Posted on 01/23/2009 8:18:46 AM PST by Schnucki
It's not exactly Watergate but Barack Obama's inauguration was back in the dock today after it emerged that the quartet of classical musicians who ushered him on to the steps of the Capitol were faking it.
In a report headlined "The Frigid Fingers Were Live, but the Music Wasn't", The New York Times said that the four, including the violinist Itzhak Perlman, had already recorded their contribution two days earlier and played along just for show.
A spokeswoman for the congressional committee, which organised the inauguration, the biggest and most costly in history, told the newspaper that the musicians could not have played live in Tuesday's sub-zero temperatures because of the risk of broken piano strings and cracked instruments.
“No one’s trying to fool anybody. This isn’t a matter of Milli Vanilli," said Carole Florman, referring to the lip-synching pop duo stripped of a Grammy in 1990. “Truly, weather just made it impossible."
Ms Florman said that the use of a recording had not been made public beforehand but the producers overseeing television coverage of the event had been warned that it was likely. All other musical contributions on the day were performed live.
“It’s not something we would announce, but it’s not something we would try to hide,” she added. “Frankly, it would never have occurred to me to announce it."
Joining Mr Perlman for a rendition of Air and Simple Gifts, a, new work by John Williams, was the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the clarinetist Anthony McGill and the pianist Gabriela Montero. Their performance immediately preceded Mr Obama's swearing-in, in which he uncharacteristically managed to mangle the oath of office.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
THe One could, and should, have moved the ceremony inside like Reagan did. Of course then the pompousness wouldn’t have been evident for all to see, so that really wasn’t an option.
< shrug >
Go ahead.
Make yourself look like an idiot.
Just don't say you weren't warned.
Are you saying that the musicians were faking the performance with props?
What else is faked!”
NObama and his entire campaign and this whole administration!!
Sure wish I could tell you that soon we will all wake up and it will be like Suzanne Pleshette and Bob Newhart at the end of the Bob Newhart TV show. It was all a dream!!
Fake Music for a Fake President. Appropriate.
Are you saying that the musicians were faking the performance with props?
_____
I have no direct knowledge of what transpired up there on stage, and even tho’ I am but a lowly local musician, I always carry backups to our gigs. So I wouldn’t call them props, just the 2nd string (so to speak). My Gibson mandolin is gonna stay in the case if the conditions are not right for its use, it’s why I didn’t sell the Tacoma.
Wow, being a musician (woodwinds) I guess that’s the reason I have issue the the whole thing. Why risk playing very delicate, very rare string instruments in the cold in the first place? If you shouldn’t play a rare cello in the cold, why even risk having it outside. Did they think global warming would shine on DC for the day and it wouldn’t be cold, in January? Didn’t matter because the Obama Administration is just like the man himself. All show and no substance!
I’d wager their backup instruments were on stage. Being just a lowly local musician (at least we write our own stuff), I carry backup instruments to every gig. I’m usually thinking about strings breaking, but having played an outdoor gig in the spring, and our noon slot saw the thermomter not yet at 60 degrees, the Gibson mando stayed in the case and I played the Tacoma instead.
I bet Obama is a typical Liberal. They can dish it out but they can’t take it.
President Bush proved to be tremendously resillient, even when we disaqgreed with him.
Obambi won’t get through his first term without going postal.
Dreams of My Father.
-PJ
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