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Should we connect the issue with ballet?, So let's do so. Last thursday, during my personal oddissey at the Nutcracker, I was able to see the differences between the old school and the new way to raise kids. On the audience side I witnessed a mother obnoxiously engaged in a furious word exchange with an usher related to her daughter, who was out of control in her seat. The usher finally left the scene in frustration, the mother kept watching the performance and the girl was NEVER reprimended, At the same time, on the stage side, Mr. Silberhaus was putting Fritz in his place in front of everyone by giving him a good spanking after the kid's attempt to ruin Clara's Nutcracker.. Fritz, unlike the girl on the audience, seemed to react to the punishment.

dirac, we all know to the degree to which physical punishment can be inflicted on kids. The idea is just to scare and embarras them in front of others, not to knock them out. The beatings to deaths cases we oftenly see around are an entire different animal.

And yes, Bart B. My mother is also a public school teacher for 40 years now, and the fact that as per today she has to listen to some kids calling her names and many other things with her hands in her pockets, because only touching them is considered "assault and battery" is just ridiculous.

When I was a kid I just needed to be shown the belt to know how to retract. Actually it NEVER had to be used, for what I remember.

And as per the men's fashion issue, here's my ideal and oftenly copied look...happy.png

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_FR2dNyrSY&feature=related

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Theater performance, in my eyes, doesn't start from the moment the courtain goes up, but right since you cross the entrance doors. The people beautifully dressed up, the nice conversacions around, the fine manners, the uniformed ushers, EVERYTHING becomes part of the performance.

Amen to that, and thank you for saying it. I dislike dressing up, in part because I run hot and tend to perspire.I'd be happiest in jeans, which I usually wear to open rehearsals. But it would detract from my pleasure in the occasion if everyone wore jeans to performances, so, I never do myself. The loud conversations about personal issues right up until the curtain comes up, the checking of cell phones right up until the curtain comes up and as soon as it goes down . . . these used to detract from the occasion for me. I've become used to them, but I still think they're bad manners.

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Should we connect the issue with ballet?, So let's do so. Last thursday, during my personal oddissey at the Nutcracker, I was able to see the differences between the old school and the new way to raise kids. On the audience side I witnessed a mother obnoxiously engaged in a furious word exchange with an usher related to her daughter, who was out of control in her seat. The usher finally left the scene in frustration, the mother kept watching the performance and the girl was NEVER reprimended, At the same time, on the stage side, Mr. Silberhaus was putting Fritz in his place in front of everyone by giving him a good spanking after the kid's attempt to ruin Clara's Nutcracker.. Fritz, unlike the girl on the audience, seemed to react to the punishment.

dirac, we all know to the degree to which physical punishment can be inflicted on kids. The idea is just to scare and embarras them in front of others, not to knock them out. The beatings to deaths cases we oftenly see around are an entire different animal.

And yes, Bart B. My mother is also a public school teacher for 40 years now, and the fact that as per today she has to listen to some kids calling her names and many other things with her hands in her pockets, because only touching them is considered "assault and battery" is just ridiculous.

When I was a kid I just needed to be shown the belt to know how to retract. Actually it NEVER had to be used, for what I remember.

And as per the men's fashion issue, here's my ideal and oftenly copied look...happy.png

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?vl_FR2dNyrSY&featurerelate/media]

You are too much! LOL I used to be able to dress like that! SIGH! Don't think my salt and pepper hair would work with that outfit now though!

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I'm not going to respond to the latest remarks on corporal punishment of children, not because there is no response to be made to such.....views but because the subject was already closed and in any case I believe said comments speak eloquently for themselves. Any further comments from anyone on the topic will be deleted.

