#I think I like Onsal the best

[the-sycophant]

Hello Miss Marlowe! How are you? Sorry to message you a day late, but I wanted to say it was fun to fight along side you in PVP yesterday! (I was the red BRD that was trying to back you another person up when you were in the thick of the enemy team but I think I got the both if you killed ;-;) Hope you're doing well and I look forward to running into you again eventually! o/

Thank you!

I did recognize you and I appreciate you saying hello! Though I did take too long to make sure you weren't talking to a different Marlowe for some reason /sweat And not to worry, my RDM in FL is just asking for it...though I can be slippery prey, it's no one's fault but my own I'm sure. You'd think all the zantetsuken or marksman's spite I eat would humble me...but no. My playstyle is much like that of Marlowe -- just the hint of blood and I am literally shaking.

[chaos-and-recover]

Here you can get the same ones right back lol: 5, 6, 10, 11, 33, 34

Excellent choices if I do say so myself.

5. do you prefer intimate arenas or stadium shows?

FIRST OF ALL the wording of this one is ??? because arenas are not intimate? Arenas are like... 5-20k people? Intimate to me is like <1000 lol. But the answer is and will always be intimate. I enjoy a good high production value stadium/arena tour but there's nothing like the connection you get at a smaller show.

Although the caveat is that sometimes when you've followed a band for a long time and they blow up and start playing arenas there is a sense of pride like "yeah those are my boys up there :)"

6. do you prefer stripped down and acoustic concerts or full on production with all the works?

Somewhere in the middle honestly. Just a real, authentic band doing what they do. If it's not usually an acoustic or quieter act the stripped down gets kinda boring after a while but I also don't need a whole ass like... P!nk-level production at every show I go to.

10. have you ever worn an elaborate costume to a show?

Nah. I don't have the creativity/talent to make anything that cool and also I usually put myself in a position at the show where I'm gonna fuck up anything I DO wear so like, what's the point.

11. have you ever sat front row at a show?

I've been barricade at a ton of GA shows but I did once in my life legitimately manage to buy front row centre tickets from Ticketmaster, in person at a Ticketmaster outlet (remember those???) when I was 14 years old. My best friend at the time and I went to the mall at 5AM and lined up outside the record store with the outlet until it opened, we were first in line and lost our mutual shit when the onsale started and we had FRONT ROW CENTRE TICKETS. The show was The Moffatts, who were like a Canadian version of Hanson (but better -- I said what I said) and were my #1 favourite band at the time. I still vividly remember that show.

Also just this past April I managed to get a front row seat for my current favourite live act, July Talk, *on my birthday*, and traveled to Edmonton for that show. That was also a phenomenal experience.

33. is there a concert you’ve been to that was awful?

My friend once convinced me to go see Brokencyde and Jeffree Starr in like... 2008 or so? Brokencyde didn't make it across the border so we were spared that but even Jeffree Starr was like... ohhh my god I'm not sure I've fully forgiven that friend yet lmao.

Also I once saw Glassjaw opening for I think it was Brand New and they were not good and that was really upsetting because I fucking LOVE Glassjaw. (I saw them again years later and they were great. So maybe just an off night)

34. do you usually get there before doors open and linger or do you show up just in time?

I used to always be there several hours early. Like I legitimately met some of my very good friends TO THIS DAY because we'd go get in line for shows either right after school or skip last period to go. We all went to different schools all over the city but kept meeting at these shows, and I STILL constantly see them at shows (sometimes for the *same bands*). There are also bands that now are some of my favourites that I got into because I saw them opening for someone else because I got there early (Anberlin and Plain White Ts my beloveds <3). But now I'm old and lazy and often cannot be bothered showing up much before the headliner. There are some bands I will still get there early for though.

Thank you!

