I have enclosed this link for those who wish to read about this incident.

http://tinyurl.com/zimerman

My comments have more to do with the last paragraph since I think performers should let their audiences decide before paying for a ticket whether they want to hear politics too.
Anyways, I could understand why Zimerman would be pissed at his Steinway being destroyed by some TSA Rambos for thinking the glue "smelled funny". I figure if they can sniff luggage for explosives without even opening it they could inspect the insides of a grand piano for contraband or dangerous goods. (I don't know if the PTG has a suggested fee for this inspection) What next, anthrax powder on the knuckles, cocaine impregnated hammers, maybe a Semtex rigged note from Yosemite Sam? I don't know if Zimerman was so outspoken back then, but maybe that was the TSA's own political jab telling him to shut up. Its still a shame to see a Steinway go up in smoke for something like that.

My comment, have a bumppy flight back...cya Dispite all of Americas' flaws, it's still the most desirable country to live in, just why do you think everyone wants to come here...??

I should add, I didn't mean for this post to be a political debate drawing in fiery rhetoric. Besides don't delusion yourself...Iceland is the most desirable country to live in (according to the UN). I'm sure some people won't miss him and some have even said "he should take the Dixie Chicks with him on the one way flight home". Culturally, Europeans have a thicker skin to politics and music mixing and many of their finest musicians move on to politics and even running their countries. I was more concerned about the destruction of a piano because it smelled funny. Quite a few old pianos I've worked on have had funky smells to them, are these maybe "sleepers" waiting to do their damage when called upon? (joking)

Sorry... just caught me as I was watching CNN and listening to all the political krap..I usually don't vent so fast, but I am going to leave it...

I agree. No need to destroy a piano like that. Glue smelled funny? How could they smell the glue anyway?

Yea, how did they know it was the glue? All pianos, and some players smell funny. Tuners, on the other hand, all smell wonderful!

Of course anything would smell odd if you have never smelled it before not just some type of glue. I am sure a lot of things I have not experienced would smell somewhat foreign to me too…… quite the over-reaction unfortunately………………

I think he brought this forward to the audience because he is understandably upset at having his tools of the trade destroyed……so would anyone.

Hmmm, considering how large a piano is and how easy it would be to hide all manner of things within, I wonder what exactly a TSA agent is supposed to do if for whatever reason they are suspicious of something as large as a piano? Call and wait for a RPT to come and inspect it? If you were in a position where you are weighing inconveniencing one person vs the safety of a few hundred folks, which direction would you tend to lean?

Not saying that the TSA is perfect, as someone who's had to carry some "interesting" items onto flights and has had to deal with TSA agents many times, I know, just like anything else, you run into some knuckleheads and plain bad judgment. However, to pass judgment on a couple of sentences from one article seems just as over-reacting as the TSA agents are being accused of. After all, the article also says that he works on the piano himself, so who knows, maybe he did just do some work to it that could have lead to a "funny smell". Dunno, there's not enough information, at least not enough for me to run around making judgments.

As to the performer himself, I have no problems with his take on the US. I don't agree with him, but he is certainly within his right to have that opinion and even to express it (legally anyway, as others have mentioned, I can see how a paying ticket holder wouldn't be so accepting). However, I do find it ironic that he would criticize those who walked out, after all, it's certainly within their rights to do so, and if he expects others to respect his opinions and decisions, you'd think he'd extend the same courtesy.

It does not surprise me at all that an American TSA distoryed a grand piano of one the top pianists in the world. However, I would be rather surprised if it had happened in another developed country.

The article states that the incident with his piano happened shortly after 9/11....nearly 8 years ago.

I wonder if perhaps he'd had some recent finish work done to the piano. (or perhaps a very aggressive 'juicing' session ) If the piano is wrapped up, the fumes can gather, and give off a strong odor to whomever disturbs the covering...

So, destroy a 100K piano, A PIANO, because the glue smells funny because 19 Saudis took 4 planes on a suicide mission. Beautiful. That's a failure of leadership in a time of crisis. There must be a million such idiot stories out there.

Good story.

A piano can be a weapon. I heard that if you craw under a grand piano, and the legs of it fails, you'll be crushed to death. So even if the glue of that specific piano does not smell funny, it still can be used as a weapon to kill American people.

