Don't Stand So Close To Me '07

[eggwards]

I'm a little upset that I didn't get tickets to go see The Police in concert. Tickets went on sale this past Saturday and while I was at work, actually working, I forgot to log on and slog through the site to order tickets. There's also that thing about a concert in late June that kind of makes me forgetful about it on a day in March.

By the time I remember that they had gone on sale, it was Sunday morning and the first show was sold out. In a 20,000 seat arena. And they added a second show. And it had SOLD OUT as well! I was actually kind of stunned. I didn't think that the police were thought of so fondly, and I didn't think they'd get such a response since a). those who want to see Sting with a lute would be disappointed, and b). most people under 30 have never heard of the group since they broke up in 1986.

I then decided to take a look on the secondary market, and there were all of the tickets. Ticket speculation is just as big of a market as PS3 resales were - for about a week. Something tells me that if you can get tickets to shows easily, you could make a good living on the resales of those tickets.

I didn't need good seats, I just wanted to be there, but when the furthest seat in the arena was now going for twice the original $50 selling price, I decided that this was a concert event I was just going to have to miss. It's sad in a way, but then again I have seen The Police before. It was my first concert, and the first one that my parents let me got into Houston for. that was the 1984 Synchronicity tour and it was at the Summit - now Lakewood Church. Sting wore the big red, yellow and blue outfit from the Synchronicity II video. Ahh, those were the days.

I really have better things to spend my money on, but it would have been fun to see the same group...several years older. perhaps they will come again. Heck, the Stones still tour.

Personally, I'm looking forward to more new acts, like seeing the Scissor Sisters next week!

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Otherwise, my friend Jerry (goofycubb) sent me some questions to answer...

1. Do you miss Houston? Me? :) LOL

I'm finding hard to believe that it's been almost a year since I was last in Houston. My parents worry about me!
I don't miss the city so much, but there are a few places - namely Beck's Prime and James Coney Island. I also miss the ripcord and wish I could move all of those places up here. I also miss driving on Memorial Drive. As for you, I really wish you were here to watch the Amazing Race with! Or just to hang with. Those were good times. When are you coming to visit us? :-)

2. Will you ever go clean shaven again?

Well, most people who know me these days have never seen me clean shaven. I think the last time was 1994, and i have no plans to do it again.

3. What is the strangest thing that someone has said while you are in bed making whoopee?

Generally I'm the one who comes up with the bad puns and such! I guess it was the mutually crazy conversation about Bears releasing genetically enhanced pheromones on a dance floor, triggered by thumping dance music. It was at TBRU, and the sound created for this - "Paaaft!" -became a catchphrase for the weekend.

Let's just say that mixing the two of us in bed was not only fun, but also a lesson in non-sequitur thinking.

4. What is under your bed?

Occasionally Joey, but otherwise it's the surge protector outlet strip that powers the CPAP.

5. Did your mom ever catch you masturbating?

Thankfully no, thanks to a lock on the door, but occasionally she did try to open the lock with a coat-hanger. This would normally be when she was mad at me for something. I'm not so sure what she would have done if she caught me with a Muscle and Fitness magazine in one hand...

Comments

[grunter.livejournal.com]

Actually I completely agree with this: blame eBay! Since we've unfortunately barreled on by that quaint period of time where waiting in line overnight to get tickets "in person" was the name of the game, eBay is competely complicit in the new e-market for ticket-scalping. They do nothing to curb the practice whatsoever. With the advent of Ticketmaster as solely an online venture, the market for any given marquee show is no longer just local - it's global. Anyone with a computer connection can throw their hat into the ticket lottery and if they come up with a pair of seats, they can instantly turn around and sell their home-printed EZ-tix on eBay for a fast profit. Not only are these ticket "brokers" selling nosebleed seats for quadruple what they paid, but there is currently a serious market for just the unique Best Buy passwords to the presale "events" (which also, coincidentally sell out in nano-seconds and are part of the reason the regular public "on-sale" dates sell out almost as instantaneously.) Any show with any buzz at all in any major metropolitan market "sells out" due to these online, out-of-area "carpetbaggers" scarfing up the tickets to the shows and trying to turn a buck with the lenient resell policies at eBay. For example, the most recent visit of Ryan Adams to Chicago - generally a mid-level act with a relatively low ticket price ($30), playing mid-to-large sized club venues - suddenly sold out in less than 25 minutes. I tried in vain for weeks to find a reasonably priced ticket from a local source and the best I could do was a promise of an e-ticket from someone in Wisconsin who wanted no less than $150 for a single seat. I seriously hate the online ticket-buying experience. As rckdjbear said, it makes major tours a complete hassle.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I'm looking at the site that rckdjbear linked to. The highest price is almost $4,000! That's insane. How in the world is there a market for that?

I remember back when I went to more shows, back in the eighties, and you would have to go down to the mall and wait in a line, and they would have a lottery before you ever got into the store. it was a pain in the ass, but you certainly had as good of a chance to get tickets as the people the scalpers paid to be in the line with you. I guess now it's much more lucrative and i's certainly easier for one company to round up tickets all over the country and put them up for sale.

I wonder how many tickets are bought on the second-hand market, and how many these guys lose money on? Obviously the second-hand market prices are higher just to try to cover their purchase and try to make a profit.