“Cellist Lynn Harrell was born in New York but moved to Dallas in 1955,” writes Robert Wilonsky on Wednesday’s (7/17) Dallasnews.com. “Harrell was a protege of Lev Aronson, once the decades-long principal cellist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and each year since 2001 the Dallas Symphony holds the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition…. Lynn and my father grew up together. But until earlier this week, Dad had no idea he was the personification of evil—‘Al Capone meets The Unabomber stuffed inside Voldemort smothered in a creamy Charles Manson sauce,’ in the words of Stephen Colbert on Monday night’s Colbert Report. Harrell, it turns out, is one of the People Destroying America.…The reason: ‘He wants to redefine traditional relationships,’ per Colbert. As in: Harrell travels with his cello—Cello Harrell, that is, ‘his lifetime companion’—which he puts beside him in a Delta Airlines cabin seat for which he pays full fare. And for years he’s collected frequent-flier SkyMiles on behalf of his instrument, which he’s used to…perform the Kol Nidre at the Vatican [for example].… And as far as Delta’s concerned, that’s a decided no-no, so it confiscated the cello’s miles—and Harrell’s too, after which it kicked him out of the program altogether and barred him for life. ‘I deserve those,’ Harrell says. ‘I paid for those.’ To which an expert on the subject responds that it’s ‘beyond inappropriate’ to give an inanimate object frequent-flier miles.” To watch the Colbert Report segment on Harrell, click here.
Posted July 19, 2013