[brokenbellz]

dreams in gold presale info!

hi guys! with the new tour dates being officially announced i thought i would share some tips for the presale tomorrow and public on sale friday. i bought pit tickets for hershey last time the tickets were announced, and there is definitely some things to know if you’ve never bought tickets for something like this before!

as far as i know most presale tickets are going to be available tomorrow, wednesday, march 2 at 12 pm in your time zone. to be sure, you can check on ticketmaster. it will say what time the presale starts for whichever concert you want to go to. 

to get a presale code, sign up for the peaceful army mailing list at https://peacefularmy.com/. i never got a confirmation email or anything like that, so if you sign up you should be okay. it may even be worth it to sign up with a few emails.

for the presale, ticketmaster is the best place/most reliable to purchase tickets from besides the actual venue itself. after the public onsale you will start seeing tickets available on other websites like stubhub, vividseats, and seatgeek. i have personally never bought any tickets on those websites so i can’t guarantee they are all legit, but i have heard some people having luck.

the presale code will likely come through right before the presale starts. i’m talking 10 minutes to even 1 or 2 minutes before the tickets go on sale. honestly, it might not even come until after the sale starts. for the first leg of the tour my code didn’t show up until 15 minutes after the sale started. it all depends on how fast the system mails them out

if you don’t see the code immediately, check your spam and promotions folders. last time my code came in the promotions folder on gmail.

make sure you are signed into ticketmaster on the app or your computer with your payment information updated ahead of time, but it is best not to have the same account logged in on multiple devices because sometimes ticketmaster will detect it and boot you out on both.

it’s best to be ready and waiting on the page for the concert you are buying for about 15 minutes before the tickets go on sale. there should be a countdown on the page. don’t refresh or exit the page or you’ll lose your spot in line. at 10 minutes left, the page will refresh and you will be sent to a waiting room, and then to the queue at 12 when tickets go on sale. again, the website will automatically refresh and take you to these places. sometimes it takes a minute or so too, but just do not refresh because you may lose your place in line.

to be honest, ticketmaster is often times a shit show. i had trouble buying tickets for hershey bc of ticketmaster, but my best advice is to just keep trying. i had to try about 5 or 6 times because ticketmaster just kept kicking me off, but just keep at it. god knows how this will be tomorrow with so many different dates going on sale.

also, do not share the presale code online or with anyone you don’t know! that’s how scalpers access the tickets to sell them at astronomical prices. 

if you can’t get tickets during the presale, because sometimes it just happens, don’t get too worried! the public onsale is friday, march 4 at 12 pm local time. i personally think presale is the best to get the lowest prices before scalpers get ahold of tickets, but public onsale won’t be too bad. 

also, do NOT buy platinum tickets from ticketmaster! there is nothing special about them except the gouged prices ticketmaster sells them for! they are just regular tickets. 

there are also a few groups on facebook where people regularly sell tickets if you don’t get any through the sales!

if you have any questions, feel free to ask :) good luck everyone!

[lordeemailarchive]

A FINGER POINTING AT THE MOON

(24/05/2022) (Solar Institute Bulletin No. 14) (From Leeds)

5 minutes post show, taking it all off 

Bonjourrrrrrrr to all the cuties in my e address book!!!!!!! It’s been two weeks and two days since the final curtain fell in the U.S. Feels both like ages ago and yesterday. I lay around in Santa Barbara for a few days after everyone went back, complete solitude feeling bizarro after five weeks of bus life, walking along the beach deep in thought about you. I can’t get over how generous and loving and supportive an audience you were each night. I’ve honestly never had such a good touring experience. I met Annie-B for a drink in New York and she kept talking about what she called the chanting, all of you singing every word of every song with me, it isn’t normal, all my colleagues whose first tour with us it is are in disbelief like, they really know EVERY word. You do. I’m so lucky to have you. Thankyou for coming — I’ll come again as soon as you’ll have me.

