I am writing to your "disability" service
coordinators to let you know how appalled
I was at the Friday night July 9, 2010
Lady Gaga concert. I was one of your
DEAF attendees and let me tell you,
the accommodations were the worst
I've ever seen and I've been to numerous
music concerts (Poison, RadioHead,
Aerosmith, Alice in Chains, etc etc).
First of the bat, the location where we
were essentially corralled like a herd
of cattle was to the left of the stage on
the 3rd floor. We were often blinded by
the stage lights! And really couldn't
see the show well at all! As Deafies
we rely on our vision to enjoy music
concerts and some of us don't even
care about the music but Lady Gaga's
as a performance artist. We had a
poor view of Lady Gaga's profile
and we could hardly see the tv
screen either! I was astonished by
our placement :(
2ndly the two interpreters were not
at a level of professionalism I expected
from this kind of venue. You certainly
can afford to hire the very best of the best.
The female interpreter was obviously
not prepared, didn't know the songs,
used her cell phone to read off the lyrics,
or her partner interpreter fed her the lines.
She was uncomfortable and it showed. I
was extremely disappointed in her poor,
novice like signs and the lack of enthusiasm!
She took away from my experience in
enjoying the Lady Gaga concert :( I couldn't
even look at her because I was so disgusted
by the lowly standards your venue employs.
The 2nd interpreter, the guy did somewhat
better. He knew some of the songs and
actually portrayed Lady Gaga style. What
I didn't like about both of them is that they
often did NOT sign what was being said in
between the sets. I can with my hearing aid
hear some and it annoyed me to no end to be
cheated out of a music concert experience.
Both terps often turned away from us to watch
the show which I wouldn't have minded if
they weren't signing but when they were
working their focus should have been on US.
We didn't pay for them to enjoy the concert
And I sure hope you didn't either because
you along with me got ripped off! I have no
idea which Interpreting Agency you used but
I highly recommend you find a new one or
hire an ASL (DEAF) consultant for your future
music concerts in which they can be there
when you hire interpreters and to make sure
they are qualified for the task.
Lastly, I paid just under a $hundred$ to see
this show and I can assure you I have no
intention of ever coming back to Madison
Square Gardens. You treated us Deafies like
we were garbage. You actually left a
bitter taste in my mouth that I had
to wait a few days to write this post. And
you know what else, I am sure Lady Gaga if
she knew you treated us like freaks *and not
in a good way* she would be just as livid as
we are! I will deAfinitely tell my friends not
to waste their time attending your venue since
you've wasted my time and hard earned $$$ (I
work 3 jobs so when I spend my $$$ it better
be worth it!)
I await your reply to my complaint and to your
failure to provide the services promised.
Sincerely yours,
-DC
2 comments:
hi, can you please change the colors? It's so hard to read. Think about low-vision people. thanks :)
Hi, Jenny,
I'm sorry you had such a terrible time at the Lady Gaga concert.
While I wasn't there, I DID see a post to Facebook that showed the male interpreter working during one of the songs ("Bad Romance", I think), and wanted to clarify one thing I took away from that that seemed different from something you wrote here...
Yes, on occasion, the male interpreter turned toward the stage briefly before turning back to face the audience and interpret more song lyrics, but it appeared to me that he was awaiting more song lyrics at those moments, not so much that he was "ignoring" his audience. (The moments shown in that FB post were during a song so it didn't show anything about any comments Lady Gaga made between songs that you also wrote about, though I think she might have sometimes said a few stray words in between lyrics as some singers often do.)
Also, when the concert is so loud, as concerts often are, then why is it necessarily a bad thing when, as you wrote, the female interpreter was reading lyrics (even if from her cell phone) so that she'd know what to interpret?
Again, I wish you had a better experience there for that event, but would ask please, when you have a moment, for some insight into these aspects that you wrote about given what I understood/presumed to be going on at the time.
(Disclosure: I've interpreted at several MSG events in the past.)
Thanks,
Bram
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