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Should we connect the issue with ballet?, So let's do so. Last thursday, during my personal oddissey at the Nutcracker, I was able to see the differences between the old school and the new way to raise kids. On the audience side I witnessed a mother obnoxiously engaged in a furious word exchange with an usher related to her daughter, who was out of control in her seat. The usher finally left the scene in frustration, the mother kept watching the performance and the girl was NEVER reprimended, At the same time, on the stage side, Mr. Silberhaus was putting Fritz in his place in front of everyone by giving him a good spanking after the kid's attempt to ruin Clara's Nutcracker.. Fritz, unlike the girl on the audience, seemed to react to the punishment.

dirac, we all know to the degree to which physical punishment can be inflicted on kids. The idea is just to scare and embarras them in front of others, not to knock them out. The beatings to deaths cases we oftenly see around are an entire different animal.

And yes, Bart B. My mother is also a public school teacher for 40 years now, and the fact that as per today she has to listen to some kids calling her names and many other things with her hands in her pockets, because only touching them is considered "assault and battery" is just ridiculous.

When I was a kid I just needed to be shown the belt to know how to retract. Actually it NEVER had to be used, for what I remember.

And as per the men's fashion issue, here's my ideal and oftenly copied look...happy.png

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_FR2dNyrSY&featurerelatedmedia]

You are too much! LOL I used to be able to dress like that! SIGH! Don't think my salt and pepper hair would work with that outfit now though!

Salt and pepper can actually ADD to the success of the outfit, Bart ! happy.png I might get some ideas from Donatella for my weekend Nut run at Broward..

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Ok, so last Saturday I had the pleasure to assist to a theater performance that bore partial nudity-(bare breasts)-to an audience that included wonderfully behaved children and non surprised teens-(there was not previous announcing of the nudity item), zero wrappers, zero cell phones and complete silence during the whole time. I was almost in tears of joy!

Edited to add: The performance took place 90 miles south of Miami, BTW...

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Yes, I caught this on the national news, and though my step-father didn't understand stopping the performance, I TOTALLY agreed with the maestro's action/reaction -- and feel the offender should have also reimbursed the management for having to pay the orchestra's overtime due to the delay s/he caused with an offensive phone.

My mother also reminded me of the time the Kirov came to town and during the most poignant momemts of the White Swan pdd, the idiot theater ushers allowed an entire group of late-comers to return to their seats -- very noisily too!--which both blocked the views of all above/behind them, and distracted everyone else! Horrible!

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The follow-up story was published in the New York Times;

Actually, Patron X said he had no idea he was the culprit. He said his company replaced his BlackBerry with an iPhone the day before the concert. He said he made sure to turn it off before the concert, not realizing that the alarm clock had accidentally been set and would sound even if the phone was in silent mode.

“I didn’t even know phones came with alarms,” the man said.

But as Mr. Gilbert was glaring in his direction, he fiddled with the phone as others around him did, just to be sure, pressing buttons. That was when the sound stopped. It was only in the car going home that his wife checked the settings on his phone and found that the alarm had been set.

The only reason I knew that "Powered off" on my iPhone really means "Waiting to explode" was that I read the manual to be sure that the alarm would sound if the phone went into "Sleep" mode overnight.

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Actually, Patron X said he had no idea he was the culprit. He said his company replaced his BlackBerry with an iPhone the day before the concert. He said he made sure to turn it off before the concert, not realizing that the alarm clock had accidentally been set and would sound even if the phone was in silent mode.

“I didn’t even know phones came with alarms,” the man said.

But as Mr. Gilbert was glaring in his direction, he fiddled with the phone as others around him did, just to be sure, pressing buttons. That was when the sound stopped. It was only in the car going home that his wife checked the settings on his phone and found that the alarm had been set.

This guy sounds sincerely apologetic, but he doesn't explain why he didn't immediately take out his phone and figure out how to silence it. It doesn't take five minutes to figure out whose phone is ringing when it's your own, even if you thought you'd turned it off.

