It's been happening more and more and it's really getting on my nerves. You're at a concert in Duke Chapel listening to delicately written music from the 15th century being sung by women with heavenly voices. Just as they reach a delicious dissonance and the tones are suspended in air, the audience collectively holds it's breath waiting for the resolution and cli-ick! comes the loud shutter of the camera shattering the fragile, shimmering harmonics.
Why, with all our modern technology, we can't have cameras with silent shutter mechanisms is beyond me. And it seems to be the flashy digital SLR's with their enormous lenses that are the noisiest - even noisier than my old Nikkormat. They seem to be saying "look at me, I've got the latest and greatest!".
Until the idiots behind these cameras at least learn to hold their shots until the loudest part of the music, or better yet, use something quiet, they should be banned from any musical event. They're even a nuisance at outdoor folk music events and the like.
This particular instance (and he took many pictures during the most delicate parts of the performance) was at the Women's Voices concert in Duke Chapel last night.
It's too late. I've started. Upcoming rants and raves have started brewing in my head. I'm a slow writer - it can take me hours to do a post. Things that keep me up at 3:00 - the fretting hour:
The news depresses me daily - needless violence, death, destruction, the war and how we got there, the ugly, greedy people that run the country, the people that voted for them, the flickering environment, the dying arts - every day there's one or ten more news items that just push me deeper and deeper. But you do get a little numb to it all. And then suddenly one thing on the front page hits every button imaginable - kind of sums up the whole picture. Our prized local paper, here - I don't even want to give them a mention but they're out of Raleigh, NC - on Saturday's front page - FRONT PAGE! - On the front page of the paper!!!! - had to tell us about a nifty new product that is sure to be a success. You can now buy spray-on mud for your SUV. For all you urbanites with gas guzzling 4 wheel drive monsters you can now tell the world that you're really macho at heart and really doing the rough stuff. Buy some spray-on mud for the Hummer so we don't think you only use it to go to the grocery store. I really, really feel sick right now. Time to take a break from the news....
The credit card companies can think of a million ways to take your money but they can't come up with a functional website. Trying to make a payment online today, the last day of the year, would only give me payment date options for 2008 (but not today). Impossible to schedule a payment for January 2, 2009. Helpful Mr. Customer Service says "Try again tomorrow, it will be the first day of 2009 and hopefully the calendar will show dates for 2009."
