Ohh boo friggin hooo being an "artistic type' is soooo hard wah wah wah.
Dang it, now those Middle Eastern err, um, "bands" flying out to Vegas will have to go to Plan B.
Change careers to become contemporary artists by using your instruments as platforms to cover with elephant dung.
New tactic.
Terrorists disguised as "artists" will whine endlessly about the damage done to their art until the pilot, of his own free will, crashes the plane into the ground.
No need for box cutters or explosives.
As a frequent flyer, I feel for these guys.
"Many performers refuse to let their instruments, often centuries old and extremely valuable, out of their sight when they travel on planes in case they are damaged in the hold.
"
smart, luggage flies meters when thrown, can have very heavy items dropped from above onto it, etc.
Well, it's stupid. I wouldn't let my hi-priced fiddle out of my sight, either. I've never minded checking Fender Gtars though, they're built like canoe paddles. If we'd just...I don't know, maybe...PROFILE, and make Muslims check their "centuries old" fiddles, we'd be safe enough.
I'm with the musicians on this one. When I played sax, no way would I ever let me tenor out of my sight. It was not worth anything near a Stradivarius, but it was irreplaceable and easily damaged.
I understand their concerns.
I knew a bagpiper who checked his pipes. When he saw the case come up on the carousel, he noticed that one latch was unlocked. Grabbing the case and flinging it open, he realized that his worst nightmare had come true:
Someone had put a second set of bagpipes in.
The idiocy of a one-size-fits-all bureaucracy. There must be a way to inspect and bond those instruments, especially when prior arrangements are made.
Who's more likely to have a bomb in their bag? A middle-aged professional cellist with the National Symphony en route to Europe or a group of 30 year old Arab males?
When I was growing up, my cello teacher had to purchase a separate ticket for her cello when she flew somewhere, because she wouldn't trust baggage handlers with the instrument.
Then these folks need to resort to what has worked in previous days, a bus tour. There are plenty of folks out there who choose not to fly for a variety of reasons, and somebody with a (rare musical instrument|artifact|test equipment|cool NFA weapons) would do well to also become a "not-flyer" type. Hey, it works for John Madden, right?
Plenty of not-major-leage sports teams and not-quite-MTV bands live off of the ol' Bus Tour. Musicians and traveling performers simply need to coodinate their tours in a circuit that works with a travel-by-road schedule, that's all. Might lead to a less hectic lifestyle, too. Less stressful.
Well, there is talk of banning electronic devices from aircraft. Laptop batteries have been known to catch on fire and cell phones can be used as detonators. It's just a matter of time until those items will be prohibited from aircraft, too, even as stowed baggage.
Ping
And Willie Park, a piper at the College of Piping in Glasgow, said he knew of Russian and Japanese pipers who had posted their instruments home rather than putting them in an aeroplane hold.
And how did the postal system get the instruments to their destinations? Did they perchance ship the mail via cargo aeroplanes? In the hold perhaps? Hmm.
I read all the posts and I'm with the musicians on this one. There must be a way to drum (no pun intended) into all real Americans' heads just how difficult it is to be an American because it's more important to accomodate somebody with a towel on their head.
In 1987 the Chicago Symphony came to my town.
Early on the day of the concert, the large instruments were being hauled by a semi from the previous city on the tour. It overturned on the interstate in high winds, a couple hundred miles from us. Orchestra management scrambled to arrange for another truck and driver to get to the scene, with help to salvage the cargo and bring it as quickly as possible to our venue.
The concert was delayed for hours. When we heard that the alternate truck was finally arriving, my friend and I wandered around to back dock of the concert hall.
We watched as the cases were unloaded. Some of the larger instruments hadn't fared too well, despite their elaborate packaging. I remember a few busted basses and cellos in particular. These were replaced by loaners from the members of the local orchestra.
As the unloading begain, I found myself standing next to a tall, gray-haired older fellow who looked vaguely familiar. I said it was a shame about all those big, beautiful, valuable instruments. He said he was glad he could travel with his instrument as a carry-on.
His name was Adolph Herseth.
Have these guys ever heard of the simple concept of insurance?
They're able to somehow afford instruments worth thousands but can't afford to insure them? It must suck to be that stupid.
