LOL! That was awesome! I'd love to see that happen more often!

I remember when I went to see Neil Young with Crazy Horse last December (2012). They were up on stage, and Neil comes up to the mike, and he holds out one hand, palm up, and starts poking at it with the pointer finger from his other hand, every so often looking at the audience and scowling. Frank Sampedro (his guitarist) looks at him and says over the mic "Hey Neil, who ya callin'?" Neil scowls at him, shakes his head, and goes back to playing his guitar and singing. Took me a minute to realize, he was chastising all the assholes at the concert who were on their cell phones! I may have been one of a few dozen people who got it because we WEREN'T using one!

The ad at the end of the video: "What makes a good marriage? visit www.scientology.org/marriage to find out"!

LOL

Aw, it's a public setting with people conversing freely... The correct question, essentially, is What is this frickin' orchestra doing in my GD phone booth?

There's an anti-smartphone vibe happening that's way out of control. Comedians whine about this a lot, too. If someone's doing something dangerous to you (working a phone in a car perhaps), they should be punished. If someone's doing something rude to you (working a phone during your conversation), they should be shunned.

Otherwise, people should do whatever they want with their time, and if you don't want to be a part of it, stay home.

At an outdoor Los Lobos concert one night we were all sitting on our blankets grooving to the band when David Hidalgo announced, "We're gonna need everybody to stand up for this one." A few people reluctantly rose. He said, "I know you got some important texting to do, but we want y'all to dance to this one." I loved that phrase: "important texting."

I'm going to say the band was rude, not him. From what I can tell he wasn't talking that loudly or interrupting the band or bothering other people who were listening.

The venue also looked to an open courtyard, type thing where people could drop by, maybe have a drink, and then move on if they wanted to.

So what that he wasn't giving full attention to them. Big deal.

I agree with Jim P.

But maybe they weren't reproving him; maybe they were performing for the person on the other side of his call.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

An abject lesson is politeness, delivered with a back-handed blow.

Love it!

I completely sympathize with the orchestra. How Rude! Having many friends who perform on stage, I can safely say they put all of themselves into the act, and work very hard for weeks and months before the show to make everything go as smoothly as possible.

How rude to ignore the performance because Gramma wants to remind you to bring home milk. Your kid lops off an arm, fine, take the call. This did not look to be an emergency.

Playing in the street is like playing in a bar.

Concert Hall ettiquite should not be expected.

I used to go to a lot of outdoor music festivals. They are usually loud for a reason. To cover the crowd noise.

In my opinion, this is just another example of an entitlement mentality. The musical group refuses to play in a venue, where they can set the rules, so they try to shame the audience and the bystanders into conforming to the groups idea of what activities should go on around them.

Reminds me of the young couple who came over to our table in a college snack bar, and told us politiely to shut up because "they were studying".
I said, "the library is the next building over". Also quite politely.

This is why I really dislike people who think it is their job to "tell" others how to behave in a public venue like this.
They are presumptuous, read situational clues poorly, and usually vote democrat, because they are a bunch of "nanny staters"

I completely sympathize with the orchestra. How Rude! Having many friends who perform on stage, I can safely say they put all of themselves into the act, and work very hard for weeks and months before the show to make everything go as smoothly as possible. -- wtf at January 8, 2014 10:59 AM

Is it any more rude than a person sitting at a bar with his back to them talking to his neighbor? Or even alone? Would you find the band's action acceptable for that?

I more than once have been "stuck" going to the local bar because it was walking distance from the hotel and I just wanted to have a few beers. I didn't know who was playing and didn't care. The music was good enough that I could ignore it. It saved me putting money in the jukebox.

Did you hear about that law professor that was diagnosed with sociopathy who is trying to put an end to public shaming?

It's been a feature of human history and interaction for quite some time!

Are you serious? Link, please.

