Tickets

Okay, usually when I'm talking tickets, I mean speeding tickets. Between the time I was 16 and 40, I got at least one speeding ticket every three years. Heck at one point I did 8 hours of "Defensive Driving" hell in an non-air conditioned basement with the most ornery set of senior citizens this side of Abe's home on the Simpsons just so I could keep my bloody license in TexSucks. So my insurance rates never went down. I think I've gone about five years without. Look, I deserved every blasted one of them. I never try to talk my way out of them. I was speeding, you caught me, if I didn't want to risk a ticket, I'd slow down. I've only walked away without the ticket when stopped once or twice. Only remember one, where all three kids were sleeping in the backseat and we (the family) were late for a nieces confirmation.

I ordered tickets this morning. Yup, going to see Modest Mouse with a friend I tend to see a lot of shows with. I'm not like crazy for MM, but its been a long time since something came through I wanted to see. In theory, I got a "special" message from someone I've volunteered with, and got to order tickets a day early. Sure. I later saw two other messages from other services that gave "specials" too. All with their own code word.

Here's the pisser. Ticket Whore. Or TicketWhoreMaster. Each ticket was $30. Actually two were $61. Once they got done with license fees, dealer preparation charges, delivery fees, tire shine, carpet vacuum, upholstery protector coating, and headlight fluid refills, it was over $90. And I picked the cheapest and slowest delivery possible. So it cost the price of another ticket in fees. And you know the artist gets nothing out of those fees. Just pisses me off.

Its well known that artists don't really make a bundle out of their recordings. Record companies give them a advance, from which they then charge them the cost of making the recording. Unless it sells a bajillion, they might get to keep some of the advance and not owe the "company" too much. Whoops. Now it used to be they went out on tour, and if they didn't snort coke like some put baby powder on infant butts, and party too hardy they could make some decent money. The life on the road is grueling so it had better be good. Now with the monopoly that is TicketTheifMaster who knows. And ticket prices keep going up. Wasn't the last Stones show locally over a hundred a pop before TicketRatMaster got their thieving fingers on you? Too much man. You can get a good six recordings for that. And you don't have to sit in nosebleed and require a small Hubble telescope to see the band up close and personal. Just stinks.