Klarinet Archive - Posting 000149.txt from 2006/10

From: Laurence Beckhardt <lbeckhardt@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Library of Congress ticekts for the Dec. 7 concert
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 13:20:07 -0400

Leila,

thanks for reconfirming my faith in American
democracy. can you please explain the electoral
college now?

--- Lelia Loban <lelialoban@-----.net> wrote:

>
> Re. the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's
> concert, Dan Leeson wrote,
> >There are no tickets needed for the pre-concert
> >lecture at 6:15 p.m. but yes, tickets ARE needed
> >for the concert at 8p.m.
>
> Thanks for the clarification!
>
> >Or you can also take your chances with no tickets
> >closer to curtain time and get in that way--if
> there's
> >room.
>
> Risky. These concerts are generally well-attended,
> even on weeknights. It
> looks to be one of the best Coolidge Aud concerts of
> the season-- and
> there's a special circumstance that week. See
> below.
>
> >There are NO acoustically bad seats in the
> Coolidge.
> >There are some physically uncomfortable ones in the
>
> >last rows (S & T I think.)
>
> I agree with you about the acoustics, Dan. Good
> hall for chamber
> orchestras and small ensembles. Good audience, too.
> The physical
> discomfort issue with the back rows is why I
> recommended avoiding rows S-U
> and the two seats nearest each aisle (seats 1-3,
> 2-4, 11-13, 12-14, 101-102
> and 112-113) in rows P-R. S is the last full row at
> the back. T and U are
> short rows on the two side aisles only. Since I
> got several private
> inquiries about that area, nicknamed the duckpen by
> a few of the Library's
> regulars, maybe I should go ahead and bore the
> whole-- oops, I mean explain
> to the whole list.
>
> First, for the sake of readers outside the U.S.A.:
> It's possible that the
> legislature of the U. S. federal government, the
> Senate and the House of
> Representatives, will be winding up their lame duck
> sessions around the
> time of this concert. A lame duck is a public
> officeholder whose term of
> office is ending, but who still holds office during
> the period between the
> elections (November 7 this year) and the end of the
> session. The exact
> date of adjournment varies from year to year. Last
> year, the Senate didn't
> adjourn until December 22, but in 2004, the House
> and the Senate both
> adjourned on December 8. This session between the
> election and year's end
> is the last chance for the lame ducks to accomplish
> anything before the
> newly-elected legislators take office after the
> winter holiday adjournment.
> The elections on November 7 may turn a lot of
> incumbents out of office. If
> the more ideologically ferocious among the
> nearly-departed go wild with pet
> legislation or dramatic posturing at the last
> minute, especially likely if
> control of the House will change parties in January
> (as may happen this
> year), then lame duck sessions can run late into the
> evenings. A
> legislative session might even turn into a Daffy
> Duck that could coincide
> with that December 7 concert, a particularly
> tempting date for political
> theater, because it's Pearl Harbor Day.
>
> Now, about the duckpen: The Coolidge Auditorium is
> on the ground floor of
> the Library's Jefferson Building, directly across
> First Street from the U.
> S. Capitol building, where the House and the Senate
> meet. That's a quick
> public parade across First Street or a furtive
> scuttle through the private,
> underground tunnel connecting the Library to the
> Capitol. A Daffy Duck
> happens when a faction of the House or Senate tries
> to force the majority
> into further negotiations by attaching the
> controversial issue as a rider
> to an important bill, then preventing a vote on it
> and prolonging the agony
> until nobody can stand it any more and people start
> compromising. One
> dramatic way to stall is by walking out with enough
> members to deprive the
> session of a voting quorum, until the other side
> makes concessions. (In
> the rare Donald Duck, things get so embarrassingly
> out of control that
> people start yelling and hitting.) Pulling this
> stunt late in the day
> encourages negotiation, because everybody wants to
> get the session over
> with, eat dinner, go to concerts, get drunk, seduce
> pages, go home and
> sleep, etc..
>
> The duckouts disappear down a lot of different
> holes. Most of them go to
> private rooms reserved in private clubs a block or
> two away, or to their
> own or colleagues' nearby apartments. (If the
> duckouts merely retreated to
> a nearby bar or restaurant, colleagues could barge
> in and quack at them to
> go back to the floor.) However, since the Coolidge
> Aud requires tickets
> and concert manners oblige silence, the auditorium
> makes a convenient,
> dignified hideout for a few Daffys ducking out of a
> quorum call who don't
> have private bolt-holes nearby. (Also, legislators
> know that at least one
> pool reporter will lurk in the duckpen. A note in
> The Washington Post the
> next morning that "senators Haunch, Paunch and
> Schnorer attended a Mozart
> concert" wreaks no havoc--as opposed to, say,
> "Senators Hump, Lump and
> Gonef sneaked off to the Kitten With A Whip Club.")
> Those aisle seats I
> mentioned, back near the lobby doors, are the most
> convenient for slipping
> in and out without disrupting the concert for the
> rest of the
> audience--except for the unfortunates in the
> immediate vicinity.
>
> The duckpen is one reason why there's a limit of two
> tickets per customer
> by phone or on the web--to prevent legislators from
> hoarding up rear aisle
> seats in advance that may then go vacant-- but they
> do it anyway, by asking
> pages (when they're not busy being chased around the
> desk) and other lowly
> minions to order their two tickets apiece. The
> Coolidge tells
> concert-goers to turn off cell phones and
> crackberries, of course. The
> ushers do ask conspicuous violators to leave. Also,
> people can't enter the
> auditorium during the music. However, it's easy to
> see when party leaders
> want to confer or to march their ducks back to the
> session, because
> suddenly several people leap up and dash for the
> lobby doors while grabbing
> at their vibrating pockets.
>
> Dan Leeson mentioned that concert-goers
> >can also come down with NO tickets when they
> >come to the lecture. At that time, they will either
>
> >be given a left-over concert ticket or a voucher
> >for a turned-in ticket, which is redeemed at 7:30
> p.m.
> >when the concert hall opens.
>
> Now you know where those tickets come from.
> Sometimes when the ducks act
> more collegial or adjourn early enough not to want
> the tickets, they turn
> them back in and the general public gets them--but
> if the duckpen's mostly
> empty except for a few confused-looking teenagers
> who nervously applaud
> between movements, that means some wag told the
> pages they should go ahead
> and use the tickets, because the Orchestra of the
> Age of Enlightenment is
> the latest really hot rock group.
>
> I emphasize that duckout behavior is uncommon; that
> the legislature may be
> weeks away from recess or may have already recessed
> anyway by the date of
> this concert; and that even if circumstances do
> coincide for duckouts to
> duck in, most of them will be music-lovers (if they
> weren't, they could go
> to several other safe places) and they'll avoid
> disturbing the performance.
>
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