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Friday March 27th '98 Anchored down in CBGBs
I can think of no other town in the world where people would leave a performance in the middle of a singer's signature song, to go outside and buy pizzas, and return cramming them down their throats, as if they'd not eaten for days. But here in New York at the famous CBGB's, at the recent Michelle Shocked performance, that sort of behaviour seemed to be the norm.I was expecting a cool-looking crowd at CBGBs - the Manhattan nightclub where Blondie, Talking Heads and Television started their public musical careers in the 1970s and '80s. I was therefore somewhat surprised to enter a place whose audience would make Moonee Ponds local townhall concert-goers look like sophisticated jetsetters. The pushing and shoving that went on before Michelle Shocked came on was to be expected in a cramped venue such as CBGBs. But I expected the people to find their position and more or less stick to it. Not so. Throughout the performance people came and went, leaving the front of the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, to buy beer from the bar, pizzas from the nearby pizza parlor. Eventually we made our way to the back. We couldn't see Michelle, but we at least could hear her. After half a dozen new and newish songs she launched in to some well known early nineties numbers. When she got to "Anchorage", I thought, "here I am, in New York, listening to Michelle Shocked sing one of my (and many other's) favourite songs - how wonderful). It was hard to keep the mood however. A young woman chewing gum with her mouth open, eyes vacant, guzzling beer, was only surpassed by the man who left, returned with half a pizza, no plate or napkin, and who not wanting to wait till he reached the bar, folded the greasy mess in two and started shoveling it down his throat as he pushed his way past everyone in his line of sight. Only in New York, they say proudly here, at every possible opportunity. Yes, only in New York would a crowd push, shove, fail to concentrate or get with the beat, and put oral before aural pleasure. Liberty
Before I came to America I had what I think, was a typical Australian's view of the country. It was gleaned mostly from news reports, TV and films. I'd met few Americans in Australia and did not have a clear view of American culture.Of course I'd read about the American ideal of individual liberty and the American fear of socialism, but I'd not thought a lot about the implications of these seemingly abstract notions, on American life. When Americans I met socially talked of the United States being the reluctant keeper of world peace, and when, complaining of the lack of world coverage on the TV news, an American said, "but we ARE the world", I thought these people were joking. But joking they weren't. A reader (see below) asked me about what I find odd about America, and this prompts me to write about what I see as the dichotomy between what Americans hold dear (and seem at times to think they invented) and the way life goes on here  Americans seem to me to believe strongly in individual rights and freedom. As a group they distrust government, and believe that the individual's rights should come before those of the group. There's even a teeshirt here that says that the individual is America's smallest minority. Many Americans think we have a socialist system in Australia, merely because we have universal health insurance.So it is with some surprise that I find that reports on the encroachment on individual freedoms do not make headline news. A few weeks ago there were reports of two instances here in New York, where people were erroneously arrested and treated in a way that was quite shocking. True, there were reports, but not headlines, and I am unaware of any public apology by the police department. In one case police allegedly invaded a pregnant woman's apartment in the Bronx on 27th February (New York Times March 12). There were reportedly four people in the apartment, the woman, her two children, and her school-aged sister. The woman claims she was thrown face down on the floor, and her apartment searched for drugs. The raid was reportedly a mistake. The woman claims she was not shown a warrant and had to sit and listen to the sounds of her apartment being trashed. On the same day, another person's house was reportedly raided. In this case it reported that the innocent occupant was forced by the police to wear his girlfriend's clothes, arrested and taken to jail before the mistake was discovered. Of course this sort of thing can happen anywhere. What surprises me is that there is no obvious public outrage, and that Americans can tolerate this sort of thing happening, and at the same time truly believe that they live in the freest country in the world. Your Questions and CommentsSteve from America emailed: What are some of the craziest things about being an Australian in America. Do you also like restaurants, dining experiences here?Well there's nothing especially crazy as in many ways the two countries are similar - especially in terms of the standard of living and the weather in summer. There are many differences but they are hard to explain. I think America seems more isolated from the rest of the world and it's really like a world in itself. I find that many Americans know little about other countries and their customs. Regarding eating out here. In Manhattan the restaurants are similar (in price, cuisine) to those in Melbourne, where I am from. The main differences are that the food is sweeter here and that tipping is more or less compulsory. In Australia you'd generally only be expected to tip in a top-of-the-line restaurant, and even then the size of the tip would depend upon the quality of the service. Certainly tipping is not expected in the equivalent of the diner. We don't have diners in Australia, but we have cafes and no way would you tip there. We don't tip hairdressers either. Judy from Manila wrote: Lots of cheers for your comment to the Irish chap on avoiding the use of the word "sheilas". Thanks Judy! I wonder if my advice to him will be taken... |