Some of Lauren’s pics from the last couple days — our first outdoor SP show 🌙😮‍💨

In the break, my priority was to rest. Two nasty sicknesses in two weeks and a gross wet cough hanging around, had to dry it out, get better for you. I didn’t fully rest, if I’m honest, there’s a fire lit under me at the moment, did some secret things in NY and LA for a week or so before getting to London last week. I get fucked by the jet lag coming this way every time, so I decided to be nice to myself for a change and fly a week early. I got in at midday, sun shining, arrived at the hotel feeling nauseous and corpse-adjacent, but I grabbed a sugar free Red Bull (it makes no sense to me that caffeine-wise I cannot drink so much as a strong black tea yet a RB gives me jitterless wings, deeply off brand but leaning in) and got on the move, walking fast, music in my ears, feeling this fizz of excitement growing being back in London finally after 3 (!!) years. I honestly had one of the best afternoons I’ve had all year, just walking with music loud in my headphones, the same thing I’ve been doing since I was a teen, still feeling as good as it ever did. Spent days like this, blissing out on the very specific UK energy of people in pubs, people playing football or sprawling out in the parks, a boy flying past me on a bike screaming “YASS METHOD ACTING” at dusk on a Wednesday, smoked mackerel salad at Cafe Deco. So happy to be stepping over British gobs of spit once more.

Jetlagged but joyful in london, a little magic trip out of town, before that 3 days in NY, bought this Balenciaga shirt what do u think

Me in Paris…. The ORIGINAL ‘can u reach me?’ queen

I’m feeling really good, really open. Possibility all around. Puuuumped for Europe. Can’t believe I’ll be seeing you all again, so special coming to your cities, each one so different and offering us so much in the way of food, art, language. Gonna try to sightsee as much as I can.I think you’re gonna fall in love with Marlon. If you haven’t heard his music before, start with Come To Me, Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore, his new song My Boy, Dark Child, and Vampire Again. Few tickets left for these shows.

THE RUMOURS ARE TRUE…………….IN VERY EXCITING NEWS WE ARE COMING TO MEXICO IN OCTOBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our shows are in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, and it would mean the world to me if you came!!! I adore playing in Mexico, and I’m so happy this is happening…. Think I’m gonna add some special mx-only setlist moments… watch this space… The tickets go onsale Monday May 30 at 11am your time, and the presale code is strangeairlines Reading Fleur Jaeggy’s Sweet Days Of Discipline, Ernaux’s A Girl’s Story, Saunders’ A Swim In a Pond In the Rain, which I bought when it came out and didn’t get round to but a friend is currently reading it and inspired me to get it out. Lauren gave me Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith which I’m hyped to hit next. VERY happy that Elif Batuman has released Either/Or, the follow-up to The Idiot, which you may remember me recommending previously. Suitcase is basically full of books at this point. I’m loving Kendrick. I cannot get over the most popular and influential artist in modern music displaying a working nervous system, admitting mistakes, trying to process intergenerational trauma and prejudice. I love the way the album opens, the pace and heat of the first few songs, and later Count Me Out, the build and strings in Auntie Diaries … special.

Checking in on my SCsWWtS… Look at Katia’s sunshine caprese, and Connor’s focaccia. SP as food is really a zone of great delight to me— always send these to Ophelia. 

Check out Alexander’s server who is a DEAD RINGER FOR ME????? 

Love seeing Seth’s merch on the beach — please send me pics of merch in nature this summer, I really love seeing it. Should add that i forgot to pack a cap on this trip and am wearing this cap every fucking day, kind of embarrassing, if you have an old cap you are parting with and think i’d like send me an email hahaha

Ash’s gorgeous tattoo, and a sliver of her Melo one above. 

DEVON CAME TO ELEVEN SHOWS ON THE U.S. RUN, THAT MUST BE SOME KIND OF RECORD, THANKYOU DEVON I AM NOT WORTHY!!! Alright, that’s all for now….. Leaving you with a paragraph from this brilliant New Yorker essay on parenting by Jia that’s staying with me: “The work demanded creativity and intuition: spending a day alone with my infant daughter reminded me of shepherding a friend through a first-time acid trip, continually gauging whether she needed to look at a flower, or listen to music, or sob for ten minutes, or be alone in the dark.” Can’t wait to be shepherding each other again in a few days. Loving you, always, forever, L xxxxxxx

(source: received this email)

