We saw Diana Krall in concert quite a while back, and someone's cell phone went off. Krall stopped the concert, dead silence, and so 'go ahead, we'll wait". The person dispatched the call in about 3 seconds, and was asked by Krall if she had any requests. Everyone laughed, the woman said "Peel me a grape", and Krall played it. Right after she left and didn't come back for the encore, whole concert lasted about 40 minutes.

I never bought another Diana Krall product since.

Maybe it was staged, maybe not. I find it kind of funny that The Telegraph is asking readers to vote on it, as if there was anything to vote on. And if it was staged, it turns into kind of a clever ad for Nokia.

Speaking of which, here is a rather long, extremely corny, yet strangely touching ad featuring a deaf-mute violinist. My daughter showed it to me the other day. What the sponsor has to do with the subject of the ad is only apparent at the end.

I hope it wasn't a set up. I much prefer a spontaneous shaming to a publicity stunt.
I went to a festival about a year ago, and saw a German juggler doing his show when a cellphone went off right at the front of the crowd. As if that weren't bad enough, the woman answered and had a conversation in the middle of the show!
The juggler stopped, walked over and asked to speak to whoever was on the phone. The woman let him, and he asked the normal "hello, how are you, who is this," questions, then explained who he was and that the woman the caller was speaking to interrupted his show.

Then he asked, "do you know what a pissed off German sounds like?" Pause for the person's answer. "Now you do!" and slammed shut the phone. He handed the phone back to the woman and said "you can leave now." He did NOT start the show until she left. Most of us applauded as she did her walk of shame, the rest were searching for their phones to make sure they were off!

When was the last time anyone heard the Nokia ringtone used for real?

And it shouldn't be to heard for a violinist to improvise to the Nokia ringtone, since Nokia had the good sense to borrow it from a classical guitar piece.

"a composition for solo guitar, Gran Vals, by the Spanish classical guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega, written in 1902"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znac-wTQTRc

Here's another "classic" take on "band gets even with cell phone dude"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BujoOxjB3b4

I get annoyed with texters, too. Last week, I was sitting at a red light with the turn lanes to my left. The gal who was first in the turn lane (next to me) was sitting there texting as the turn arrow turned green, and she never even looked up! Just sat there in a bovine stupor, texting and texting, as the time ticked by. There were two or three people behind her, and the second person in line finally politely tapped on their horn to get her big butt moving. She looked up, all startled, like she had been expecting to sit there all day, with the light never turning green. I think her delay caused at least one person to miss their turn.

I give the benefit of the doubt, usually, to idiots who don't turn there cell phone off as needed.

But at the same time, my concerts are usually at a decibel level that you can barely tell the phone is vibrating let alone a ringtone is occurring

And there was a Reader's Digest comment/opinion/short story about how horrified the concert goer was by her concert-going neighbor taking a phone call at the same time. The call recipient was finding out her sister had just come up with a donated kidney. It was in the late 90's.

We all screw up. How bad is it really?

I keep my telephone at home, tied to the wall with a bit of wire.

You're welcome.

Fucking awesome.