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SP Council: We like music. Just not this kind of music...

The City of St. Petersburg was recently appalled at the behavior of an invited guest. See, the City sponsored a concert in Vinoy Park, a waterfront location that has hosted hundreds of amplified music shows in the past, including plenty of loud rock and roll. But this show seemed different somehow and attracted a dark and brooding crowd to Brion Kerlin’s hood:

The first thing Brion Kerlin heard was the thump of the bass, so loud it shook the sides of his 34-foot trawler.

But hasn’t he heard bass thumps from concerts at Vinoy before? Doesn’t sound like a big deal so far.

Then came the lyrics.

Kerlin is no prude, and he admits using the occasional curse word. But the string of obscenities flowing from the Nov. 2 concert at Vinoy Park offended him.

"This concert was way out of bounds by anyone's standards," said Kerlin, 57, who lives on his boat at the city's marina, about a half- mile from the park. "There's no question that everyone could hear this."

Well, it’s apparently out of bounds by Mr. Kerlin’s standards anyway. Let’s see... an outdoor concert on the water... yep, lots of people should be able to hear it alright. But lotsa people can hear artists cursing from that same stage on many weekends each year. Again, what’s the big deal?

Performing that day was the Urban Car Show tour, featuring rapper 50 Cent. The event was cosponsored by the city of St. Petersburg and drew more than 5,300 people to the park.

Like many others that day, Kerlin called the police to complain about the noise and the vulgarity. He was told officers would check into the situation, but neither the music nor the profanities stopped.

Now I think we might be getting somewhere. Instead of a Blues Festival featuring “authentic” black music as interpreted by middle aged white artists playing to a crowd of middle class white fans, the City had the gall to invite an “Urban” rapper to play Vinoy, and 5,300 people, most of whom were definitely NOT white and middle class, actually showed up. So, his neighborhood overrun by, ahem, blacks, Kerlin (who sounds a lot likethis guy) and his neighbors called the police for protection from this music that they don’t understand. And the police refused to shut the concert down and send those 5,300 interlopers home!

......

Bill Proffitt, a spokesman for the St. Petersburg Police Department, said officers could do nothing about the vulgarities.

"We see that as a free speech matter," he said.

The city has a noise ordinance, but it can be difficult to enforce. Because the concert was held in the afternoon, police weren't expecting many complaints and didn't have a noise meter to measure decibel levels, Proffitt said.

The department has now decided to equip the supervisor on duty at such events with a meter, Proffitt said. Violating the noise ordinance could result in a 60-day jail sentence and a $500 fine.

So, is the City going to fine itself? More important: will the noise ordinance be enforced at a Jimmy Buffet show, or just for artists who the City sees as possibly troublesome?

Council member Virginia Littrell, whose district includes Vinoy Park, also wants to give police the ability to halt performances that feature profanity. She has asked the city's legal department to explore different options.

"It wasn't just the music itself," Littrell said. "It was also the language in between the songs."

Florida has a vague obscenity law that would be difficult to apply to the words spoken or sung at a concert, City Attorney John Wolfe said.

A park is typically considered a public forum, where it would be difficult to restrict freedom of speech. But because the city usually cosponsors these events and fences them off from the rest of the park, Wolfe said an exception could be made.

"We're creating something other than a traditional public forum," he said.

Wolfe plans to draft an ordinance to present to council members within the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, he's also working on a set of standards that could be used when the City Council decides which events it will cosponsor. Wolfe said the goal would be to attract acts appropriate for a "family and tourist" destination.

Here we go. This should certainly cut down on the need to censor and discriminate once the concert has already started. Much more efficient.

Local promoter Dave Hundley said the fault really lies with those who allowed the act to perform.

"It's 50 Cent," he said. "What were people expecting? This is what the artists do and this is what the people who pay to see them expect."

Hundley said cursing is common in many concerts, from rock to hip- hop to punk. And while he's no fan of profanity, and has chastisedbands who swear during all-ages shows, the language can be part of an artist's message.

"Even though I may not like what they're doing, it is art. Sometimes it is supposed to shock or to raise eyebrows," he said.

As I said before, lots of people hear cursing from that stage all the time. The strong reaction to this particular event is all about white SP residents’ ignorance and fear.

Council member Rene Flowers said she was familiar with the acts in the Urban Car Show tour and was afraid there would be problems. She urged her colleagues to be more vigilant when screening acts that will be held in a city park.

Said Flowers: "Some things just aren't appropriate to have outside like that."

“Some things,” or Rap Music?

Howard Troxler weighs in with his opinion: (he’s alittle kinder and much more understanding than myself)

Dirty words!

At a hip-hop concert!

Who knew?

It came as a terrible shock to the city. Perhaps City Hall had confused the event that it was CO-PRODUCING, an event for which it had eagerly fenced off its own park, with, say, an arts and crafts show, or a Taste Of Someplace-or-Other, or perhaps a nice powerboat race.

#$%^$!

Naturally, the city swang into action after the fact.

"I don't want to create a citywide censor," council member Bill Foster said, meaning precisely, of course, that he wants to create a citywide censor.

"But we do need a mechanism," Foster continued, "where we can cut the power when this type of activity goes on."

(Let us not be distracted by the sudden vision of Foster stationed beneath the stage at future concerts, his hand hovering over the plug, poised to do his civic duty.)

In case you are missin' my drift here, it is not to defend dirty words, but rather to say that if the city didn't want a high-volume, loudly vulgar event in a waterfront park, it could have, you know, not held it.

The right way to deal with this is on the front end. If the city wants to insist on a "family" atmosphere for its co-sponsored park events, it is perfectly within its rights. It risks being namby-pamby, but it can try.

The wrong way is to try to regulate the content of public performers, through ordinance or any other way, even though that is the natural temptation. Even the council's sensible Virginia Littrell, whose district includes the park, raised the possibility of police shutting down the worst offenders.

I am pretty sure she does not mean "Out, out, damned spot."

But that Shakespeare reference leads us to the cultural thing. See, there is vulgarity in outdoor performances all the time, and not just when "urban" (what is that word code for?) performers do it.

Admittedly, the Nov. 2 concert was unprecedented in its duration and vigor. But if the city is going to start getting choosy about who plays in the parks, it had better act in an even-handed fashion. It seems to me to be a nearly impossible job.

There is no sense trying to delineate on the basis of content. The city is not competent to declare that Shakespeare is art and rap music is not. I am not hip to hip-hop, but smart people tell me that it is an artistic reflection of the urban condition, which by necessity includes plenty of aggression, anger, danger. So when an artist includes the word #@#$#% in a song, that's part of the deal.

Fair enough. Who is anybody else to say it isn't valid? After all, the museums are full of paintings of nekkid people, and the playhouses full of their own styles of vulgarity.

Who gets to say that 50 Cent isn't art, but that a play on Broadway titled Urinetown is? Or if you want to stick to music, how about the rock group that had a song in the national Top 10 earlier this year featuring the lyrics, "She (really bad word here) hates me?"

Posted by Norwood at November 12, 2003 06:32 PM