BARRY COURTER: Lisa, it's time to blow stuff up.

LISA DENTON: Yee-haw. You're getting dangerously close to a redneck's last words: "Hey, watch this."

BARRY: Oh man, those words will be uttered a bunch this week, I bet.

LISA: You are correct. I expect to hear a lot of explosions in my neck of the woods Thursday to end the Soddy-Daisy Fourth of July festival. It's always a busy day with a car show and firemen's muster and food vendors. That's all happening at the park by Soddy Lake, by the way. Not at my house - although there are parts of the day at my house that resemble the bigger celebration.

BARRY: We should have a journalist muster. It just sounds fun, doesn't it? And kind of important at the same time.

LISA: AP Stylebooks and reporter notebooks don't seem as exciting as fire hoses and ladders, but I guess we could do what they do at the lake - just add water.

BARRY: Soddy-Daisy does it right. There will be celebrations all over the area, and one of the biggest is the annual Pops on the River performance by the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera at Coolidge Park. From a visual and audio point of view, this is one of the coolest events all year, in my opinion. The CSO doing marches and patriotic music with the city and river as a backdrop. It's hard to beat.

LISA: The East Tennessee Symphony Orchestra will be doing a similar concert at Veterans Memorial Park in Collegedale, and the Tabernacle Big Band will perform at Patriotism at the Post in Fort Oglethorpe. All three concerts are Wednesday night.

BARRY: People always ask about what you can bring to the Pops concert, if you know what I mean. I always tell them the same thing I tell folks going to Bonnaroo: "Don't be an idiot and don't make the authorities deal with you, and you will be fine."

LISA: If you're looking for fireworks, you can go to the Chattanooga Lookouts game Thursday or Friday or to Lake Winnepesaukah on Thursday or Saturday. And Signal Mountain will end its annual barbecue with fireworks at Althaus Park on Thursday.

BARRY: Hey, watch this.

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Contact Lisa Denton at ldneton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.