There's been some discussion lately among Sue and I as well as Facebook and CNN.com regarding bad ass kids. Sue told me that she was in a coffee house this morning where a woman allowed her toddler son to run around the small shop unattended and that he almost made it out the door several times but fortunately was stopped by other customers from getting outside. This shop is on a busy road. While the mother/guardian chatted with a friend this went on for quite some time. Sue also reported that a couple of five year-old girls danced around in a circle in the same coffee shop at the same time the toddler was running amok. The problem is that when we don't discipline our small children and let them run around and disrupt other's quiet/peaceful enjoyment of restaurants, coffee shops, etc. etc. we are teaching them that they don't have to respect others and can do whatever they want.
I'm not a parent on purpose and I realize that being a parent is difficult but parents need to set rules for their kids and make them obey them. The logical progression of this was behavior I witnessed last night at the concert I attended. I went to see a musician named Bill Callahan who sings epic songs in storyteller fashion that are meant to be listened to very carefully. The concert was sponsored by the Warhol museum and was held outside at the Carnegie Museum of Art in the sculpture garden. It was a lovely venue and a lovely summer night. I had been waiting to see Mr. Callahan ever since a show I was supposed to see got rained out in one of our monster storms we had a year or so ago. The concert was not free -- it cost $15.00 to get in.
At some point after the show started, some yinzerettes arrived behind me and began to chatter quite loudly about their banal lives. This went on for some length of time until the guy sitting near me got up and evidently asked them to keep it down. I say evidently because I didn't hear him when he spoke with them so he appeared to do so in a way that did not embarass them. They were quiet for a few song cycles and at some point when the unknown guy and his group began to cheer loudly during the encore, the yinzerettes piped up and told him he was being too loud. When he said to them words to the effect of "Really, you had to go there" one of them called him a "fucking asshole." After the show ended I thanked him, but so did quite a few other people. He, rightly so, made the comment he could have used some back up. And he was right. These little nitwits were bothering more than this gentlemen, his two friends and me. Maybe one or two of us should have gone with him, or gone to security to get them removed. We all paid to hear the show, not them. And that's the same problem with out of control kids. They bother everyone but no one has the courage to complain. Thus the bad behavior get reinforced and when they get into their twenties -- which I suspect was the age of the yinzerettes -- the entitlement and the bad behavior continues because they have learned the lesson that they can behave in public however they want without consequences.
I have been to countless shows in Pittsburgh where some one or some ones have talked through a concert. And I, to my credit, have confronted more than a few. But what I really want to know is who pays good money to attend a concert and not even listen to it? To engage in continuous chatter when you could do that for free or at least the same cost in one of Pittsburgh's many fine bars? That way you could win and I could win by not having you talk at my show.
The concert, by the way, was fantastic and worth the wait. His new album is called "Apocalypse" and from the sound of the songs he played, is fantastic. I don't have it yet but it's on the list.
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