Holiday concerts
The Canadian way to celebrate a national holiday is to put on a concert. We don’t have a deep love for flags, or military parades, or fireworks. Instead, we put up a stage in a public place and fill it with anybody who will work “for food”. Unwilling to fight the hordes in the old city, I joined my fellow citizens in front of the TV and settled back for a day of music.
Throat singing. Fiddles. Dancers from other countries that have recently found the way to the great White North. Yawn… then I happened on a concert from the other side of the pond, where celebrating our national holiday the birthday of a dead princess is done with style. Even cooler, I can watch it over and over again, thanks to the magic of TV on demand. After installing a plugin for Firefox. Canada Rocks!
Now, I know that the national holiday in Canada is a low priority in the rest of the world. Except, perhaps, for Hong Kong, which celebrates the day that those who could, left. But it was a friendly touch for the princes to choose a day when almost any Canadian who wanted to could watch the telecast. Class.
The guest list seems to reflect the LPs that were left knocking around in the castle recroom after her departure. Let’s look at who was invited that has had a career of longer than twenty-five years, shall we.
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber (check)
Duran Duran (check)
English National Ballet (check)
Bryan Ferry (check)
Roger Hodgson of Supertramp (check)
Tom Jones (check)
Elton John (check)
Rod Stewart (check)
Status Quo (check)
There were a few other names on the list, but I figure they were just there to learn from the old folks. Educational opportunities and all that. The requisite CanCon came from Nelly Furtado, and Natasha Bedingfield brought the KiwiCon. As for the rest, I guess the princes got lost in the racks of records and decided that they had enough for this show.
Now I can get ready for the Ottawa version, round two. Can’t get enough of that throat singing.
