Wednesday, July 18, 2007

All dressed up, no place to go...

Hey, the Sun's website got a fancy, schmancy redesign.

And speaking of redesigns, here's more on Merriweather and the idea to make it a year-round venue (without sacrificing the quality of it's summer state).

5 comments:

Chris said...

i never noticed before...

but online Orioles boxscores are provided by the Orlando Sentinel

Anonymous said...

Year-round Merriweather by changing Gehry's elegant open-air amphitheater structure to be enclosable for the other half of the year? Wasn't there just a recent move to put Merriweather on a list of local structures of historical architectural value in order to protect it against such unaesthetic utilitarian transmogrifications?

If the goal is simply to increase the revenue Merriweather provides, why not just work on raising the number of summertime concerts from the current 20-25 to a number closer to the 50-55 of summer concert seasons past? Between increasing the number of summer concerts and the much higher ticket prices for today's concerts, I'd say Merriweather should be able to do just fine staying a warm weather venue.

That would permit the pavilion's grounds and surrounding Symphony Woods to maintain their quiet and refreshing winter slumber.

FreeMarket said...

I can’t think of a single benefit to having Merriweather maintain its “peaceful winter slumber”; particularly if that puts summertime use of the venue in peril. But taking a step back, how will increasing the use during the winter impede tranquility? For goodness sakes, it’s not like the Hell’s Angels will move in if it becomes usable year round.

wordbones said...

Hey freemarket,

It wasn't the Hell's Angels but their east coast cousins, the Pagans who roared onto the lawn area back in 1972 (i think). The concert was Edgar Winter and White Trash. I think JoJo Gunn was the warm up.

It was quite a night in Symphony Woods I tell ya!

-wb

Anonymous said...

How will winter use impede tranquility? Primarily noise, unless I'm completely missing the concept of a concert.

Also, external to the immediate environs, try adding concert traffic on top of Mall holiday shopping traffic. Good grief.

And if the facility is altered for winter use, just how dramatic will those changes be? Since current concession stands and restrooms aren't attached to the pavilion (purposefully), will new concessions/restrooms be attached to the pavilion, compromising its appearance, acoustics, or summertime viewpoints from the lawn?

And those rolling social organizations have frequented Merriweather more recently than '72 - at one more recent event (but still years ago), the authorities were concerned about two such groups sorting out their differences in unconventional ways at a concert. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed.