Posted on 07/20/2004 9:43:45 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
omething went awry at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas last Saturday night. Linda Ronstadt did what she has done at several concerts across the country this summer. She dedicated the song "Desperado"- an encore - to Michael Moore and urged members of the audience to go see his new movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Elsewhere, audiences have reacted to the mention of Mr. Moore by cheering, booing, walking out and sometimes glaring at one another in parking lots. At the Aladdin, a few audience members tore down posters, threw drinks and demanded their money back. According to one person who was present - William Timmins, the Aladdin's president - it was "a very ugly scene." Mr. Timmins promptly made it even uglier. He had Ms. Ronstadt ejected from the premises.
This behavior assumes that Ms. Ronstadt had no right to express a political opinion from the stage. It implies - for some members of the audience at least - that there is a philosophical contract that says an artist must entertain an audience only in the ways that audience sees fit. It argues, in fact, that an artist like Ms. Ronstadt does not have the same rights as everyone else.
Perhaps her praise for Mr. Moore, even at the very end of her show, did ruin the performance for some people. They have a right to voice their disapproval - to express their opinion as Ms. Ronstadt expressed hers and to ask for a refund. But if their intemperate behavior began to worry the management, then they were the ones who should have been thrown out and told never to return, not Ms. Ronstadt, who threatened, after all, only to sing.
Except that the caller was not gay, the caller was a vindictive prank caller who was baiting Mr. Savage, Mr. Savage said "drop dead" to the caller 3 ways "Choke on a sausage" (he was cooking sausage on the tv show), get food poisoning from undercooked pork, and get AIDS. All are horrible ways to die. Only one of those deaths is "politically" protected (AIDS). Mr. Savage also thought that the program had cut off as he dealt with the prank caller.
Twenty years ago I was part of a folk music duo. We were banned from a coffeehouse gig, where we had previously been a favorite act, because we praised President Reagan from the stage. We honestly had no idea that we were being controversial. We were very politically naive at that time. We didn't know the difference between a liberal and a conservative, we only knew that Reagan was a great president. We had no idea that coffeehouse audiences were liberal, and that liberals hated Reagan AND those who loved him. Anyhow, we soon learned to read our audiences and figure out what we could and could not say at different venues. VFWs were great - we could praise Reagan all day long there.
If you get paid to sing, then sing. People didn't get a notice when they bought their ticket that this was going to be a fundraiser for Michael Moore. If they had, then they would have no right to complain. Otherwise, F Linda Rondstadt and F the NY Times.
Just as a means of full disclosure, I knew Linda Rondstadt and I don't like her. I grew up in Tucson, just as she did. I am about ten years younger than her and she actually a friend of two of my aunts who babysat me at one time. Her parents were a fairly prominent family in Tucson so she was fairly well taken care of. She has been a primadonna since she was a child. While her family was not super wealthy, they were business owners and the pillars of the community type. Her parents many business and social connections must have given her the mistaken impression that she was very important early on in her life. And somehow, she just hasn't been disabused of that mistaken belief. Her parents were very good people though.
You were? :-) New to reading the New York Times, eh?
Seriously, it is so assinine. You'd think they'd be trying to regain their credibility (or gain it, however you want to look at it). This is one of the worst of the worst when it comes to intellectual honesty.
I think you might infer that if you buy a ticket to a singer's concert that you will hear music ... not political commentary. If otherwise they should so state. I do not want my plumber, auto detailer, grocery checkout person or gardener bloviating.
Well when I saw the Pretenders, they played the theme to the Rush Limbaugh Radio Show (and the conservatives in the crowd dug it)...
and yes, I know that he uses a Pretenders' song.
Desparado--I know that tune...
Linda Rondstadt
why don't you come to your senses?
You've been out eating french fries for so long.
Oh you're a lard butt,
and I know that you like your treason
the things that are pleasing you will hurt us in the end.
Don't you fawn on the King of lying Moore, he'll eat you if he's able
You know your singing voice is always your best bet.
It seems that a divine sing is where you are most able
So why you speak of things that you don't get?
Shouldn't that decision be left up to the management? IF they have paid for a service they did not receive, they have a right to terminate don't they?
The blacklist against conservative entertainers has done a lot to silence conservatives in that industry. I don't just mean from the stage, I mean that they won't open their mouths about their politics in interviews or campaign appearances because it could mean being out of work.
There are conservatives who are so well respected and big enough box office that they still get work but there is a blacklist.
The people at the hotel didn't go to the concert to hear a freaking advertisment from Linda Ronstadt about some stupid ugly white mans new 'movie'. Has Linda no shame?
My guess, unless you called for backup from the Hooligan Biker list, the Viking Kitties, and the Tryanny Response Team, would be about a New York Minute...
LOL!
"At the Aladdin, a few audience members tore down posters, threw drinks and demanded their money back."
What a waste of a good drink....
Absotively, and WELL said. Get our good friend Congressman BillyBob to draw up a contract along those lines!
If I hired entertainers for my business, I would expect them to entertain and not piss off my clientele. Of course the socialists at the NYT cannot comprehend this.
Uh, no, ya simple bung-hole - - it implies that an artist must entertain an audience the way the people are hired the artist and are writing the check see fit.
(That last post, #57, was obviously directed at the NYT, not you.)
BTTT
Regards,
LH
Michael Savage was targeted by the caller. I doubt it was even the first such attempt to goad Mr. Savage. The caller screener was negligent and the program producer was also lax. I doubt that Michael Savage got to bring his own crew onboard for all positions.
Meanwhile at ESPN, Hunter S. Thompson still works and spouts politics. He disappeared for awhile after claiming that the images from Abu Ghraib under American control were worse than the most revolting attrocity committed by Nazi Germany. He said that IN his ESPN column.
Maybe they were comped...
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.