Sunday, September 19, 2004
Changing of the Guard
Yesterday, in pictures :
The tail end of the horseguards parade. Riding in utter silence, and looking extremely knackered.
What you can't tell is that horses stroll at andantissimo - they look like they're slouching along in slow motion but they're still pretty quick.
what you don't see is the sergeant bringing up the rear, who is a mountain of a man. Brought Terry Pratchett's Sergeant Colon of Ankh Morpork to mind.
The actual changing of the guard...
is a song and dance routine. Okay, maybe no dance, but a lot of music. Honestly, I think they could have done better than "Dancing Queen". Oh, and they're (the Irish Guards) actually pretty good musicians too - not quite the MDC.
Afterwards I blundered into the Thames Festival. Another advantage of not owning a TV - being pleasantly surprised. This girl couldn't speak English for nuts, and with her accent I figured (correctly) that she had to be greek. She sent shivers up my spine... her music was self-composed, and had a slightly lost, wandering, haunting air to it. Almost like the stuff I make up, but ten times better (at least).
It's funny when a wanderer recognises another wanderer. It doesn't mean that much, and you can't really empathise since the journey will have been completely different. But it feels good to know there's someone else like you out there, and that you're not quite alone.
I sat down on the grass for an hour, listening, entranced. And then I noticed...
these two Big Blue People. There was something decidedly...
...fishy about them.
A typical London street performer, shiny, glitzy, a tribute in human concentration and extremely attractive to pigeons. Humans (like myself, here I apply the term loosely) find them a little boring.
Not your run-of-the-mill street performer. This guy apparently decided to take the mick of other Londonites, and perhaps even of other street performers. While they concentrate on looking cool, he concentrated on looking... like he was concentrating. Battling the crowds and the elements en route to work. He earned heaps of giggles, and not a few coins either.
A military wedding. You have to look hard at this one (click to enlarge) but the boys and girls in grey are forming a steeple of swords. Swoon. How romantic. :)
*****
A different kind of Changing of the Guard (clickable link)
Reads a fair bit differently to the local newspieces doesn't it?
I find it fascinating that when the international media interviews people for their political opinions, they gun for professional political professorial-types, in stark contrast to the Straits Times, which in their infinite wisdom prefer to select experts like Ah Seng the Coffeeshop Man, and JimBob Beng, 17, student. Sometimes they even (ooh) choose Mr BengalBombayman*, columnist of the NewIndia Times*, this article first appeared in the NewIndia Times* (but what they don't mention, interestingly enough is that the NewIndia Times* is actually based in Singapore).
It's sorta like their medical articles which are all written by a blatant amatuer - I don't care if he has an MBBS, his writing betrays him. He's a medical student posing as a clinical associate professor - some kid who barely completed his internship and moved on to reporting who turns overnight authority on every and anything medical. (Can you hear my axe grinding... growl)
Ah, but back to the CNN article. Does it make you feel hot-blooded and indignant? (Out of Bounds! Sue! Sue! Sue!) Or quietly contemplative....
* - fictional names, made up by re-minisce.
The tail end of the horseguards parade. Riding in utter silence, and looking extremely knackered.
What you can't tell is that horses stroll at andantissimo - they look like they're slouching along in slow motion but they're still pretty quick.
what you don't see is the sergeant bringing up the rear, who is a mountain of a man. Brought Terry Pratchett's Sergeant Colon of Ankh Morpork to mind.
The actual changing of the guard...
is a song and dance routine. Okay, maybe no dance, but a lot of music. Honestly, I think they could have done better than "Dancing Queen". Oh, and they're (the Irish Guards) actually pretty good musicians too - not quite the MDC.
Afterwards I blundered into the Thames Festival. Another advantage of not owning a TV - being pleasantly surprised. This girl couldn't speak English for nuts, and with her accent I figured (correctly) that she had to be greek. She sent shivers up my spine... her music was self-composed, and had a slightly lost, wandering, haunting air to it. Almost like the stuff I make up, but ten times better (at least).
It's funny when a wanderer recognises another wanderer. It doesn't mean that much, and you can't really empathise since the journey will have been completely different. But it feels good to know there's someone else like you out there, and that you're not quite alone.
I sat down on the grass for an hour, listening, entranced. And then I noticed...
these two Big Blue People. There was something decidedly...
...fishy about them.
A typical London street performer, shiny, glitzy, a tribute in human concentration and extremely attractive to pigeons. Humans (like myself, here I apply the term loosely) find them a little boring.
Not your run-of-the-mill street performer. This guy apparently decided to take the mick of other Londonites, and perhaps even of other street performers. While they concentrate on looking cool, he concentrated on looking... like he was concentrating. Battling the crowds and the elements en route to work. He earned heaps of giggles, and not a few coins either.
A military wedding. You have to look hard at this one (click to enlarge) but the boys and girls in grey are forming a steeple of swords. Swoon. How romantic. :)
*****
A different kind of Changing of the Guard (clickable link)
Reads a fair bit differently to the local newspieces doesn't it?
I find it fascinating that when the international media interviews people for their political opinions, they gun for professional political professorial-types, in stark contrast to the Straits Times, which in their infinite wisdom prefer to select experts like Ah Seng the Coffeeshop Man, and JimBob Beng, 17, student. Sometimes they even (ooh) choose Mr BengalBombayman*, columnist of the NewIndia Times*, this article first appeared in the NewIndia Times* (but what they don't mention, interestingly enough is that the NewIndia Times* is actually based in Singapore).
It's sorta like their medical articles which are all written by a blatant amatuer - I don't care if he has an MBBS, his writing betrays him. He's a medical student posing as a clinical associate professor - some kid who barely completed his internship and moved on to reporting who turns overnight authority on every and anything medical. (Can you hear my axe grinding... growl)
Ah, but back to the CNN article. Does it make you feel hot-blooded and indignant? (Out of Bounds! Sue! Sue! Sue!) Or quietly contemplative....
* - fictional names, made up by re-minisce.
