Nineteen years ago, I wrote a column for National Lampoon called "True Sounds," my idea being to review audience sounds at live performances. Instead of one-to-five stars, audiences were reviewed by one-to-five coughs.
Last week, on a classical music list, people were discussing the increasing tendency of digital audiences to disrupt concerts with their gadgetry.
Tonight I receive a post (below) written by a stranger from Denmark who had read my piece in a humor magazine nineteen years ago, and remembered it.
The point is not ego-stroking but the unknowable nature of our acts. Such an utter greenhorn when I wrote this ... and it was somehow remembered!
I'm sure teachers like David, Phil, Walter, and Robert frequently get this sensation, for example, when former students contact them. But something as trivial as a page of magazine humor?
Anyone else have this kind of surprise? Eric -------- Original Message -------- Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:47:58 +0100 Further to Eric and cellphones:An Indian firm has developed cellphone jammers for use in theatres. A couple of them in a concert hall should solve the problem effectively, and if it is not announced the audience will put the blame on a bad connection. I do not know the legal implications, but I have much pleasure of dining in restaurants in relative quiet thanks to my pocket jammer.
http://www.kumaar.com/Jammers/very_hipower_jammer_plus.html#plusThen remains another problem: How to reduce the unnecessary and often psychologically evoked coughing, which reminds me of Eric Yost's subtle review some years ago of concert recordings with one or more 'coughs'.
Finn, Copenhagen ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
