Just as a note - this post is HUGE in my flist, and the picture-loading made my internet flail at me. I don't suppose you'd mind lj-cutting some of the pics?
...this is not to say that I didn't READ the post, because I did, but there was a LOT of scrolling. And I do have to say that I don't know most of those pics and vids...but I'm Aussie, not American. Chinese New Year and Saint Patrick's Day...hmm. Canberra and Queanbeyan do fail a bit on the bigness of multicultural festivals, but in general St Pat's day really isn't seen as a big deal over here, as far as I can recall. Chinese New Year is more so, and celebrated and reported on the news and everyone is welcome to come and watch, but I wouldn't say it was nearly as well integrated into things as it seems to be in San Fransciso. Maybe that's different in a city with an actual Chinatown, but...well, I'm a Canberra girl, and my city didn't exist until the 1920s.
Whoops, sorry - I meant to cut the last batch of pictures. Fixed! Sorry about the scrolling.
I think San Francisco is more of a FUCK YES DIVERSITY AND WE'RE GONNA PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE WITH IT BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE ROLL, BITCHES. And anyone who doesn't understand that is kindly shown the door. We have our share of idiocy (homophobia, transphobia, racism), of course, but the most frequent kind of bigotry I see overtly expressed? Is against people from Los Angeles. (Remember, we have that long-running feud with L.A. Sadly, L.A. doesn't know about it.)
I've recently seen footage of the Chinese New Year's parade/celebration in Liverpool. Poor Liverpool. It's cute and all, but dude, it cannot compete with us.
St. Paddy's day here is purely marketed for commercial purposes. It lost all meaning decades ago as a celebration of St. Patrick. But you know what IS awesome? All the bagel shops here make GREEN BAGELS for St. Patrick's! Wow, it's like my heritage all wrapped up in one piece of breadstuff! Bagel! Green!
Green bagels. That's not just in San Francisco, mind you. What, you people don't occasionally verdantize your schmears?
(Keep in mind that there's an astonishingly high rate of historical marriage in the States between Jews and Irish Catholics. If there wasn't, I wouldn't exist! I have links somewhere talking about those demographics - when Jews started marrying out in large numbers in the States, for a while there they most often married Irish Catholics and Italian Catholics rather than WASPs. Which makes perfect cultural sense to me for a variety of reasons.)
Out of curiosity, given my inevitable trip to Australia sometime within the next eighteen months, what do you people call an assemblage of lox, bagels, and cream cheese?
(I'm assuming that Australian slang, which I find hilariously awesome, has stepped up to the plate on this particular subject. NO PUN INTENDED.)
Edit: Regarding the marriage thing: all compulsively verbal and outspoken cultures, matriarchal in home life, big literary traditions, guilt, guilt, guilt, and an oft shared opinion that most WASPs are boring, entitled twits.)
:O! You are coming here?! OH, THANK YOU! I have had so, SO many people over the past few months go "oh, but I'll never go to Australia. I'll die. You have have spiders and snakes". It has been getting...rather tiresome, to put it mildly.
But, um...I'm not actually sure? Bagels are not something I'm familiar with.
And ooh, that makes a lot of sense, re: Jews and Irish/Italian Catholics.
...this is not to say that I didn't READ the post, because I did, but there was a LOT of scrolling. And I do have to say that I don't know most of those pics and vids...but I'm Aussie, not American. Chinese New Year and Saint Patrick's Day...hmm. Canberra and Queanbeyan do fail a bit on the bigness of multicultural festivals, but in general St Pat's day really isn't seen as a big deal over here, as far as I can recall. Chinese New Year is more so, and celebrated and reported on the news and everyone is welcome to come and watch, but I wouldn't say it was nearly as well integrated into things as it seems to be in San Fransciso. Maybe that's different in a city with an actual Chinatown, but...well, I'm a Canberra girl, and my city didn't exist until the 1920s.
Reply
I think San Francisco is more of a FUCK YES DIVERSITY AND WE'RE GONNA PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE WITH IT BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE ROLL, BITCHES. And anyone who doesn't understand that is kindly shown the door. We have our share of idiocy (homophobia, transphobia, racism), of course, but the most frequent kind of bigotry I see overtly expressed? Is against people from Los Angeles. (Remember, we have that long-running feud with L.A. Sadly, L.A. doesn't know about it.)
I've recently seen footage of the Chinese New Year's parade/celebration in Liverpool. Poor Liverpool. It's cute and all, but dude, it cannot compete with us.
St. Paddy's day here is purely marketed for commercial purposes. It lost all meaning decades ago as a celebration of St. Patrick. But you know what IS awesome? All the bagel shops here make GREEN BAGELS for St. Patrick's! Wow, it's like my heritage all wrapped up in one piece of breadstuff! Bagel! Green!
Reply
*nodnods* That is the impression I get of San Francisco, yes. It sounds terribly awesome. (...*snerk* I'm sorry, that...entertains me)
Well, hey, at least they are trying.
...Green. Bagels. *staaaaaares*
Reply
(Keep in mind that there's an astonishingly high rate of historical marriage in the States between Jews and Irish Catholics. If there wasn't, I wouldn't exist! I have links somewhere talking about those demographics - when Jews started marrying out in large numbers in the States, for a while there they most often married Irish Catholics and Italian Catholics rather than WASPs. Which makes perfect cultural sense to me for a variety of reasons.)
Reply
(I was not actually aware of that!)
Reply
(I'm assuming that Australian slang, which I find hilariously awesome, has stepped up to the plate on this particular subject. NO PUN INTENDED.)
Edit: Regarding the marriage thing: all compulsively verbal and outspoken cultures, matriarchal in home life, big literary traditions, guilt, guilt, guilt, and an oft shared opinion that most WASPs are boring, entitled twits.)
Reply
But, um...I'm not actually sure? Bagels are not something I'm familiar with.
And ooh, that makes a lot of sense, re: Jews and Irish/Italian Catholics.
Reply
Leave a comment