If any body objects this is press release, let me know fast, I need to get it out.
Press Release
Anna Martinez of Deadwood started playing the whistle a couple of years ago as therapy for her debilitating asthma. She says she “plays it for my own enjoyment and for self-satisfaction. I am by no means a performer or a professional musician. I am a good, not great, but a competent player. I’m scared to death of microphones and can’t play on stage. I didn’t join the Black Hills Musicians Guild because I am amateur and not the least bit interested in making any money from my playing. I just want to play Celtic music. I hide in the back of the venue and won’t go near the stage”.
This started last summer, when she was waiting for the trolly at the trolley stop/information booth and pulled my whistle out of my purse and started to play it. The person manning the information booth came out and said “Free music in Deadwood? We can’t have that. I had to call the police.” A police car pulled up and drove by slowly. The information booth person later apologized and said it was a joke, but Ms. Martinez said “it was a still a scary experience.” She heard that there was a requirement in Deadwood to be able to perform in the street, and that her motivation for asking for the variance in the first place is that she wanted to be sure that she would be legal.
Anna says she like to play on the street because people ignore her and she likes playing out of doors. She does it for self-satisfaction and because she enjoys interacting with the rare kid who wants to stop and sit and listen. She said “Man, those girls get those big puppy dog eyes and that ‘I wish I could do that’ look on their face, and I can’t help but give them one of my whistles, and show them how to finger it. They can learn to play it in fifteen minutes, and are not in the casinos, bored half to death wilt their parents play. The kids are what makes it worth it”
“I am NOT a Pied Piper by any means,” she said, I don’t gather crowds, I just sit there and play, it is not about money or breaking the law, I do it because I enjoy it."
She continued "What’s really strange about this whole situation, from my point of view, is that I am not performing per se, and that the Ordinance says nothing at all about liability insurance coverage and I believe the intent of the Ordinance is to give the city some control over blocking off traffic and firing guns. The phrasing in the Ordinance that could possibly be interpreted as including a musical instrument is this "…any proposals involving guns, firearms, pistols, or weapons of any kind, character, description or other equipment or personal property causing loud noises or capable of creating a noise or other disturbance shall be required to furnish information concerning such firearms, guns or other weapons in connection with their request for a permit. " Martinez thinks it’s really stretching it to include a musical instrument in the same class as guns. I asked for clarification in my memo to the Board, and never got it. She called a couple of insurance companies and was told she could not get the required insurance because it was not a commercial venture.
“I’m very effectively locked out now,” she said. Our country was built on Civil Disobedience in spite of the Mayor’s off-hand comment that we cannot have that in Deadwood. Of course we can! It’s time for some direct political action here. Without Civil Disobedience we would still be drinking tea, saluting the union jack and singing ‘God Save the Queen!’ I need to do this to be able to enjoy sitting around in the park with my friends and play a little music, with no intent to entertain anybody buy ourselves."
Ann is a member of the National Whistle Association which is a loose national organization of whistle plaryers. She quoted other member of the NWA saying “The right of the people to own and bear whistles shall not be impinged. When whistles are outlawed, only outlaws will have whistles. We have hats and T-shirts and mugs available on http://www.cafepress.com/nwachiff. I need my whistles for self-defense. If a bodhran player breaks into my home, I’ll be ready. I am opposed to carrying concealed whistles. We must blow the whistle on those who are trying to take our rights away. Give me frequency or give me death!”
Asked about her plans for the future, she said "I can’t talk about that right now., but I will keep the press informed. By the way, why did you put the quotes around the words “Irish Whistle?”
