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And a happy new year to all. As there were no outstanding natural disasters recently Channel 5 aired its planned show, namely, twenty minutes of a beach party on Sentosa Island, five of them before midnight. It was hosted by local celebrities Michelle Cheong and the always game Gurmit Singh, whom you don't recognize, but I do. Part of the festivities was a fifteen-minute firework show all along the path of the cable cars from Mount Faber through Harbourfront to Sentosa Island, reaching out over Keppel Bay. Unfortunately they kept cutting away from the fireworks to show off the singers at the organized party, who were singing one of those modern-type songs that I don't understand.
In a peculiarly horrible twist the cable cars from Sentosa Island, Harbourfront, and Mount Faber (a hill just off the island) were sources of fireworks. The twist on that is that the cable car-launched fireworks were launched by the people inside the all-glass cars (most of the cable cars are metal and plastic with reasonable windows, but a few premium ones are much more glass-lined) who were not trained fireworks showmen, but rather the couples who paid to ride in the all-glass cars, which had little tables, cloth tablecloths, and dinner plates arranged for the ride. And people paid S$999 each for the privilege of riding in all-glass cabins late at night as fireworks shoot around them, and have the chance to push buttons setting off fireworks from the tops of their own cabins.
I've got only the reasonable, respectful fears of heights, fires, and explosives, not to mention of spending large amounts of money on short-lived affairs, but just thinking about that makes my hands and feet clam up, never mind what seeing the horrifying pictures on TV does to me.
Trivia: Auguste Comte's reform ``Calendrier Positiviste'' dedicated the new thirteenth month of Final to the abstract concept of industry, and the concrete person of Marie François Xavier Bichat, the anatomist and physiologist who introduced the idea of `tissues' into biology. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, E.G. Richards.
Currently Reading: Mind Partner and 8 Other Novelets From Galaxy, Horace Gold, Editor. (I notice the interesting spelling of `novelette' there.) Cordwainder Smith, Clifford Simak, uh ... Evelyn E Smith ... uh ... R A Lafferty and Chistopher Anvil ... and names I don't recognize at all. It was 1961.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-01 05:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-01 04:06 pm (UTC)Yes, that's the scene. Only imagine that animated, and with sparklers flying from the cable cars hanging by thin ropes sixty meters above the water.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-01 06:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-02 05:36 pm (UTC)Ah, well, that'll take care of the cable car ride, then. And have the cats hiding under the bed through to at least the Lunar New Year, which they celebrate with fireworks again now.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-01 06:59 am (UTC)I can see the cool aspect of being able to launch fireworks from an amazing viewpoint.. but that is the sort of thing where I'd need an incredible reason to be in one, moreso than just the launching of fireworks.
Marriage proposal is about the only thing that comes to mind.
--Chiaroscuro, and which Cordwainer Smith story?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-01 04:13 pm (UTC)Well, it's a small country. No time zones or even longitudinal variations to consider. Even the National Day or the Inaugurations are nice speedy affairs.
I'd be mighty uncomfortable asking (or, as it might turn out, being asked) to marry someone at a Special Event like that ... perhaps it's just too showy or public, but it seems to me asking like that is special by its own nature, and trying to top it with something like fireworks just interferes with the important emotion. That's probably a bit jumbled, but I'm not sure precisely why a nice ordinary dinner or such seems more suitable to asking.
The Cordwainder Smith story is ``The Lady who Sailed the Soul.''
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-02 05:18 pm (UTC)Ah, The Lady... my favorite Cordwainer Smith story not involving furries.
--Chiaroscuro
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-02 05:45 pm (UTC)I'm not sure which is my favorite Cordwainder Smith story, although it'd be a good excuse to reread the sets of them. I have to admit his style trips some kind of mental override switch so that I'll accept and enjoy just about anything he put on the page, whether it makes any sense or not.
Custom calendars
Date: 2006-01-02 03:42 am (UTC)Somebody needs to write a “Calendrier Negativiste” that dedicates its months to abstract persons, concrete concepts, and plastic pals who're fun to be with. By “need” I of course mean “such a thing would be amusing if executed well,” by “well” I mean “incongruous and unexpected," and by "somebody" I mean “one of us, because who else would care?”
For extra geeky points, the months should be configured such that they're equally usable on Earth, Saturn, and beneath the ice of Europa where the natively-evolved Jamescameronoid super-turtles are barely aware of their orbit about Jupiter, let alone Sol.
Re: Custom calendars
Date: 2006-01-02 05:49 pm (UTC)Well, I've done my part trying to come up with a reformed calendar. It just turns out there's not a blasted thing you can do as long as the Earth's year insists on being about 365 days, with 366 on occasion, not as long as you insist on keeping the calendar year roughly in tune with the sidereal year.
I'm not aware of an organized negativist philosophy, which would seem to go hand-in-hand with a negativist calendar, although just looking at the name would seem to suggest that an accurate negativist calendar would be a contradiction in terms.