In My Space – IPhones, Politics, and Music

by Peggy Gandy

I have a friend who owns a really fine, slick-looking $800 Apple 6 IPhone. It’s so shiny it’s almost blinding. He’s had his pants pockets lined with a softer fabric and is careful not to sit on a hard surface. According to Apple’s hype, this IPhone is the best ever. ‘It has a smooth metal surface and continuous form where hardware and software function are in perfect unison.’ Really hits you in your checkbook doesn’t it! Sounds almost lyrical. Apple’s PR guys learned their stuff in Advertising 1. IPhones are great and our society could hardly exist without these little communication wonders. Some people are so hooked they walk around with their hands cupped over their ears when their phone is at home recharging. It’s pathetic. They don’t know what to do with their thumbs when they aren’t texting, and hardly know out to carry on a verbal conversation. IPhone owners can’t make a decision or answer a simple question without Googling it. I know you’ve been stuck at a party where some geek stays on his phone all evening looking for the names of the last three presidents with chest hair or whether Olive Oyl was married to Popeye. By the time he finds the answer nobody cares. Guests have either moved on to something else or gone home.

There’s been so much on the news lately about women having equal rights, etc. Hilary Clinton was leading the charge until she made a little misstep. I thought her excuse for using her personal e-mail was plausible. She’s a busy woman and it’s easy to miss little details. Now she’s moved on to running for the Presidency. Well all right, it’s her choice. She’s probably on multiple vitamins. Besides, her campaign will do wonders for the pants suit industry. Why hasn’t a woman run for this office before? In between driving car pools, taking the dog to the vet, waiting for the plumber, having the tires switched, taking a Starbucks coffee break and micro managing an office of 50, the average woman is just flat tired. Nevertheless, when they do have a minute to spare, women have managed to invent bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers, but not necessarily in that order.

On a cultural note, Maestro Joel Levine, director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, is retiring at the end of the 2017-8 season. He has accepted a final three-year contract before handing over the baton to his successor. The orchestra was formed in 1988 under the direction of Levine, much admired and respected for his musical brilliance by Philharmonic devotees. On another musical note, the Oklahoma City Orchestra League is taking a step forward, hiring its first executive director Jeannette LaMar, who has an extensive background in on-profit management.