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

🔺 Tues 18 August 🔻

Louis! We have been blessed with a picture and what a picture! He's wearing only shorts and working on music, he's got a laptop out and a guitar in hand and all the tattoos on display including THE ANKLE TRIANGLE HELLO BABY! WE'VE MISSED YOU EVERY DAY! Much analysis of a leg thought to be the photographer's- it really does not look to be Eleanor's but a case was (ofc) made for it being Harry's with his little knee tattoo blurred (though by that logic it could also be pretty much any other light skinned guy), but is it actually a leg at all or could it in fact be... an ARM? Of a couch, that is! It's equally likely. In short, inconclusive on all counts. Anyway he's somewhere warm with wet hair and people naturally think this means he's with Eleanor on vacation (she's currently in Greece again)- if so he's traveling with one, maybe two, guitars, and has cut his lovely long hair which would make me sad; but chances are it's an old picture (like the other one of him she posted since lockdown began was) that was just put up now to get the fandom active and online for Latin American ticket sales (more tickets for the Santiago Chile show onsale now!) If he has joined Eleanor, honestly who cares I would hope he's enjoying Greece and that Cliff isn't lonely, but since people are worked up about the idea I will point out that the last time we saw the triangle tattoo (after over a year of no sightings marked by fan hysteria and despair including daily accounting of the number of days since it was seen and regular trends and hundreds of memes wishing for its return from the war) Louis was also on a trip with Eleanor at the time. It was the anniversary of the beginning of babygate and fan speculation about that and about his whereabouts for the last shows of Harry's tour was at a fever pitch, and he appeared publicly in the UK and sat for an awkward and deliberate photo op with the tattoo on display. And the time before that was a gaynkle photoshoot expressly designed by Louis at Sony so in short, TRIANGLE, BITCH. Oh also she's looking good- sometime during last couple years the tattoo has been touched up significantly, the lines are much thicker, glad she's getting the loving care she deserves even when we don't see her. Anyway, Louis also won a voted contest for Best Male yesterday and normally that would be much too sweeping an assessment to support but you know what? The people have spoken and who am I to disagree.

Meanwhile zquad twitter fully lost their minds about a tabloid article from last week seemingly showing Yolanda Hadid saying Zayn was a "bad influence" and a "control freak", and hinting at infidelity. While the article is absolutely to blame for that being the takeaway, leaning heavily on it as clickbait and giving it the vast majority of the wordcount, if people had actually read it they would have seen that in fact the whole angle of the piece was to declare the quotes made up and say instead how happy the Hadids are to welcome Zayn into the clan. But the ztans who do realize this believe Yolanda engineered it all to get the dirt out there with full deniability, and the combination of that and a pic Gigi just posted got everyone in a state. The Gigi selfie in question is one that does not show her bump (it's cut off above the area) but some feel it should show a bump in the visible area... unless!! NGL guys, I do in fact believe that Gigi is pregnant and find the concept that not falling for one fake pregnancy means that I'm supposed to believe that every pregnancy is fake extremely annoying, but hey I don't know her life. Maybe it's all an elaborate scheme to justify eating some carbs! Just another day on twitter though really, we've also got harries making fake tweets of Niall being racist and then denouncing him for them and trending anti Liam tags for... literally no reason? ANYWAY Liam says ticket sales for his birthday show are going well and did a really cute tiktok where he pretends to vacuum, go watch that instead of paying attention to any of that nonsense.

[migleefulmoments]

The drama and the bullcrap that Abby and her coven are spewing today is just crazy. Just spending a few minutes on her blog gave me a headache. Worst part is I don't understand half of what they're trying to say. (I am very tired and my brain is only functioning at about 75% but still) Can you figure out what they're trying to say about Elsie Fest and Chris and Darren's 'struggles' and all that shit? Because I'm just not able to figure it out. Seriously, it's like a foreign language. Thanks! :)