Jim P., this seems like a concert and not just a walk-by situation. A bar is different. The music is accompaniment, not the main event of being there. -- Amy Alkon at January 8, 2014 1:28 PM

They are playing at the bottom of a set of stairs. There is a trash can mounted on the wall behind the violinist. The window slightly behind the phone guy has dresses hanging in it with a business name over it.

To me that looks like the open air "malls" that are showing up across the country. They are supposed to imitate the shopping in the village feel. They have bars, cafes, and restaurants with outdoor seating. Here's an example of one.

Either the the individual store or the mall management will have outdoor "concerts" that are fairly informal walk by type things. The individual acts may have a following but most people are just shopping, having an evening out, they aren't there just because the band is there.

I don't understand why you think this is a concert. The (few) players of this (tiny) "orchestra" are in sportswear; plain-spoken conversation and crowd noise dominate the audio track; everyone in the 'audience' is dressed for Saturday museum-going, and sitting at cheap cafe tables; the music is an unremarkable performance of a famously over-worked piece, one uninjured by their decision to walk their instruments to their victim during the signature passage.

Friends, there's a good reason that Bruce Willis made a joke about killing the street mime in that movie.

It's been a feature of human history and interaction for quite some time!

Are you serious? Link, please.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at January 8, 2014 1:46 PM

Yes, but there are contexts where it is appropriate, and ones where it is not. Parents dealing with children, always, But strangers, on public streets, almost never appropriate.

Want to know how to regulate people's behavior without berating them? Watch the British, especially the well educated ones.
They are masters, at shaping behavior without confrontation, or lecturing. If you can't, you should just shut up, or remove yourself from the situation. Responding to rudeness with rudeness, a confrontation, or a lecture, is not classy behavior.
Never has been, never will be.

Yes, but there are contexts where it is appropriate, and ones where it is not. Parents dealing with children, always, But strangers, on public streets, almost never appropriate.
___________________________________

How about people who talk (not "loudly," but loudly enough, in libraries - and the librarians won't approach them because they desperately need as many potential borrowers as possible?

Are the other patrons just supposed to accept it? (I don't.) Especially when they're at the computers and can't move elsewhere?

I am amazed that so many are self-centered to the degree that they will insist their own trivial babble is the most important audio in the area - regardless of venue.

Fun: who here would insist on talking to their phone, first, most and always, because what they have to say is the most important thing ever?

I'm with Jim P. on this - it does seem like the "orchestra" was rude here.

It does seem like an open air event. There will be noise. And, in fact, the crowd is noisier than the guy on the phone.

Most importantly, it seems like the players were set to go after someone, anyone, who was on a phone as part of their "act." So, ha ha ha, or really, how lame of a performance.

While I get the jist of what you are saying Amy, I don't agree that this is a good example. And, BTW, wouldn't it be rude (although not as much) to record a public performance?

While all you whiners are "digging" on that "groovy" music, Mister Cell Phone Man was probably doing PAYING work for a MAJOR CORPORATION.

Stupid hippies. Get a phone!

His girl was probably very proud of him.

Can you imagine puling one of your public shaming stunts on a Ted Bundy type?

This, I think, took place at Covent Garden in London.

I have a picture of myself there. This is basically a courtyard, where people mill around, chatting, snacking, reading and, yes, making calls.

Now, if you go to the website (http://www.coventgardenlondonuk.com/events-entertainment-culture/classical-musicians/page/1), you'll soon see that the musicians that perform there have to get into the space via audition and that they are of high caliber.

Still, as I recall, they DO put out bowls for money (you can kind of make one out in this video). So, it's not like this guy came into a performance space. These performers came into a public space. And so, phone guy isn't being rude. It would be like a group of musicians playing in Union Station and expecting concert-hall silence -- that's not what anyone expects. It seemed to me the musicians were being playful (and performing for the person on the other end of the call) rather than shaming him.

Gog ☑

Amy Alkon got publically shamed when she made grandiose statements about how she is more scientifically rigorous than Ph.D.'s.