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Monday, October 04, 2004

Consolation Prize If we can stay awake and the band doesn't cancel, we'll be going to see Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra Friday night at Neumo's.  This is an exciting group of 10 - 13 musicians based in New York.  We first heard them at our Bumbershoot festival 2 years ago, and got to see them again at Chop Suey. With some trepidation, I again paid multiple "convenience fees" and "handling charges" in order to buy tickets online from Tickets West, but I'd rather do this and have a leisurely Friday evening prior to the event instead of going and standing in line at the venue after working a full day.  The smart rats, they don't hit the same button that gives them the electric shock more than once.  I hate the smart rats, I think they're elitists.  I mean, them and their hoity-toity E-Vo-Lu-Tion.  Pah.  There were myriad noble species, species with resolute genetic principles, damnit, which perished while the cringing Australopithecus and his opposable thumb survived, then flourished.  The awesome dentition of Tyrannasaurus Rex undone by the stunted appendage that couldn't even claim "finger"status.  We know what Australopithecus did with his opposable thumb, and its development was directly traceable to the frequency of "headaches" in Mrs. Australopithecus.  In short, he survived because he avoided being brained by Mrs. Australopithecus.  This evolutionary quirk is honored in ritual re-enactments in strip clubs throughout the land.  Thus, it's not because of the bared female flesh that fundamentalists so vehemently oppose strip clubs, it's because of the homage to a vision of humanoid evolution that they simply do not wish to countenance. Anyway, I bought the tickets, and I await the judgment of natural selection. 10:27:34 PM    Speak to me! []  TrackBack  []

There Must Be Some Way To Blame Bush For This, Too: In an effort to atone for our embarrassment a couple weeks ago (when we planned to go out for some beats and fell asleep instead), we bought tickets to hear Yerba Buena at the Paramount Wednesday night.  I got turned on to the band after hearing an NPR feature, and bought their President Alien album, and it's been at the top of my listening rotation ever since. Yesterday, I got an email from Ticketmaster saying that the show was cancelled (no reason given), and that I could request a refund by mail.  Bummer, but things happen, I thought.  Then I read the next sentence, which said: The $3.10 per order processing fee and any UPS delivery charges are non refundable and I started to boil over.  I mean, I knew how much I was paying Ticketmaster for the "convenience" of purchasing the tickets online (click by click, two $25 tickets ended up costing $73.10), and traded the fees off against the time it would have taken me to trudge down to the Paramount box office and personally buy them.  Still, if they can't deliver the product, why should they get to keep any money? I wrote a snippy little email to the band's manager, and got this back: Sorry you feel this way, but your anger is misplaced. The local promoter cancelled the show on us. As a result the group has lost thousands of dollars in airfares which are non refundable. Please do not add to this the loss of a fan. Regarding Ticketmaster, their contract is with the local promoter and/or venue. The group has no relationship to Ticketmaster whatsoever. So now I feel a little sheepish about the email, in which I said something to the effect that if they brought out a new cd, I'd find a way to steal it without remorse, or something similarly cool-headed and mature.  As soon as my pride squeezes the rest of the way down my esophagus, I'll send him an apology.  Then I'll try to think of something withering to say to Ticketheisters In the meantime, we're free Wednesday night.  Anyone for pinochle? 1:05:26 PM    Speak to me! []  TrackBack  []