Ok, so I finally saw Singapore’s National Day celebrations (on tv). Back home (the US) we have something vaguely similar for Independence Day (4th of July), but not so much with the military theme (who exactly was guarding the nation when everybody was in the parade? Also, not so much with the strange kindergarten dance routines (I’m a tree! I’m an orchid! I’m a monkey! We all dance!).
No, mostly we just make our decrepit veterans march down the street in the sweltering heat, trailing oxygen tanks and colostomy bags, along with high school marching bands in funny hats and scratchy wool or polyester uniforms, baton twirlers, and Shriners (old men wearing fezes and driving these teeny-tiny cars they build themselves, their knees up by their ears, performing precision maneuvers). And floats. Lots of pointless floats, from obscure groups. And then later we all get drunk and eat charred meat. And after the free professional fireworks are over, we blow ourselves up/burn our neighbor’s house down/ get a ticket from the cops using quasi-legal fireworks bought from roadside stands that sprout like mushrooms just outside the city limits a few weeks before.
Now THAT’s how you have a national celebration. But then, the US has 189 more years of experience at such things than Singapore.
An adventure is, by nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose. ~G.K. Chesterton
5 comments:
The illegal fireworks are only fun until artillery shells start whizzing at you from an ill-placed spot on the baseball diamond.
And yes, coming from one of the finest first-chair cymbalists around, I can honestly say marching bands are hella awesome. Except when your left ear goes near deaf as a result.
"who exactly was guarding the nation when everybody was in the parade? "
I was one of them.
Grr. So touchy. I didn't seriously mean that all ofSingapore's military was involved in National Day stuff. Just that it seemed like it was.
Oh.
dope. you (7-8) have gotta be kidding when you thought mercermachine meant that line about guarding the nation.
Post a Comment