Babysitters’ Club: Upper East Side Division

October 28, 2010 • Quotidian • 0 • Previous | Next

This just in from Daniel Wakin, arts reporter for the New York Times:

“….the Philharmonic quietly resubmitted its application [to visit Cuba], this time adding a children’s concert and Kidzone beforehand and stating that the patrons would be involved in the activities…”

“The Kidzone, which would be outdoors, would have stations to try out instruments and compose music, among other activities. Mr. Mehta said the patrons would help with seating, maintain lines at the education stations, write on whiteboards and serve as hosts. ‘The people who go on this trip will have a crash course in what’s going to happen,” he said. “It’s crowd control, being pleasant, encouragement.’

Philharmonic officials said about 100 patrons would go along, as part of a 285-member contingent.”

The pay-to-play tariff for this trip was reported last year in the Times as approximately $10,000 per head. It’s been a while, but when Miss Mussel was on the babysitting circuit, payment was exchanged for the privilege of getting away from the children, not looking after them.

The Philharmonic were meant to head to Cuba last autumn but got in a fight with the State Department because they refused to go without the patrons that would be funding the trip. Reading between the lines in the NY Times reports, this seems less like a noble gesture and more like a maneuver to gain the upper hand in some sort of weird on-the-surface-cultural-but-underneath-it’s-much-more-than-that power struggle.

Now that the American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Jazz At Lincoln Center house band and the Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra will get to Havana before the Phil, a Cuban stamp on the passport will no longer be the rhino’s horn it used to be.

Miss Mussel is aware of the reasons why the embargo was enacted in the first place but seriously guys, it’s been 50 years. Time to let this one go, no?