Saturday, August 12, 2006
rmbered that i was supposed to blog about ndp.
i tell you i tell you. once a year i feel patriotic. once a year i feel proud of my country. once a year i actually sing the national anthem and say the pledge. just once a year. yep. and i actually like it.
ndp was like...a typical sports meet. people gather in a huge venue, people cheer together, people enjoy celebrations, people get hot and sweaty. lols.
just that for ndp its like tens of thousands of people gathered in a stadium, where our cheers are echoed loud enough to be heard from jb or smth. ndp was indeed fun. from moving around again and again to find good seats (therefore naturally stepping on alot of ppl's feet), to the hosts hang-gliding down, to the magnificent choir, to the dropdeadcool (and deafening) F-16s, to the myriad of colourful performances and to the gorgeous fireworks illuminating the night sky at the end.
after a while, even the most stoic person would be on his/her feet cheering their guts out at some point. kudos to the choir! i know all u see on tv is this flock of uncoordinated kids with blank looks on their faces, but seriously, they are so much more vivid and visually coherent live. its so pretty to watch.
my favouritest segment will always be the fireworks. its when they really pull out all the stops. while last years one was a whole ten minute extravaganza of varying fireworks displays, this years fireworks were somewhat interspersed throughout the show. which meant that once in a random while, at the end of some performance, fireworks would just suddenly shoot out of nowhere and the enture crowd would go 'woaahhhhhhh'. i can still remember out of the blue. i think it was after the countdown for the show segment to start. two gorgeous golden sparkleballs emerging from the two opposite pillars of stadium lights heading diagonally downwards towards each other, finally meeting out of sight. they may look really small on tv but it was so beautiful.
and then the stadium just erupted around me. thick stunning jets of red, gold and white fireworks shot upwards from the perimeter of the stadium all around us, one by one in opposite directions, until the circle was complete and then it started all over again. the entire stretch of dark night sky was illuminated again and again and again. just beautiful. to put it in the cliched way, it felt like my world was exploding.
the fireworks were like multi-hued fingers reaching out into the colossal darkness, which surrounded and embraced it, but lost grip almost immediately so that the glittery streaks fell back towards the ground once more. so pretty. i think you've realised by now that i really am in love with fireworks. haha. i found out years ago that fireworks could actually make me cry. they are supposed to be celebratory, but in my eyes, they represent sadness. they are sad and they are beautiful.
i think the japanese put it the best. they describe it like no other language can, with a gorgeous simplicity that no other can match.
hanabi - fireflowers.
