Nothing says freedom, pride, and independence like being able to crack jokes about how nothing says freedom, pride, and independence like watching stuff get blown up.

Especially if it’s at someplace as beautiful and as centrally situated as Lake Union.

Did we mention yet how there was a great huge full moon in a cloudless sky, on the night after the first warm day in weeks? Well there was.

For the first time since the Washington Mutual implosion, Seattle’s fireworks had a big-name sponsor this year (Starbucks). Last year, a local tech-job placement company stepped in; the year before that, local talk radio hosts successfully pleaded for donations to keep the show going.

So: One more “best show ever.” Twenty minutes of color light and noise on a grand scale. And unlike the San Diego show, the rockets didn’t all go off at once.

In case you had a TV on during a home viewing party but muted the sound after the fireworks were over, the band playing live to round out the telecast was Pickwick. They’re the current neo-neo-neo-blue-eyed-soul sensations around town.