2018.06.09 - Day 87

They had what they call the ‘Mini 12th’ procession in my hometown, which blocked off all traffic and my careworkers couldn’t get to me at lunchtime. I managed anyway. This is what it looks like if anyone is interested; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbSr74PYWy8
Celebrating a battle in 1690 seems pretty stupid to me but people do enjoy the pageantry and bands. Bread and circuses?

I was surprised to discover a link to the whole audiobook ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhardt Tolle on YouTube this morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EL7XY6sjvw

I have read the book but this might be good to play on bedroom TV if I can’t sleep

"Everyone loves a parade" :) That bass drummer is certainly enthusiastic... and a marching accordion band, too! Also, interesting to hear the flutes playing the United States Marine Corps Hymn. I googled that, and it turns out the Marines got that tune from an Offenbach comic opera of the 1860s.

Thank you for the link, Zen. Brings back memories of when I played in marching bands in high school and college.

I have family in Dublin, GA and they seem to have parades about everything. Wonder if there is a connection. ;-) LOVE the accordion band (I have an accordian in SL)!

Today I discovered how much better I work when setting the timer, because I didn't. :/

Heading out to dinner soon, meeting the new boyfriend of my favorite daughter-by-another-mother (she always screens them with us). Delightful young woman, so smart, has had a turbulent time with herself and in relationships, partly because of all that energy. Seems to be finding her balances.

Feel so fortunate when the kids' friends take me as Mom. edited 19:32, 9 Jun 2018

Make up day

For those who don’t know the background to these parades, the one Zen mentions being but one example in the so-called Marching Season, you can look here.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_walk

I sympathize, Zen, and agree with your sentiment re-1690. I would question the notion of “panem et circenses” in relation to these parades though. Contrary to the rest of you, it doesn't look to me that many participants or spectators are actually enjoying the pageantry. That is not what they do it for! Rather the grimness and defiance so often associated with these events comes through. This is one of the things that I really don’t miss about the UK.

By contrast, I have experienced British parades with great pageantry that everyone seems to enjoy. Back in 1997 or 1998, I stumbled across a little known series of events, little known but enormous. In the cold dank November nights in the rural west of England county of Somerset, there are a series of carnival parades to rival Brazilian Mardi Gras. Through streets of villages and tiny towns, illuminated floats pass by, floats they have been working on for 12 months. They’re the most exuberant I have ever seen anywhere, televised or in person. The first carnival I visited, I was there right from the beginning. The parade processed at a steady pace and still took 3 full hours to pass by me! A small taste here:
https://www.somersetcountycarnivals.com

Meanwhile, I completed Homo Ludens. I found parts of the last chapter disturbing as Huizinga discussed international politics and war, in the knowledge of when and where he was writing it, and noticing his comments directed toward the Nazi regime. I discovered also that parts of the book were added after the first publication in 1938. An edition was published in Switzerland in 1944 and the final text has a passage that refers to the events of September 1939.

But as hinted yesterday, there’s more to report on my original project. A return to that will be the focus of my next 12 days... and beyond.