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A concert, a movie and OMGtalkingpeople
Apr. 8th, 2006 05:19 pmThis post brought to you by OH MY GOD SHUT UP.
Seriously, people, how hard is it to BE QUIET during a movie or a concert? If you're that bored, go home. Don't stage-whisper through the whole performance/film so no one else can give it their full attention.
Thank you.
Sigh. My sister and I just got back from Drawing Restraint 9, the new Matthew Barney/Bjork art house film in which two Occidental Strangers board a Japanese whaling ship bedecked with a creepy petroleum jelly sculpture, get married and turn into whales. The trailer was better than the movie, but I still found it quite enjoyable; I loved how it took its time and filmed objects so close you could feel the textures, even the disgusting ones like when they sling what look like squid tentacles over the bride- and groom-to-be's naked bodies. There was a fetishistic quality to a lot of what went on, long rituals and shaving and bathing and costumes and animal skins and furs and tea preparation and biting each other's faces and pulling out a barbed quill from his forehead and cutting each other's legs off with flensing knives and eating each other's flesh, and the recurrence of that odd jelly-sculpture shape. It was quiet and patient and filled with vibrant, if not always easily interpreted, imagery, and Bjork's score was odd enough to complement it well.
However. These two women in the back -- we're not talking about a large theater here, maybe 10 rows of seats -- talked through the whole thing. It was bad enough that I (I!) got up, walked back and asked them politely but firmly to please keep it down. But a few minutes later they were rude enough to start back up again. Someone else shushed them later to no avail. *shakes head*
What do you do in a situation like that? Try once and let it drop? Turn around and say "Shh!" so they get the point, and risk creating a disruption of your own? Chalk it up to people being hopelessly inconsiderate and rent all your movies? Learn to just deal with it?
It used to be that people would either keep quiet (maybe that's a romantic recollection rather than reality) or talk at times when no one was speaking -- while a musician tunes, over the trailers or when there's a lapse in dialogue in a movie -- which I also can't stand, but at least you can hear the important parts. Is it me, or are people lately talking more and more -- right over conversations in movies, or through the end of the tuning into the musician's introduction and even his song (as with last night's concert)? Drawing Restraint 9 had dialogue in one scene. It was clearly a movie you were meant to sink into and listen to and watch. These women found that to be an invitation to speak constantly.
Anyway. Yesterday I brought my dad to see Richard Shindell again, which is always wonderful. He's a folk singer/guitarist from Long Island -- Richard Shindell, not my dad -- who married an Argentinian and now lives in that country with his wife and daughter, returning to his homeland about twice a year for short tours. His songs are just gorgeous, mostly folk-rock with an occasional Spanish flavor. Very relaxed, lots of minor keys, a nasal voice that's entirely forgiveable for the quality of his music and lyrics. I think he is my favorite singer now; as opposed to Alexi Murdoch, he creates beautiful, thoughtful music that's sad but doesn't descend into self-pity or angst, and he actually comes out with new albums. He did one of my favorite songs last night that I never thought he'd play, based on past concert experience, which was a very nice surprise, did a few lovely covers that will be appearing on his forthcoming album including "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" by Bob Dylan, and stripped down some of his peppier songs and jazzed up the quieter ones for a nice remix that didn't just sound like a live performance of the records. (He calls them "records.")
I was going to complain about people talking there, too, but the recollection of his songs is too pleasant to be disturbed. So there you have it.
Seriously, people, how hard is it to BE QUIET during a movie or a concert? If you're that bored, go home. Don't stage-whisper through the whole performance/film so no one else can give it their full attention.
Thank you.
Sigh. My sister and I just got back from Drawing Restraint 9, the new Matthew Barney/Bjork art house film in which two Occidental Strangers board a Japanese whaling ship bedecked with a creepy petroleum jelly sculpture, get married and turn into whales. The trailer was better than the movie, but I still found it quite enjoyable; I loved how it took its time and filmed objects so close you could feel the textures, even the disgusting ones like when they sling what look like squid tentacles over the bride- and groom-to-be's naked bodies. There was a fetishistic quality to a lot of what went on, long rituals and shaving and bathing and costumes and animal skins and furs and tea preparation and biting each other's faces and pulling out a barbed quill from his forehead and cutting each other's legs off with flensing knives and eating each other's flesh, and the recurrence of that odd jelly-sculpture shape. It was quiet and patient and filled with vibrant, if not always easily interpreted, imagery, and Bjork's score was odd enough to complement it well.
However. These two women in the back -- we're not talking about a large theater here, maybe 10 rows of seats -- talked through the whole thing. It was bad enough that I (I!) got up, walked back and asked them politely but firmly to please keep it down. But a few minutes later they were rude enough to start back up again. Someone else shushed them later to no avail. *shakes head*
What do you do in a situation like that? Try once and let it drop? Turn around and say "Shh!" so they get the point, and risk creating a disruption of your own? Chalk it up to people being hopelessly inconsiderate and rent all your movies? Learn to just deal with it?
It used to be that people would either keep quiet (maybe that's a romantic recollection rather than reality) or talk at times when no one was speaking -- while a musician tunes, over the trailers or when there's a lapse in dialogue in a movie -- which I also can't stand, but at least you can hear the important parts. Is it me, or are people lately talking more and more -- right over conversations in movies, or through the end of the tuning into the musician's introduction and even his song (as with last night's concert)? Drawing Restraint 9 had dialogue in one scene. It was clearly a movie you were meant to sink into and listen to and watch. These women found that to be an invitation to speak constantly.
Anyway. Yesterday I brought my dad to see Richard Shindell again, which is always wonderful. He's a folk singer/guitarist from Long Island -- Richard Shindell, not my dad -- who married an Argentinian and now lives in that country with his wife and daughter, returning to his homeland about twice a year for short tours. His songs are just gorgeous, mostly folk-rock with an occasional Spanish flavor. Very relaxed, lots of minor keys, a nasal voice that's entirely forgiveable for the quality of his music and lyrics. I think he is my favorite singer now; as opposed to Alexi Murdoch, he creates beautiful, thoughtful music that's sad but doesn't descend into self-pity or angst, and he actually comes out with new albums. He did one of my favorite songs last night that I never thought he'd play, based on past concert experience, which was a very nice surprise, did a few lovely covers that will be appearing on his forthcoming album including "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" by Bob Dylan, and stripped down some of his peppier songs and jazzed up the quieter ones for a nice remix that didn't just sound like a live performance of the records. (He calls them "records.")
I was going to complain about people talking there, too, but the recollection of his songs is too pleasant to be disturbed. So there you have it.
