Posted on 09/10/2006 8:02:03 PM PDT by Westlander
Who's more likely to have a bomb in their bag? A middle-aged professional cellist with the National Symphony en route to Europe or a group of 30 year old Arab males?
When I was growing up, my cello teacher had to purchase a separate ticket for her cello when she flew somewhere, because she wouldn't trust baggage handlers with the instrument.
FR has its share of anti-art conservatives too.
Then these folks need to resort to what has worked in previous days, a bus tour. There are plenty of folks out there who choose not to fly for a variety of reasons, and somebody with a (rare musical instrument|artifact|test equipment|cool NFA weapons) would do well to also become a "not-flyer" type. Hey, it works for John Madden, right?
Plenty of not-major-leage sports teams and not-quite-MTV bands live off of the ol' Bus Tour. Musicians and traveling performers simply need to coodinate their tours in a circuit that works with a travel-by-road schedule, that's all. Might lead to a less hectic lifestyle, too. Less stressful.
Well, there is talk of banning electronic devices from aircraft. Laptop batteries have been known to catch on fire and cell phones can be used as detonators. It's just a matter of time until those items will be prohibited from aircraft, too, even as stowed baggage.
Probably just a matter of time before the two choices for flying will be nude and conscious or clothed and knocked out with an IV sedative.
Ping
It seems to me they could make an exception for bona fide musicians. It's not that hard to x-ray a tuba or bass, after all.
And Willie Park, a piper at the College of Piping in Glasgow, said he knew of Russian and Japanese pipers who had posted their instruments home rather than putting them in an aeroplane hold.
And how did the postal system get the instruments to their destinations? Did they perchance ship the mail via cargo aeroplanes? In the hold perhaps? Hmm.
I read all the posts and I'm with the musicians on this one. There must be a way to drum (no pun intended) into all real Americans' heads just how difficult it is to be an American because it's more important to accomodate somebody with a towel on their head.
... with a piccolo, maybe.... (ok, she could get away with the headjoint....
P.S. I meant I play guitar-family instruments. I don't play bagpipes - my hands are too small.
In 1987 the Chicago Symphony came to my town.
Early on the day of the concert, the large instruments were being hauled by a semi from the previous city on the tour. It overturned on the interstate in high winds, a couple hundred miles from us. Orchestra management scrambled to arrange for another truck and driver to get to the scene, with help to salvage the cargo and bring it as quickly as possible to our venue.
The concert was delayed for hours. When we heard that the alternate truck was finally arriving, my friend and I wandered around to back dock of the concert hall.
We watched as the cases were unloaded. Some of the larger instruments hadn't fared too well, despite their elaborate packaging. I remember a few busted basses and cellos in particular. These were replaced by loaners from the members of the local orchestra.
As the unloading begain, I found myself standing next to a tall, gray-haired older fellow who looked vaguely familiar. I said it was a shame about all those big, beautiful, valuable instruments. He said he was glad he could travel with his instrument as a carry-on.
His name was Adolph Herseth.
I forgot to mention his instrument. He is now the world's Dean Emeritus of orchestral trumpets.
The bureaucrats would probably get mixed up and give us the choice of conscious and clothed, or nude and drugged out.
I always thought that was why I couldn't play the guitar. I tried lessons years ago, but found I just couldn't imitate my favorite rock and rollers. I consoled myself by taking flute lessons a la Ian Anderson from Tull.
I do play classical piano and don't think my hands are particularly small, but when you look at the finger joints on male guitarists, they seem very long compared to those on women. I had no idea that you needed large hands to play the pipes.
This reminds me of a story I read about the Chicago Symphony Orchestra travelling to Vienna back in the '20s or '30s...the violinists were refused entry to their hotel because of the fact that they were carrying violin cases, which all the movies of the time showed Chicago gangsters carrying around to tote their tommy guns!
They can lie about being Muslim, you know.
One could always be a pianist. They never have to ship their instruments.
Maybe they can post larger containers (thus better padding) than routine airline flights can handle through their baggage systems.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.