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I find it hard to believe that someone doesn't realize it is his own phone, but I know that my Grandfather had a hearing aide that would make hearing in certain places with different acoustics to throw off his hearing. Maybe it is a case like that. Who knows? The cell phones going off problem is really annoying. Maybe they should make the auditorium a dead zone. I think they can do things like that nowadays, but maybe making an auditorium a dead zone would not stop the phone alarm clock. Also, maybe some crazy emergency in the auditorium would be even worse if nobody could call 911 due to it being a dead zone. I don't know what the answer is.

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The time I witnessed Michael Tilson doing just that, stopping mid-performance and not only turning back and scream at the offender, but also hitting loudly his music paper with the baton, I felt so embarrassed, even if it wasn't me. It just occurred to me that musicians think of just two sides, their side and our side, the audience side...so just for the fact of being on the other side of the stage I somehow felt as a part of the offense. It was horrible, and after that the performance just wasn't the same...some of the magic was broken.

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The time I witnessed Michael Tilson doing just that, stopping mid-performance and not only turning back and scream at the offender, but also hitting loudly his music paper with the baton, I felt so embarrassed, even if it wasn't me. It just occurred to me that musicians think of just two sides, their side and our side, the audience side...so just for the fact of being on the other side of the stage I somehow felt as a part of the offense. It was horrible, and after that the performance just wasn't the same...some of the magic was broken.

You are right. It is hard to get back into "the zone" when there is a disturbance even for audience members. I think I am a little A.D.D. so jangling bracelets or candy wrappers distract me and make it hard to enjoy a performance, especially when people draw out unwrapping their candy thinking they are making less noise by unwrapping it slowly. Instead, they are making noise for a much longer period. I would rather they do it as fast as they can. Things that are unavoidable like coughing do not bother me as much, but things that people could have prepared for (turned off phones, unwrapped candy and popped it in ahead of time, etc) really distract me. Before Rheingold (2 hours 45 minutes with no intermission) or first act of Götterdämmerung (2 hours) I unwrap cough drops and wrap them in a handkerchief so I can access them noiselessly during the performance if my throat gets dry!

Years ago there was a commercial where a Brünnhilde-like opera singer was singing, and a cell phone went off, so she threw the spear and hit the phone with it! That made me laugh! I am sure it is very distracting for performers, and I do think the conductors get so sick of it.

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This guy sounds sincerely apologetic, but he doesn't explain why he didn't immediately take out his phone and figure out how to silence it. It doesn't take five minutes to figure out whose phone is ringing when it's your own, even if you thought you'd turned it off.

The default iPhone ring is common -- I hear it go off in the bus on a regular basis -- and I've been in the theater where a phone starts ringing and a row of people jump to look in the purse under their seat or in the coat they are sitting on. (I would never look in my purse if the ringtone wasn't familiar.) I've also seen people around someone's ringing phone nudge or glare them into checking. There was no group action that was reported, possibly because people were sitting so close.

A man in the front was coughing extensively at the beginning of a piece pianist Andras Schiiff was playing at Meany Hall (University of Washington) in Seattle. Schiff stopped, said something like, "When you're finished, we'll start", and walked off the stage.

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Some of you might remember ABT's performance at the Kennedy Center Tuesday, December 9, 1980. John Lennon had been murdered the night before and the announcer called for a minute of silence in his honor before the program began. But they forgot to tell the stagehands, who yelled loudly throughout the minute as if nothing was happening.

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This guy sounds sincerely apologetic, but he doesn't explain why he didn't immediately take out his phone and figure out how to silence it. It doesn't take five minutes to figure out whose phone is ringing when it's your own, even if you thought you'd turned it off.

The default iPhone ring is common -- I hear it go off in the bus on a regular basis -- and I've been in the theater where a phone starts ringing and a row of people jump to look in the purse under their seat or in the coat they are sitting on. (I would never look in my purse if the ringtone wasn't familiar.)

Yes, maybe that's why he didn't check - not because he was embarrassed to be identified, but because the phone was new and he hadn't heard its alarm before and so assumed it must be coming from someone nearby. In any case, it's sad this happened to a 20-year subscriber.

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