Yearly Archives: 2010

Leave it to Americans to inject their obsession with bodies and sex into questions of national security.  The TSA has given you a choice at the airport: get scanned or get patted or get in your car and start driving.   Of course, most of the public outrage centers on what the scan might reveal, while most of the jokes deal with the supposed pleasures of a stranger’s gloved hand on your inner thigh in a public place.  Under the luscious glare of fluorescent lights no less.

My heart does ache for those with implants and ostomies who are now having to put their personal dignity on the line just to board a plane.  Theirs is not some imagined intrusion.  But my mind says, aren’t the rest of us going down this road too far?  Can we really buy the sense of security we once thought we had?

This is going to be one of those “it’s easy for me to say” observations.  Maybe we would be just as “safe” with a lower and less intrusive level of security.  Even if we were not as safe, maybe we could learn to live with the increased risk of terrorism, as European nations have done for decades.  It would be interesting to do a pilot study, no pun intended.  Let’s invent an air carrier called “Libertarian Air”.  Flights on Libertarian Air would take off and land at their own terminals.  Their passengers would be subject to pre-9/11/01 inspection standards.  Luggage scanning would adhere to current standards, but carry-ons (including liquids) would be handled pre-9/11/01.  Libertarian Air employees would be screened like any other airport or airline worker.

So here’s the question: Would you fly on Libertarian Air, all other things being equal, including price, service, pilot and crew competence, and so on?  If you had a choice to fly  one of two airlines, each charging $350 for a round-trip ticket to the Bahamas, one of which requires you to take off your shoes and get a full-body scan or pat-down before boarding, the other which requires neither and allows you to bring your own food on board, which would you choose?  Would Libertarian Air survive?  Would its passengers?

I don’t want to sing along. I just want to listen. That’s why they call this The Audience.

That is how I would like to respond to being cajoled to sing along, or clap along or make some other kind of sound effect, when a performer wants to pad his or her stage time with one of those misguided audience-participation numbers. I didn’t come here to sing, I came to hear you sing. And I am not wowed by the sound of hundreds of fellow audience members singing in unison, we’ve all been there and done that, and it’s kum-bore-ya.

What set this off? Well, we were driving home from Raleigh last Saturday evening, and Prairie Home Companion came on the radio. Garrison had invited an opera singer (mezzo-soprano Susan Graham) to appear on the show. One song Susan selected was from the operetta “The Merry Widow”. For some reason, Susan thought it would be fun to have the show’s live audience sing this line from the chorus: “Haunting the woodland, enchanting the night.” Of course, the audience had never heard the song and had to be prompted in the usual manner, with Susan calling out the words just before they needed to be sung.

Nothing about this worked. First, this isn’t a phrase that particularly cries out for mass intonation. Second, the audience was there to hear the mezzo-soprano, not to compete with her. Third, the prompting absolutely destroyed the mood of the song. As I’m sure Susan Graham is a canny performer, I ask, why would she resort to this?

I wonder if it isn’t a bit lazy for a performer to enlist an audience in anything other than a magic act. If one’s performance is not compelling enough on its own, then liven it up, don’t pander to the audience for the sake of variety.  Doing so may stave off boredom for the performer but it’s not clear to me what it does for the audience. It’s not like we are all fidgety four-year-olds with short attention spans who need to be “worked” by the performer lest we drift off and fail to appreciate his or her talent.

I would be interested to hear from others on the merits (or otherwise) of audience participation.  In the meantime, please sing along with me… “Haunting the woodland…”