Donors

Last night I went to the opera at the Lincoln Theater. The play performed was "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini. The columbia card works well for theaters and museums. Either you have free entrance or you pay a very tiny amount compared to full price. A pity it doesn't work for clubs too... However, given the fact that the columbia card is a sort of option to buy tickets at a certain price, it might be interesting to calculate its value. But then prices of museums have no volatility... there is only a time value based on the fact that you don't execute it becasue tickets are sold out. Mmm.. too complicated.
By the way, the opera was amazing. I like Tosca a lot. Well, Turandot was also a good one. The scenogarphy of the play was something unbelivable. Really really well done. I tried to take pictures but I was immediately caught by one of the waiters (i don't know how you call them in english).. who told me that if I took a picture the would have thrown me out. Ok sorry. So no picture for you reader. But trust me was really cool. Just a picture of me, Francesca and Pietro before the beginning of the performance. What was a little bit less cool was the theatre itself. For sure was technically futuruistic, but the furnitures and the overall architecture design has a doubtful taste. And as always, everything was sponsored by some donor. Every chair has a nameplate on it. Personally i put my ass for two hours on the face of Mr. and Mrs. Powell. Then you open the brochure of the play and at the end you have 4 pages of donors with also the money each of them has put in. Obviously ranked by amount provided. Only the top 20 provided some 19 million. Columbia is the same. All the buildings and facilities are sponsored. Every seat has a nameplate on it. I'm not criticizing it. I just think is curious how this doesn't happen in Europe. I think it is just a question of mentality and how historically in the US people had to donate to provide themselves of missing public services. And the results are cool. If you see the facilities of Columbia you'll notice that are quite impressive. Most of the times donors are not individuals but banks and big firms. Now I'm sitting in the Lehman Lounge. It's just a little bit wierd when in a museum you have the paintings displayed by the name of the donor rather than the name of the author.