For those of you who don't know, I work on campus ushering for concerts. As far as jobs go, my job is pretty excellent: essentially I get paid to stand there and look pretty after I've counted how many people have gone through my door and have given them programs. Occasionally I have to prevent people from going in at the wrong time. It's not a hard job and it's pretty awesome that I get paid to do it.
However, there are some people who either a) lack common decency, b) want me to earn my pay, or c) both. I go to Ithaca College and work in the Whalen Center for Music. It's a pretty well-known music school with phenomenal teachers and students and in a community of people who have grown up with classical music peppering their lives. Despite these facts, I get some pretty ridiculous questions, or, rather, demands, from concertgoers.
Ithaca College is also home to the Park School of Communications, which is also very well-known. As a part of their tenure in the communication school, the "Parkies" cover some of the bigger concerts in the music school. During the US Brass Band concert I was ushering, I was verbally accosted by an upperclassman journalism major who stomped up to me and the other usher working the front door.
Parkie: Who is the highest person in charge here?
Me: That'd be our boss, Deb. She's not here right now. What do you need?
Parkie: I need to take pictures during this concert.
Other Usher: Well, you'd have to ask the band, as far as copyright information goes. Also, we don't allow any flash photography in Ford Hall.
Parkie: I need to take pictures of this event. Why can't I take flash photos?
Me: Because it's distracting to the performers.
Parkie: *points to what is very obviously a camcorder* I don't know if this has a flash or not.
Other Usher: Well, you can't use a flash. That's the final answer.
The Parkie then stormed off.
I stood there just shaking my head. First of all, I'm a music performance major, and other than the four years of high school journalism I did, I know very little about communications. But honestly, I can tell a camcorder from a camera.
Thankfully, many of the other Parkies are much smarter than this.
Later, the same Parkie exited through the right-hand door of Ford Hall and approached me at the left-hand door.
Parkie: Can I go in now?
Me: No, it's during a piece.
Parkie: I need to get in.
Me: You can't. It's distracting to the performer.
Parkie: I was ducking through the aisles. I thought this would be less distracting...
No, Parkie. SIT STILL AND TAKE YOUR NON-FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY. Thankfully, most Parkies are smarter than he was.
He's not the worst of the people I've seen. I had one lady who arrived two minutes after the first piece had started.
Lady: Can I go in now?
Me: No, you have to wait until the piece is over.
Lady: How will you know?
Me: ...well, generally there's clapping...
Lady: *angry look* Well, I have to get in there.
Me: Wait until after the first piece.
Lady: FINE. I'm just going to the bathroom.
The lady then proceeds to walk toward the other door of Ford, which is close to the bathroom. She pulls on the handle of the door to go in.
Me: MA'AM.
Lady: CHILL OUT. YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL AT ME.
Err, well, this is my job. And that is not the bathroom. And PS, I can see you.
Thank you, moronic people. You make me love my job.
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ReplyDelete...I lol'd. *shakes head*
Oh, also...there are people at my school who keep us from going up into the balconies before chapel, just standing there and guarding the staircases. I feel kind of bad for getting pissed off at them now. There's no good reason at all we shouldn't get to go up there because there's no music performance or anything, but...that's a reason to be pissed at the people who hired the guards. I suppose they're just doing their jobs. *sheepish*
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