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holy shit ! it was all a Potemkin performance ! ----- Forwarded message from Bill Spornitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----- From: Bill Spornitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 10:55:40 -0600 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Bill Spornitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: <nettime> The night went off, virtually, without a hitch... I found the article below in the March International Musician magazine, the AFM newsletter, and I've ocr'd it for your edification. I've done this because I have some concerns about it. Firstly: I've heard a lot about how cold it was in Salt Lake City on the opening night of the recent Olympics show, and I'm reading in this article about how they couldn't play their instruments, it was so cold. Today, March 19, 2002, the last day of winter, the current temperature here, at 10:30 CST is -19 Centigrade, or just below zero Farenheit. I have played my saxophone out of doors, here in the City of Ten Thousand Daves, at temperatures approaching -30C, where one is forced to transpose the music up a tone and a half in order to compensate for the contracting of the metal in the horn. 'Nuff said. Secondly: There's not much to say about the AFM, the American Federation of Musicians - suffice it to say that there are editorial opinions in this month's issue that celebrate that great american Patriot, Jack Valenti. As well, they quote Hillary Rosen as saying that addressing the problem of pirated recorded music "has fundamental importance to the US economy and to our overall competitiveness". Youch! But mainly: Why I'm really bothering you fine folks today is to ask a question. There's a real kind of sick dis-jointedness to this story - about musicians pretending to play their instruments, protected by armed soldiers, marched through security checkpoints, protected by extra security measures, suffering the failure of critical heating systems, but soldiering on, faking art on bad instruments for an audience of Billions and Billions served. Here's the question: Is this what they mean by de-construction? I mean, it all kind of sounds like it's coming apart at the ontological seams, doesn't it? Or is this a simulacra? Or is it a Situation? Or what? I'm pretty sure it's not avant-garde... It's getting really, really hard to tell what's really going on, and I appreciate any light anybody can shine through this fog. atb b Bitter Cold Can't Stop Music at Olympic Opening Ceremonies Were you one of the millions of people watching the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, who thought "How did they do that?' Despite typical frigid Utah February temperatures, the Utah Symphony Orchestra musicians seemingly played their instruments and trumpeted the opening of the games. But were they really playing? Most seasoned musicians know that temperature that low would cause irreversible damage to expensive instruments which might crack, freeze, and certainly not play in tune. What was really going on that night? It wasn't a magic trick. "Nobody though that we were not playing live," says Erich Graf, president of Local 104 (Salt Lake City, UT) and a principal flutist with the symphony. Organizers knew the harsh, Utah winter weather would pose many logistical difficulties for a symphonic production. "Basically when the Olympic Committee approached the sym- phony it was a given that the music would be pre-recorded," says Graf. The musicians contracted through the AFM to work in the studio for about 18 hours throughout January. It was agreed that the musicians would lip-synch at the ceremonies, and they were not to bring their own instruments. Instead, student-level instruments were allocated. "Southwest Strings, an Arizona-based company, provided all the string instruments, and at the close of the event consented to donate them to the Utah Public School System," says Graf, "which is a tremendous benefit to the schools here". The AFM also provided for safety precautions for the musicians. "They could not have been more proactive and more cooperative in terms of their pursuing things to make the musicians feel more comfortable and safe," says Graf. "The orchestra and the union decided early on that we were not comfortable without some kind of protections for the musicians in the hall since it was located just adjacent to the medals plaza," says Graf. Salt Lake County provided the extra safe precautions, security guards, and bom sniffing dogs to check everyone at ea symphonic event. National Guardsmen with M-16 rifles were a common sight at Rice-Eccles stadium (medals plaza). Musicians waited hours in line for each rehear- sal and performance arriving four hours early to go through security checkpoints. "It was like a small airport during rush hour," says Graf. The AFM also made sure the musicians were comfortable for their Olympic performances. Shuttle buses were provided from the outlying areas into Salt Lake valley for rehearsals and performance and heaters at the arena warmed the bundled up musicians. The heaters had to be fixed after they failed during the dress rehearsal the night before opening ceremonies. It was these tireless efforts that made for an unforgettable night. After years of preparation, the night went off virtually without a hitch, thanks to the help of the AFM and its year-long negotiations behind-the -scenes with producers Dave Goldberg and Jeff Bennett. It made for a stunning evening the whole world enjoyed. "I appreciate the AFM facili- tating our opportunity to be able to participate in this," says Graf. "For all the effort it took to put these things together I think that the event was like standing out looking at the Grand Canyon for the first time-it was a spectacle like no other on earth." # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
