DINAGYANG 2021 is done and dusted the first ever digital celebration – and hopefully the last – of a festival that was always meant to be celebrated with wanton debauchery on the streets of “I Am Iloilo City”, you know, the usual street dancing revelry with a seemingly endless flow of alcoholic drinks and food.
Alas, COVID-19 and revelry in the streets plus alcohol-infused merrymaking are not meant to be together – a lethal mix for a super spreader.
So you just hala bira and do your Dinagyang at home, in front of your laptop or smart TV with a steady supply of cold beer. Nowadays it seems your hands get more alcohol than what you usually drink.
Well, I hope you enjoyed your DigitalDinagyang. I didn’t bother to watch it. Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance on Netflix seems more exciting. I prefer my Dinagyang live, not simulated.
But we have to commend the organizers and the participants, particularly the 30 warriors and 20 drummers for their tremendous effort to keep the flames of Dinagyangalive and burning and, above all, strictly adhering to the IATF protocols in the production of DigitalDinagyang.
***
Talking about sports, “the race is not only for the swift but for those who keep on running…” is just a pathetic loser’s excuse for coming in last. I mean, why join a marathon or a road race if you’re goal is only to finish it? These are serious competitions, a test of man’s speed and endurance, not some “fun run”. You join to win if not die trying.
Remember dismissed “I Am Iloilo City” mayor Jed Mabilog and his much ballyhooed fifth place finish in the so-called World Mayor search for 2014? Really, who celebrates fifth place? The only place worth celebrating is first place while second and third are just consolations.
Fifth place means you lost and that’s the same as joining a marathon and celebrating because you finished it.
***
Friday last week, Jan. 22, was the 34th anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre and the usual activists called for the ouster of President Duterte.
These fools may not be aware that it was then President Cory Aquino who was responsible for the shooting and massacre of the demonstrating farmers marching to Malacañang.
***
Have you noticed? Since facemask became de rigueur, the ladies have sort of compensated for it by wearing skimpy outfits showing a lot of flesh i.e. very short skirts or shorts, bare midriffs and sexy tank tops…hey, who’s complaining, I love it!
Which brings us to the “wokes” and the so-called politically correct idiots. “ALUGBATE” is “LGBT” with vowels. They’re lovely sautéed in olive oil with chopped garlic and onions sprinkled with chilli powder.
***
Joe Biden, who is not my president simply because I am a Filipino and not an American, is now the 46th president of the United States of America. I guess it’s now the turn of the Americans.
We also had a nincompoop for president four years ago. Remember Noynoy Aquino?
***
Stray perspectives are stray or random thoughts, what scientists call involuntary semantic memories. These thoughts are involuntary, meaning they are not something you’re trying to think of.
These random thoughts are memories that come back to you when you aren’t expecting them and they have no apparent meaning.
Of course, these stray perspective or random thoughts are not meant or intended to be condescending in any shape or form, but if sometimes they are, who cares?
When you’re already in the bell lap of your race and your tired, bruised and battered body is already feeling it’s mortality, you feel like you’re just being held together by duct tape, you pull it all together for that one last big push because you want to cross the finish line in style of a true champion, not a bloody coward who gave up.
And we end with these lines from Old Friends, a poignant song by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel:
Can you imagine us years from today?
Sharing a park bench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy…/PN
