blue Angels' amazing stunts, from a kayak on the Chicago River. They did some runs along the river. Seeing them from water level gave a unique perspective on an extraordinary show.

Expat No. 3699 said...

Excellent pictures, thanks for sharing!

CK's lil sis