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talkpoliticsHello, fellow infantiles mature grown-ups from around the world! First of all, happy Children's Day everybody! After all, we're all kids more or less, ain't we?
And there are moments like these, when we supposedly suddenly cease being kids and become adults. Or so I've been told:
A couple of "schoolkids" celebrating their prom in front of the old parliament in Sofia. Uh-huh. Youth & history, all in one!
Well, last week roughly same time was May 24, one of the biggest holidays around here. The day of the Slavonic culture and the Cyrillic alphabet, created in the 9th century by St. Cyril and Methodius, two half-Slavic cleric brothers from Thessaloniki who were commissioned by the king of Moravia (Czech) to make a new writing system that would serve the Slavs for education and church service. Their legacy was quickly spread through the powerful vehicle that was the First Bulgarian Empire back then, and enlightened much of what is now the Slavo-sphere.
Grouchy mode on/ May 24 is celebrated with school festivities and cultural events here, but it's also the time of proms. Thousands of youngsters who've just "become adults", flock into the streets in luxurious cars that are not theirs, dressed like what they believe must be looking like supermodels (or more recently, porn stars), and they get busy with the booze, and celebrate till morning come. You know how it is!
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In recent years, this event has become the epitome of grotesquery and kitsch. Stupidity and fail pours in radioactive doses onto the streets of towns big and small, and good people across the country are compelled to witness all sorts of fashion perversions, and an increasing amount of bare flesh popping out of every window of a rented limo.
And while the idea of the proms is that the youngsters are supposed to tell "farewell forever, you sadistic bitch!" to school in the most refined and non-fuckery way possible (for instance, by dropping by at the prom dressed in a night-gown and with heavy military boots on, or by just snatching some vintage dress from your grandma's/grandpa's wardrobe), the whole point of proms seems to be eluding our beloved "new adults". And the reasons go much, much deeper than mere "let's have fun". They have something to do with the spiritual misery and degradation that has descended upon our society in the long years of the Transition from communism to democracy, a road we're still to walk to the end (if that's possible at all).
Things have become SO hardcore that even other Balkan countries like Macedonia and Croatia are looking in dismay at this "fashion madness", and mocking it. And, because PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN is the best evidence possible in such cases, and images speak more eloquently than words (even on the holiday of written word, the Slavic alphabet and our national culture), here are a few samples from the prom jungle.
Oh, and in case you can share with me anything resembling this scene here, perhaps you'd help me realize that I don't really need professional help from a psychiatrist, and the malfunction is not in my TV:
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The samples. Beware! explicit(?) stuff inside!
=
(Some context on the last one.)
And there are moments like these, when we supposedly suddenly cease being kids and become adults. Or so I've been told:
A couple of "schoolkids" celebrating their prom in front of the old parliament in Sofia. Uh-huh. Youth & history, all in one!
Well, last week roughly same time was May 24, one of the biggest holidays around here. The day of the Slavonic culture and the Cyrillic alphabet, created in the 9th century by St. Cyril and Methodius, two half-Slavic cleric brothers from Thessaloniki who were commissioned by the king of Moravia (Czech) to make a new writing system that would serve the Slavs for education and church service. Their legacy was quickly spread through the powerful vehicle that was the First Bulgarian Empire back then, and enlightened much of what is now the Slavo-sphere.
Grouchy mode on/ May 24 is celebrated with school festivities and cultural events here, but it's also the time of proms. Thousands of youngsters who've just "become adults", flock into the streets in luxurious cars that are not theirs, dressed like what they believe must be looking like supermodels (or more recently, porn stars), and they get busy with the booze, and celebrate till morning come. You know how it is!
[Error: unknown template video]
In recent years, this event has become the epitome of grotesquery and kitsch. Stupidity and fail pours in radioactive doses onto the streets of towns big and small, and good people across the country are compelled to witness all sorts of fashion perversions, and an increasing amount of bare flesh popping out of every window of a rented limo.
And while the idea of the proms is that the youngsters are supposed to tell "farewell forever, you sadistic bitch!" to school in the most refined and non-fuckery way possible (for instance, by dropping by at the prom dressed in a night-gown and with heavy military boots on, or by just snatching some vintage dress from your grandma's/grandpa's wardrobe), the whole point of proms seems to be eluding our beloved "new adults". And the reasons go much, much deeper than mere "let's have fun". They have something to do with the spiritual misery and degradation that has descended upon our society in the long years of the Transition from communism to democracy, a road we're still to walk to the end (if that's possible at all).
Things have become SO hardcore that even other Balkan countries like Macedonia and Croatia are looking in dismay at this "fashion madness", and mocking it. And, because PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN is the best evidence possible in such cases, and images speak more eloquently than words (even on the holiday of written word, the Slavic alphabet and our national culture), here are a few samples from the prom jungle.
Oh, and in case you can share with me anything resembling this scene here, perhaps you'd help me realize that I don't really need professional help from a psychiatrist, and the malfunction is not in my TV:
[Error: unknown template video]
The samples. Beware! explicit(?) stuff inside!
=
(Some context on the last one.)
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 13:44 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 18:37 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 18:44 (UTC)Details:
About the Thug-o-cracy: http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1426758.html
About the spiritual misery: http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1406258.html
About the cultural heritage: http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1383790.html
More about the spiritual primitivism: http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/945918.html
About national desperation: http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/773992.html
And some memories about communism: http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/293716.html
About these phenomena on the Balkans in a more general sense: http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1362794.html
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 19:26 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 14:02 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 16:09 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 18:47 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 16:34 (UTC)http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/my-big-fat-gypsy-wedding
American Roma girls, between 15-18, tend to go out and get married in similarly over the top fashions-- the more over the top and outrageous the better. At least that is the impression left by watching this TV show. YMMV.
Considering the low opinion with which gypsies are regarded in the Balkans, perhaps you can use this to bring your young people around to a more moderate set of style choices. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 18:46 (UTC)Which is kind of ironic, since we (Balkanites in general) have been often accused of being intolerant to the Roma.
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 19:46 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 18:52 (UTC)Now I'm truly scared.....
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 19:27 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 21:29 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 21:52 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/12 21:31 (UTC)fuhgeddaboudit