Mikhail Gorbachev, Part 2 March 23, 2004
Posted by Owen in : Stuff... , add a commentI just got back from the Gorbachev lecture. It was very interesting and during the course of the lecture, several first happened to me. First of all, I got my ticket with a friend from Yearbook and went to my seat. I took out Mike’s camera and took a test shot. It looked great. Then an usher comes up to me and says I cannot take photos. I say I’m with the press and she say’s I’ll be right back. A few minutes later someone comes up to me and says I need to stand along the sides or back of the theater to take photos. That’s far from ideal (I don’t have much of a zoom lens), but ok, no problem. 5 minutes later the head of the theater comes up to me and says all photography needs to be taken from the lighting booth. So I follow her there and enter a tiny, cramped room full of six or so photographers. There’s a double-paned glass wall in front and hardly enough room for everyone to point their cameras at the action.
And of course, the podium is a tiny blurry dot on my screen. Oh well, at least the speech will be interesting. It turns out that Mikhail only speaks Russian so they had a translation talking at the same time as him. But in the room I was in, it was only a little louder than the Russian, so I could hardly understand a word. I could hear the running commentary of funny jokes from the press photographers and Barkley staff, though. I took 125 photos, but the camera just couldn’t handle it. Whenever I heard a steady stream of clicks from the other photographers, I knew it was time for me to take a photo too.
As I walked out of the building, a TV cameraman ambushed me and asked what I thought of the event. I was in the process of putting my jacket on so the collar was up and smashed. I said sure, but I choked up and didn’t really say anything of meaning. So I’m sure I looked like a fool. I don’t know what channel, but don’t watch the news tonight, please! 
(Much like the professor who first asks President Gorbachev a nasty question about communism, then later gets on the stage and officially presents him a sculpture from the UCI Peace Club made out of melted down guns. I heard on the staff radio “What’s that jackass doing on the stage. Get him off!”)