So everything that is deemed to be dangerous to American people should be destroyed. Such as, we should shoot down all air planes passing our borders, we should sink all ships sailing in our direction, we should destroy all airs blowing into our land (burn them or blow them back out!!!). We should kill every non-American who dares to get into our country.

Everything is possible. Destroy every possibility, then we will be safe and strong. Period.

That's a cute dismissive statement. Can you tell us what the result of that "suicide mission" was that put the country on edge?

It's real easy to cast things in a bad light years after an attack, especially if you're not the one charged to protect the nation. The loss of a good piano is unfortunate, but no one was sure what these Islamic crazies would try next.

Some of his statements in the concert were ridiculous. This country pulled Poland's bacon out of the fire in WWll. We don't govern Poland as a result. He actually has fascism staring him in the face from another quarter and he's blind to it. 'Amazing!

This is to clarify a few things that might not be clear in the article but I had followed in other articles. Like I mentioned earlier, the politics was not the main issue but maybe needs to be clarified.

First of all David, I believe his "ridiculous" statements were politically tied to the present; a proposed missile defense system on their soil and secret holding and interrogation cells for suspects administered and run by foreign powers. It had nothing to do with 911 directly. Secondly, Zimerman is not and "Islamic crazy" he's a prominent pianist with the same sense of patriotism for his own country as you probably have for yours. He would hardly resemble anything remotely connected to a suicide mission mentality or any other profiling of this nature.

Its possible that you were born after the walls came down in Europe in the late 80's but it would be worth it to page back through some history books to get a better idea of Zimermans' context. Many Poles, along with other central eastern European countries would also dismiss the idea that they were liberated at the end of WW2. They were occupied by the Soviets and abandoned by the rest of the world to Communism for the next 40+ years. They prefer to call it an "exchange" of 1 atrocity for another. Nothing that resembled "bacon" was pulled out of the fire...the ashes were just kicked around and a new fire lit on top of it as all eyes turned away.

I am glad I got to see him perform once years ago before he decided to include politics in his repertoire. He is an absolute genius on the piano, but not very wise as to choosing his time and place to vent. In the 60's and early 70's, politics emerged in the rock and roll and played an important part in swinging the nations' views on the war present then. I think many of the newer politically inspired musicians think they are simply doing the same thing, using their fame to bring awareness to a cause they truly believe in. Some will even do it for causes they don't believe in, just to shamelessly promote themselves through the media uproar.

Still, that Steinway would have sat nicely in my living room, even if I had to sprinkle some Odor Fresh around it.

As an American of Polish ancestry, I'm not sure what to make of this. The thing that has me most confused is...

Why did the TSA destroy the piano AFTER it made the trip by plane and was being unloaded?

What would be the point?


Additionally...

How did they destroy it since they were so afraid of it?

Did they blow it up from a distance?

Or, did they call in a piano tuner to drop the tension before completely dismantling it?

Yeah. How did the TSA destroy it?

An A-bomb can be made in a piano shape. So if the TSA blown it up, they might detonate it. Millions of lives might have lost.

One more thing is about this swine flu. We can't just watch the flu to kill people here. It might be just another terrorist's plot. Action should be taken to destroy this possibility. How about sending troops to Mexico, taking the captital, and overthrown the terrorist-supporting government. I believe the CIA can find plenty of evidences to support this military action.

Yahoo!!

Exactly!!

A smelly piano can be a serious threat to the security of our country. If I were in charge of this, I would've done the same thing -- destroy it. Not only that, I would order to destroy every single piano that made its way to the US. Smelly or not, all of them can be potential weapons.

What would be the point?
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Attitude.
I hope TSA made him take the ashes back home with him.

From what I've read, everybody elses' country is perfect so, let's all move there...

Now that's a bigger stretch than you can put on any Hamburg Steinway....

A failure of leadership. Cute? Dismissive? No, this failure is a deadly serious business. BUT this forum is not the place to vent the pros and cons of post 9/11 policy and the ideology from which is sprung.

Here Here...I wonder if we should all let this one go for a bit now...

Well, my point is that we all kind of like it where we're living. I was just being a smarty pants as most of you know.. Nobody can control what their own government says or does. They only listen to themselves. And they LOVE listening to themselves...