Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Proper Behavior


Civility with a camera and a laptop - foodies take a seat, I have to get this off my chest...

Phase I - Cameras

Readers know (all too well) that I try to document this experience or that by including a photograph here and there.  I find that there are some ethical issues involved, at least for me (tormented as I am).  A plate of food doesn’t mind a camera sticking its nose at it, and a pretty scene doesn’t care, but there are some limits.  When in a restaurant, I pretty much resist shooting the food out of deference to the restaurant, and other diners (although with my new point and shoot it is easier) . If there is a particularly beautiful presentation I try to be as discreet as possible and never, never, use a flash.  You are there to appreciate and enjoy the food, not to capture or worship it.  I know there have been endless blog debates about this, but I try not to invade the experience if at all possible. 

In public situations, such as the “Taste of 235” event I attended last weekend, I don’t feel bad about taking general shots that include people.  The use of a long lens allows images to be captured without being conspicuous (like the balloon guy).

But then there are situations such as the performance of the CheeseLords last Sunday at Historic St. Mary's City.   While not in a “real” church, it nonetheless has a sacred atmosphere about it.  I really felt like I would like to preserve the event both for myself (and the readership), plus the City might want to document the performance. So, I did take my little point and shoot, and took the shots while sitting down two or three rows from the front.  I only took a total of four. The results (as you saw in the last post) had sort of “snapshot” quality, rather than a good picture. But it wasn’t intrusive at all.  IMHO.

Which sort of leads me toward not exactly a rant, but something I have strong feelings about.  In the very front row of the seating, right in front of the singers, there was a woman who held up her iPad like a sign board, staring upwards at the screen and shot (and most likely) recorded two or three pieces.  To be honest I don’t really know who she was, although it didn't look like it, maybe she was part of the group, but it certainly was annoying to others. Mercifully, after a few numbers,  she moved toward the back and continued, and after a while she quit, maybe her battery ran down.  And there was another person who held up one of those cameras with a screen on a stalk and did the same thing.  I am pretty sure they didn’t ask permission from the Lords (copyright issues?).  If you are there to enjoy the music (like the food) just enjoy it for God’s sake.   It’s not about you; it’s about the whole experience.  And there are others in the room.

Phase II - The Laptop

Last evening I again journeyed south, this time to the college and a Brian Ganz/Beverly Babcock presentation of a Debussy composition (Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra).  It was held in the usual venue of St. Mary’s Hall.  It started at eight, and hence there were a fair number of what I took to be students in the audience.  For reasons I won’t go into here, I always try to sit in the same seat, right side, last row, two in, and I was able to secure that seat last night.  I watched the students (as well as people from my generation) file in.  I would say that somewhere around 90% of the students had backpacks about the size of a microwave with them.  What the heck is in there?   Anyway, a group of three came and sat immediately in front of me.  This was maybe ten minutes before the start of the performance.  They reached into the cavern of the packs and withdrew full size laptops, and proceeded to start them.  Of course the screens nowadays are bright enough to do surgery by, so having them right in front of me was very distracting.  I was all prepared to either say something or move, but mercifully they shut them down when Brian and Beverly appeared on stage.  Okay, I’ll accept that as a way of life of the younger generation.

However, comma, that courtesy did not extend to a couple of males that were seated in the same row as I was (last) in about the middle.  When I arrived they both were absorbed in their laptop screens, typing and whatever.  When the house lights were dimmed, they were not.

Now as some of you may remember Brian often discusses the music before he performs it.  The particular piece they were to perform had sort of an interesting history.  Apparently (a young) Debussy refused to perform the piece just before a concert was to begin. Since then, the piece has seldom been performed, and there is much speculation as to why Claude yanked it.  So in his usual quiet, entertaining way, Brian explained the history, and then proceeded to present his thoughts on why.  It is a very complicated piece, and apparently difficult to play, but he went on to explain about the “blurring” or “melding” of musical forms (musical friends, usual apologies here).   He talked about interlaced major and minor scales, key changes, different modalities.   I have borrowed a definition of “modes” from the internet to kind of give you a feel for what he talked about:

A mode is a series of intervals used to construct a scale. Therefore, TTSTTTS is called the major mode. Modes have no specific tones, notes, or pcs; they are simply a series of intervals or distances. Scales, on the other hand, contain specific notes or pcs. A scale is a group of pcs or notes arranged in ascending or descending order. ABCDEFGA is a simple scale. Its mode is TSTTSTT. Modes and scales may or may not have a tonic. The chromatic scale has no tonic. However, a C major scale has the tonic C. Modes can only have relative tonics; e.g., the major mode has no specific tonic, but some tonic is implied at the beginning of the mode. Major and minor modes are regarded today as the most important modes, since most music around the world now conforms to these two modes. Minimally, key consists of tonic plus the mode, e.g., "C major" or "E Mixolydian".

While is not a quote, Brian used a lot of these words, interspersed with demonstrations on the keyboard.  Fascinating stuff.  He talked for almost a half hour about things like this.  With several illustrations from the piece itself: "lets play a few bars after J in the second movement".

So, what were my friends in the same row doing during his talk?  Same thing: watching their damn screens, and although they may have been dimmed some, their eyes remained riveted there.  The screens still emitted a glow, and was distracting. After a couple of haughty glares from me (regrettably allowing myself to get sucked in) they did tilt the screens down and sort of hunched in the seats so they could still see them.  When the music started, they did close the lids, but they couldn’t stand it for long and would peek fairly often.  Awful.   And then, about half way through the first movement (during the music), they grabbed their back stones and left.  I just don’t get it.  Did they get credits just for showing up?  I doubt they could have appreciated the music.

By the way, the music was very enjoyable.  You should try to hear the piece sometime.  It went on for about 25 minutes and I was sorry when it ended.  I grasped dimly (like their screens) some of what Brian talked about, but it is just so much easier to enjoy the music without analysis.

After the concert, I did have a food experience, but you are probably fatigued so we’ll save it for another day.  It wasn’t good.  And there was no issue with


DFD


No comments: