"Theodore Sturgeon - Ether Breather" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sturgeon Theodore)

created quite a stir among music lovers, although, personally, I don't go for it. It's too barbaric f
me. Too hard to listen to, when you've been hearing five-beat air your life. And those old-time
had never heard of a quarter tone.
Anyway, it was a big affair, televised right from the huge Citizens' Auditorium. It was more th
half fullтАФthere were about 130,000 people there. Practically all of the select high-brow music fa
from that section of the city. Yes, 130,000 pairs of eyes saw that show in the flesh, and countle
millions saw it on their own sets; remember that.
Those that saw it at the Auditorium got their money's worth, from what I hear. They saw t
complete opera; saw it go off as scheduled. The coloratura, Maria Jeff, was in perfect voice, an
Stavisk's orchestra rendered the ancient tones perfectly. So what?
So, those that saw it at home saw the first half of the program the same as broadcastтАФ
course. ButтАФand get thisтАФthey saw Maria Jeff, on a close-up, in the middle of an aria, thro
back her head, stop singing, and shout raucously: "The hell with this! Whip it up, boys!"
They heard the orchestra break out of that old two-four musicтАФ"Habaiiera," I think they call
itтАФand slide into a wicked old-time five-beat song about "alco-pill Alice," the girl who didn
believe in eugenics. They saw her step lightly about the stage, shedding her costumeтАФnot that
blame her for that; it was supposed to be authentic, and must have been warm. But there was
certain something about the way she did it.
I've never seen or heard of anything like it. First, I thought that it was part of the opera, becau
from what I learned in school I gather that the ancient people used to go in for things like that
wouldn't know. But I knew it wasn't opera when old Stavisk himself jumped up on the stage an
started dancing with the prima donna. The televisors flashed around to the audience, and the
they were, every one of them, dancing in the aisles. And I mean dancing. Wow!
Well, you can imagine the trouble that that caused. Cinera-dio, Inc., was flabbergasted wh
they were shut down by FCC like Associated. So were 130,000 people who had seen the ope
and thought it was good. Every last one of them denied dancing in the aisles. No one had se
Stavisk jump on the stage. It just didn't make sense.
Cineradio, of course, had a recording. So, it turned out, did FCC. Each recording proved t
point of its respective group. That of Cineradio, taken by a sound camera right there in t
auditorium, showed a musical program. FCC's, photographed right off a government standa
receiver, showed the riot that I and millions of others had seen over the air. It was too much f
me. I went out to see Berbelot. The old boy had a lot of sense, and he'd seen the beginning of th
crazy business.
He looked pleased when I saw his face on his house televi-sor. "Hamilton!" he exclaime
"Come on in! I've been phon-ing all over the five downtown boroughs for you!" He pressed
button and the foyer door behind me closed. I was whisked up into his rooms. That combinatio
foyer and elevator of his is a nice gadget.
"I guess I don't have to ask you why you came," he said as we shook hands. "Cinerad
certainly pulled a boner, hey?"
"Yes and no," I said. "I'm beginning to think that Griff was right when he said that, as far as
knew, the program was on the up and up. But if he was right, what's it all about? How can
program reach the transmitters in perfect shape, and come out of every receiver in the nation like
practical joker's idea of paradise?"
"It can't," said Berbelot. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "But it did. Three times."
"Three? WhenтАФ"
"Just now, before you got in. The secretary of state was making a speech over XZM
Consolidated Atomic, you know. XZM grabbed the color equipment from Cineradio as soon
they were blacked out by FCC. Well, the honorable secretary droned on as usual for just twel
and a half minutes. Sud-denly he stopped, grinned into the transmitter, and said, `Say, have yo
heard the one about the traveling farmer and the salesman's daughter?' "