Thursday, September 11, 2003

My Wild Night

The other night, I went to the REM concert at the Hollywood Bowl.  (Very cool.  Very fun.  Shout out to whoever was mixing the sound, for absolutely the best mixing I've ever heard.  I mean ... get this ... I actually understood Michael Stipe singing some lyrics I have never understood before.  Yay sound person!)

So, there I was, at the Hollywood Bowl, with plenty of time before REM went on to get some overpriced food.  I got an overpriced salad, an overpriced brownie, and an overpriced bottle of water.  After eating the salad, I headed toward security to enter the venue itself.

You know what's coming.  The security lady told me to take the bottle top off the water I had just purchased.  Fair enough.  I took the top off as if to say, "Look.  Water."  I even took a swig of it to prove I wasn't bringing some clear liquid biohazard into the Bowl, sneakily disguised as a bottle of Aquafina.  I began to recap the bottle and was told, "You can't put the cap back on.  Ever."  I asked why.  She didn't know.  I asked what I was supposed to do with the cap (as there was no trash can nearby).  She didn't know that either.  All she knew was that she had to tell me not to put the cap back on the water.

OK, here's the beauty part:  When she wasn't looking, I slipped the cap into my pocket.  Eyes shifting back and forth, I continued past security.  I was in!  With the contraband bottle cap in my pocket!  Once we got to our seats, I put the water bottle down by my feet and replaced the cap!  Ohh, it felt so good to be bad.

Could someone please explain to me the security purpose involved in prohibiting plastic bottle caps?  And before you answer that, keep this in mind:  Had I purchased my bottled water from the Hollywood Bowl vendor inside the security perimeter, rather than the Hollywood Bowl vendor outside security, I would have been permitted to keep the cap.  So ... exactly what is the security risk posed by plastic water bottle caps purchased from outside that is somehow not also posed by plastic water bottle caps purchased on the inside?  I'm willing to learn.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is my WAG: they don't want something that small and easily projectile-able in the grubby hands of rowdy rock concert moshers like yourself. Perhaps if you buy beverages inside the venue, they remove the cap. Why they didn't have a place for your to toss it is beyond me.

Maybe it's a NAFTA thing.

Maybe security girl was goofing on you. "Hey, git a loada this, I'm gonna ban bottle caps!"

I think it's a NAFTA thing.

Anonymous said...

I went to the Radiohead concert at the Bowl the other night... and I actually found your thing here because I put "Hollywood Bowl no water bottle caps" into a search engine... I too, feel a driving need to know WHY you can't have a cap on your water bottle. I got the same answer as the person above me gave... that they don't want you throwing the caps... but you know, you could also throw the bottle... or the water in the bottle...

I don't get it. Security is stupid.