Mozart and the socialist at the Lincoln Centre
I minding my business, eating the ice-cream which cost two times the minimum wage in Guyana but which could be eaten slowly because each spoonful generating sensations - vanilla from madagascar and orange and chocolate and I not going into the politics of how much the girl who selling get paid to sell and to guard because of the tourist in front of me ask if he could get a two dollar worth and she said no.. she can only sell in the amounts given and I thought I could give him an ice cream but is not that he poor, just that he don't have cash ...
So I enjoying the ice cream.. waiting in the plaza for the time to go in to hear the Mozart concert, conscious that I keep this classical music thing on the downlow because for some, it make me seem pretentious, for others it becomes a kind of buddy pretentious thing because if I like classical music then I must be civilised somehow and then for others, it make more of an outcast than I already am.
And a man come up, older white man, got a cap, thickglasses, intense stare and a folder with papers in it marked 'technical issues'. He asks me if he could interview me.. if I have heard that the New York Met would be locking out its workers.
I enjoying my ice cream and the thought of Mozart live and I shocked because the New York Met is a nice looking building too. But they have labour problems. The man tell me he works with the World Socialist Website and we start to talk about socialism. I say I come from a socialist country name Guyana and the man proceed to lecture me about how Guyana was never socialist just like how China was never communist.
I feel a lil way.. because I know I pay plenty money for the ticket to just go and sit in a place which would be filled with music . This man make me think of this money
I also feel that I could take the fancy concert money and put a dollar in every busker bag instead of just paying to this one big symbol of imperialism.
So the man sharing the leaflet about the lockout and says he will be interviewing the opera goers and so on. The ice cream taste fortunately did not get bitter as I imagined any n socialists in Guyana turning up in their SUVs to the sugar factory or to a beauty pageant and asking the people there what they know about the commodifying of human bodies. The man giving me the history of Stalin, the wars etc and I shake his hand to go into one of the temples where socialism is not an issue.
I mean, there are more socialists in America percentage wise than in our Cooperative Socialist Republic?
I asked the man about whether they will get other musicians as scabs.. and now understanding that my enjoyment of beautiful music in a beautiful place got nuff janjhat behind it which at that moment, I would prefer not to know about. I leave the man with his folder of printouts of the news stories and I go inside.
During the intermission I gaff with the usher if she hears the music and enjoys the performances. She and the other ushers and security and the elevator attendants are black for the most part, the patrons are not black for the most part.
She tells me she is sick and the hall is too cold for her so she listens on the monitor. I want to ask her if she hear anything about the Met workers getting locked out but another angry lady come up and say how there was a girl playing music on her cell phone during the 'second movement, her favourite part of the Piano Concert 23. The usher said that it is only two working, they are short , and the lady said she has been short all her life and that has been no excuse. The usher expression did not change.. like she accustomed to short people rowing about other people and their cell phones and the inability of the ushers to do something about it.
I now wondering what short lady would think about the Met locking their workers out and her not getting any music at all to enjoy.
Usher lady and me gaff lil bit, she says.. wow what a thing, and I say it is crazy with the phones. Usher lady said she hear the lady rudeness but she polite.
Usher lady says she doesn't understand, she thought people would want to come to hear the music and escape from the world.
Yeah.. that is what I thought too, until socialist man come up.
In the subway, I pass two guitar playing white youths, and then I see an old black man with his one man karaoke playing louder than his out of tune voice. I take a dollar out and put in his bag in the nice middle class guilt ridden belief that this will even up the distribution of wealth and resources and that I can redeem myself from the enjoyment of Mozart and the ice cream.
So I enjoying the ice cream.. waiting in the plaza for the time to go in to hear the Mozart concert, conscious that I keep this classical music thing on the downlow because for some, it make me seem pretentious, for others it becomes a kind of buddy pretentious thing because if I like classical music then I must be civilised somehow and then for others, it make more of an outcast than I already am.
And a man come up, older white man, got a cap, thickglasses, intense stare and a folder with papers in it marked 'technical issues'. He asks me if he could interview me.. if I have heard that the New York Met would be locking out its workers.
I enjoying my ice cream and the thought of Mozart live and I shocked because the New York Met is a nice looking building too. But they have labour problems. The man tell me he works with the World Socialist Website and we start to talk about socialism. I say I come from a socialist country name Guyana and the man proceed to lecture me about how Guyana was never socialist just like how China was never communist.
I feel a lil way.. because I know I pay plenty money for the ticket to just go and sit in a place which would be filled with music . This man make me think of this money
I also feel that I could take the fancy concert money and put a dollar in every busker bag instead of just paying to this one big symbol of imperialism.
So the man sharing the leaflet about the lockout and says he will be interviewing the opera goers and so on. The ice cream taste fortunately did not get bitter as I imagined any n socialists in Guyana turning up in their SUVs to the sugar factory or to a beauty pageant and asking the people there what they know about the commodifying of human bodies. The man giving me the history of Stalin, the wars etc and I shake his hand to go into one of the temples where socialism is not an issue.
I mean, there are more socialists in America percentage wise than in our Cooperative Socialist Republic?
I asked the man about whether they will get other musicians as scabs.. and now understanding that my enjoyment of beautiful music in a beautiful place got nuff janjhat behind it which at that moment, I would prefer not to know about. I leave the man with his folder of printouts of the news stories and I go inside.
During the intermission I gaff with the usher if she hears the music and enjoys the performances. She and the other ushers and security and the elevator attendants are black for the most part, the patrons are not black for the most part.
She tells me she is sick and the hall is too cold for her so she listens on the monitor. I want to ask her if she hear anything about the Met workers getting locked out but another angry lady come up and say how there was a girl playing music on her cell phone during the 'second movement, her favourite part of the Piano Concert 23. The usher said that it is only two working, they are short , and the lady said she has been short all her life and that has been no excuse. The usher expression did not change.. like she accustomed to short people rowing about other people and their cell phones and the inability of the ushers to do something about it.
I now wondering what short lady would think about the Met locking their workers out and her not getting any music at all to enjoy.
Usher lady and me gaff lil bit, she says.. wow what a thing, and I say it is crazy with the phones. Usher lady said she hear the lady rudeness but she polite.
Usher lady says she doesn't understand, she thought people would want to come to hear the music and escape from the world.
Yeah.. that is what I thought too, until socialist man come up.
In the subway, I pass two guitar playing white youths, and then I see an old black man with his one man karaoke playing louder than his out of tune voice. I take a dollar out and put in his bag in the nice middle class guilt ridden belief that this will even up the distribution of wealth and resources and that I can redeem myself from the enjoyment of Mozart and the ice cream.
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