Last night I went to the opera. I’m not an opera fan or anything like that, but since I happen to be in NYC for at least a couple weeks this month I wanted to check out Doctor Atomic, an opera about the construction of the atomic bomb. It seems like an odd choice for an opera but it makes perfect sense. Technology is now more just technology — it’s a story with real people, real makers, love, conflict and everything else you need in a good story. I’m sure in a few years they’ll be one about the internet.
On the road I try and find events in the areas I visit. I think if you’re lucky enough to travel and see parts of the world, you should try and see what each area has to offer, maybe even share it with friends. And that brings me to an observation from last night. At the opera, most people were at least over 65 years old. That’s likely the demographic that can or would attend an opera on a Monday night in NYC about making nukes, but I couldn’t help see the contrast with the few young-ish folks there. A small group of youngish folks were taking photos of themselves at the opera — this was before the show, the lights were on. They had camera phones and digital cameras. Each time, the staff rushed over to tell them “no photos allowed”. It was pretty clear they wanted to show their friends they were there. If this “old” art of opera is to survive and inspire, the next generation of folks need to be able to show, share and be, more… “digital”.
In the lobby away from everything, the same group had a laptop and a wireless card during the intermission and was looking up the wikipedia entry on Robert Oppenheimer. That, too, seemed frowned upon. I’m not that discouraged though. A women next to me who seemed to be a long time patron, overhead my digital rant and said “yah, that’s a shame, it’s just like trying to stop downloading of music”.
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