Ward and I recently went to a couple of
shows. We bought our tickets months ago and had been looking
forward to them. The first was a concert by John Prine. In case
you're not familiar with him, he's a songwriter/singer who is great
at telling a story and evoking emotions with simple words and a clever
turn of a phrase. He's also a masterful guitar player. The concert
had no special lights, no hanging from the ceiling, no dancers--just
a man and his guitar occasionally joined by a bass, mandolin, or
another guitar. To me it was magical and I loved it.
Unfortunately, so did the man sitting
beside us. He was having the time of his life. He was dancing in his
seat, singing along, and clapping vigorously. None of this was a
problem even though we were in a small theater. The problem was his
whistle. It was very loud. In fact, it was ear piercing. My ears
literally hurt every time he did it--which was frequently because he
obviously loved John Prine. I know that I was not the only one who
was bothered. He got plenty of looks, and people were holding their
ears all around him. Yet, he went along his merry way whistling with all of his might. I guess he was in the zone. He turned an otherwise wonderful concert into a painful one at times.
A week later, we saw a production of
Ave Q. Ave Q is a Tony-award-winning musical loosely based on a Sesame Street format
with puppets and actors. However, it is not for kids as it has adult themes. We also enjoyed this show very much.
Except, for the problem with the woman sitting in front of us. She was not loud like
the whistler. She was loud in another sort of way. It was her
perfume. The smell of it was so strong that I had a headache by
intermission. Another perfect show ruined by someone in the audience.
Okay, maybe ruined is too strong of a word, but the overpowering
perfume smell certainly distracted from the enjoyment of the show.
Now here's the question. Would you have
done anything to change these less than optimum situations? Or would
you have just come home and fussed about them like I did?
