Monday 2 May 2011

The royal wedding on American TV

The royal wedding here, was something I thought I could avoid.
I'm not a royalist by any stretch of the imagination, I liked Diana, who didn't. But not really into Monarchy, after all that's where colonialism started, and slavery.  I'm more interested in character and contribution, royal or not.
So, no-one was more surprised than me that when I woke at 5.30am and woke my boyfriend too- who called me a hypocrite as we walked to the TV to watch Will and Kate tie the knot, after all it was all happening in my hometown.
I was totally into the whole romance, the beauty and ceremony of the occasion, London looked even on the TV miles away to be in a jubilant mood, I missed home.
The American TV had been hyping it for days, and at 5.30am every channel it seemed was covering it.

The web goes wild for Princess Beatrice's hat.
Viral web images, from Sydney Morning Herald
The hundreds of inaccuracies of royal facts, the pitting of Kate on Diana, the use of the commoner word and the lack of 'value' the 'Brits place on Kate's rag's to riches story' implied, was enough to be annoying and made me feel so patriotic to want to defend even Beatrice's enormous hat!(above)
Then CNN found amusement in the hats, as the whole reason they 'got rid of the British' ages ago, both presenters declaring that they hadn't worn a hat since they were four.. humm.
I had to just laugh..after all, they all watched it, and loved it, didn't they? Just like me, and maybe you...



8 comments:

  1. Yeah, there was no way I was getting up that early for anything. I did try to stay vaguely informed on the goings on, but not deep enough to even know of this Beatrice lady before the Internet exploded with her pink bow hat. Happy you got a taste of home from here though!

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  2. Thanks D :) Yes, the boyfriend wasn't too impressed with me. I should say Princess Beatrice, she's Prince Andrew and Sarah Fergerson's daughter, and clearly a fan of flamboyant hats, my fave is the lord of the rings eye!

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  3. Oh I wonder if that's one of the princes A. is named after. I feel like that's a common "princely" name or am I wrong? :p

    The other one is Edward.

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  4. Yeah, I think a few other princes are called Andrew,not sure where thou, your guy's a prince, he's a good laugh! x

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  5. It's amazing how patriotic you get when you move away! I probably wouldn't have given the royal wedding the time of day if I was back at home, but here in NY, I was up with the birds watching the coverage on BBC America, marveling at how beautiful my home town is. I did flick through sone of the US channels to get their perspective on it, but the British accents and understanding of the culture on BBC had me hooked. E! Fashion police is always a good watch too. Loved it!

    Brit_asian_in_NY

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  6. Oh BritAsian! I completely agree!! I didn't even think of the BBC- too early in the morning I guess, well done you! ABC was very annoying, whilst CNN kept quiet through the best bits,thank heaven! E! Fashion police had me laughing too!!

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  7. No amount of patriotism could possibly justify the hat that Beatrice wore! ;-)

    I watched it on BBC America so didn't have the probs with inaccuracies!

    Paul
    http://fromsheeptoalligators.blogspot.com/

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  8. Their comments about hats were hilarious - as if all Brits walk around wearing big hats every day. "Off to the laundrette dear ... seen my hat? The one with the big blue feather on it?'

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