People just don’t think they have to behave in public and it has nothing to do with “hippies”. Talk radio and evangelicals are at least as responsible as Act-up for the loss of civility.
The people who did it should have simply been ejected, since it’s Boston, they should have been sent to talk to the Mother Superior.
]]>Who knows what those jerks were fighting over. Annoying audience members come with the territory; back when I managed a group I was in, I sometimes had to defuse situations (though I’ve never confronted an actual physical fight). You’re right; this thing didn’t happen in Fiedler’s day. And why not? Because in Boston in those days, the only people who could afford any tickets to a Pops concert were so upper-crust that they had no need to fight about anything; they had nothing to prove. In a manner of speaking, it’s the George Bushes of the world (though presumably more musically inclined) who need to behave in crass ways in situations that require at least a modicum of consideration for performers and other audience members alike.
Owning a tux does not make a man a class act, on or (in this case) offstage.
]]>I assume it was an over heated discussion as to whether requesting “Freebird” was permitted.
]]>And I seriously considered cold-cocking the guy sitting behind me, who repeatedly tapped his (expletive deleted) toe just barely out of time with the music.
This wasn’t a Willie Nelson concert; this was a name-brand world-famous classical orchestra. The conductor should at least be able to beat time without “assistance” from the audience. If I had decked the man, and if I had been brought to trial, no musically sensitive jury in the world would have convicted me.
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