Media for [telecom] Ringing Finally Ended, but There's No Button to Stop Shame

[telecom] Ringing Finally Ended, but There's No Button to Stop Shame

Ringing Finally Ended, but There's No Button to Stop Shame

By DANIEL J. WAKIN January 12, 2012

They were baying for blood in the usually polite precincts of Avery Fisher Hall.

The unmistakably jarring sound of an iPhone marimba ring interrupted the soft and spiritual final measures of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 at the New York Philharmonic on Tuesday night. The conductor, Alan Gilbert, did something almost unheard-of in a concert hall: He stopped the performance. But the ringing kept on going, prompting increasingly angry shouts in the audience directed at the malefactor.

After words from Mr. Gilbert, and what seemed like weeks, the cellphone owner finally silenced his device. After the audience cheered, the concert resumed. Internet vitriol ensued.

But no one, it seems, felt worse than the culprit, who agreed to an interview on Thursday on condition that he not be identified - for obvious reasons.

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***** Moderator's Note *****

Cellphones are inherently anti-social devices. Carrying one around and answering it in public places is an announcement to the world that you think /your/ time and convenience is more important than anyone else's.

The "Patron X" mentioned in the NY Times story claimed that his employer had just switched him from a blackberry to an iphone, and that the sound was actually an alarm signal, not the phone ringing. Sounds like revisionist history ex post factotum to me, but even if it's true, that only proves that the person in question felt entitled to take an active electronic device into a concert hall without bothering to RTFM. The gaul of some people!

Bill Horne Moderator