Next year, don’t even think about booking a session to record vocals on July 3rd. Firecrackers—especially M80s—make this a very bad plan.

My neighborhood is usually very quiet, but right now it sounds like downtown Baghdad. Somebody just set something off even bigger than an M80—I felt the house shake under my feet. At least it’s been raining the last week, so we don’t have to worry about fires.

I’m not much into firecrackers any more. In a fraction of a second a firecracker can make my ears ring worse than hours of loud music. Where’s the fun in that?