Ben Newman (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ultraswank) wrote,@ 2006-04-18 14:35:00 |
|
1906 memorial
The 1906 earthquake centennial was great, definitely worth dragging my ass out of bed at 4 in the morning. Steph, Simon, James and Eva were all there, and while everyone was sleepy they made for great company. Some highlights:
Lots of period touches, from people in costume to 4 horse drawn fire carts that raced up market.
One of the survivors completely undoing Gavin Newsom by telling him she'd been raised by prostitutes.
Having a moment of silence ended by every fire alarm at every firehouse in the city going off.
Seeing that, 5AM be damned, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will always show up looking fabulous in full make-up.
Singing "San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gates" with a few hundred strangers.
The only real low point was afterwards at a slide show we dropped in at Cody's books. The presenter stated that she considered the dot com boom the 10th great destruction of San Francisco. I moved here to work for a dot com. I've been here for a decade now and married a California native, can I please join your super special club now please?
Any way it was all neat, but it was also really strange. When I was deciding if I should sacrifice some sleep to make it the thing, I thought a lot about 9/11. That's the only disaster I have experience with that compares to what happened here, and I hope that in 100 years people will still take a couple of moments out of their day to reflect on it. The question I have is, when does it all turn into nostalgia? In 100 years will people be hitting downtown New York wearing reproduction business suits and power ties? Will those in attendance be excited when the antique gasoline powered fire engines pull up? Levis is having a 20 percent off sale to mark the occasion, in a century will United offer discount fares? I didn't think the ceremony was tasteless or anything, but watching the survivors up on stage, I wondered if they felt strange at celebrating the greatest disaster they'd experienced.
The 1906 earthquake centennial was great, definitely worth dragging my ass out of bed at 4 in the morning. Steph, Simon, James and Eva were all there, and while everyone was sleepy they made for great company. Some highlights:
Lots of period touches, from people in costume to 4 horse drawn fire carts that raced up market.
One of the survivors completely undoing Gavin Newsom by telling him she'd been raised by prostitutes.
Having a moment of silence ended by every fire alarm at every firehouse in the city going off.
Seeing that, 5AM be damned, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will always show up looking fabulous in full make-up.
Singing "San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gates" with a few hundred strangers.
The only real low point was afterwards at a slide show we dropped in at Cody's books. The presenter stated that she considered the dot com boom the 10th great destruction of San Francisco. I moved here to work for a dot com. I've been here for a decade now and married a California native, can I please join your super special club now please?
Any way it was all neat, but it was also really strange. When I was deciding if I should sacrifice some sleep to make it the thing, I thought a lot about 9/11. That's the only disaster I have experience with that compares to what happened here, and I hope that in 100 years people will still take a couple of moments out of their day to reflect on it. The question I have is, when does it all turn into nostalgia? In 100 years will people be hitting downtown New York wearing reproduction business suits and power ties? Will those in attendance be excited when the antique gasoline powered fire engines pull up? Levis is having a 20 percent off sale to mark the occasion, in a century will United offer discount fares? I didn't think the ceremony was tasteless or anything, but watching the survivors up on stage, I wondered if they felt strange at celebrating the greatest disaster they'd experienced.
