Just back from today's Steve Reich marathon at the Whitney, featuring So Percussion and Alarm Will Sound. A full review will be forthcoming soon, but meanwhile, allow me to rant while the rant's still fresh.
Right in the middle of the first piece ("Pendulum Music"), some officious woman from the Whitney comes up to me and tells me I can't take pictures. This confuses me since I'm sitting in the reserved section along with all the other press, some of whom are also taking photographs. I'm certainly not doing anything stupid like using a flash, but I guess she saw that I didn't have an SLR camera and pounced. I explained that I'd been invited to cover the event by Alarm Will Sound. At first, that seemed like it would be an acceptable answer -- "Oh, okay. [pause] What publication are you with?" Here, I make the mistake of admitting I'm a blogger, and she shoots me a look like I've just thrown up all over her shoes. She tells me that nobody cleared this with her, that I am absolutely not authorized to take photographs inside the museum, and that if I keep it up I'll be ejected from the concert.
Gosh, you'd almost think the Whitney didn't want bloggers at this event...
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