Abby and her posse of mean girls have spent the last month raging about the Elsie Fest lineup-or the lack there of. They have a weird way of claiming Elsie is Darren’s baby but all the problems they find with the show are Ricky’s fault- even though Ricky is a "loser" who “can’t do anything right”. Abby fully believes that Elsie is a mess- she finds fault every single year- this year just happened to be the lineup she found great fault with- but Darren can do nothing wrong so “it’s Ricky’s fault”. Even harder to believe, she thinks everyone else is as in love with Darren as she is and has her blinders on. But she does. Today a tinhatter saw through their nonsense and called them out. But first justcantgetenoughcc wrote an open letter to Darren where they first went on about how Darren is no longer the “vibrant, bouncy, full of life and overflowing with love for life” cough*Blaine*cough that he once was. Justcant said 

It started with the announcement of ACS. He was nervous. All his facial tics were back (anyone doubting this, should go back and watch his Mario Lopez interview) and he didn’t even speak of ACS or show any happiness or appreciation at getting that role… or even promote it for a while there. It was downhill from there. A couple of us feared for his mental breakdown as the violence and the mental space he would’ve to get to.. to prepare for the role each day… [Again, anyone doubting this should take a look at Heath Ledger’s final role]. For the simple reason, Darren wasn’t in a good place even before the ACS announcement… having suffered abuse in various ways and relentlessly for a longtime. It was clear he suffered from depression.

Fast forward to the present… Darren looked consistently sad and depressed in 99% of the pictures and clips that came our way. He looked like death warmed over. It was easy to see that he felt his situation in life was hopeless. His career wasn’t going anywhere. His personal life was a mess. He had officially become a walking talking billboard or a clotheshorse… or the Pianoman at a sleazy strip joint. It was all the wrong people in his life that got the focus… that were being given the attention… while the man who won awards after awards was slowly fading away.

Justcantgetenoughcc concluded by claiming that poor, depressed Darren is too sad to produce Elsie and the ccers shouldn’t have been pressuring him for the last several months to put it on. Justcant suggestes that he is only putting it on because the cc fandom has pressured him or worse, his team is forcing him to do it 

What IF Elsie was announced BY HIS TEAM only because of the pressure from the fandom? And NOT because Darren wanted it or was ready to do it? He had personal issues to deal with… that he had to get to… before… he could take on Elsie?

Abby read justcantgetenoughcc’s comment and spent the next 24 hours reflecting on what her actions potentially did to Darren....oh come on, you know she didn’t. She immediately fired off an “Abby’s greatest hits” post that included the one honest comment she’s made in the last 8 months (she tends to be unintentionally honest when she’s upset)

@justcantgetenoughcc I know I will regret this, but you are virtually accusing the person who is the MOST compassionate to D of being inconsiderate. I am the one everyday explaining everything that happens and trying to keep this fandom together with a handful of others.  I am the one who constantly tries to explain his actions and constantly tries to assert my opinion, that i am harassed and bullied for daily (you all truly have no idea), to try to make people understand he is a caught in a horrific nightmare and he is doing the best to fight his way out of it.  That is me, and about 5 others that i won’t name as invariably i will forget someone.   I would think again before you tell at me for being as supportive as I can be considering I hate watching what is happening.

With respect to EF, I did not really say a word before tickets went onsale, but they did and people planned travel based on the announcement.  They have a right to know who will be performing.  I also went on record stating that if it was canceled for reasons to do with D, that is ok because nothing is more important that freeing himself from this utter horror story he is living. But again, people, based on the announcement, booked hotels and flights and if it was going to be canceled, which it is not, a line up has been announced, they have right to know with sufficient time to cancel plans.

Did you catch that? She admitted “I am the one who constantly tries to explain his actions and constantly tries to assert my opinion, that i am harassed and bullied for daily (you all truly have no idea), to try to make people understand he is a caught in a horrific nightmare and he is doing the best to fight his way out of it”. I mean that entire post is a complete narcissists wet dream. 

The other comments that came after about Chris and. Darren struggling was in response to justcantgetenoughcc’s comment and in defending Abby.  They tried to outdo one another with they drama.

[priceofporschecayenne-blog]

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[suga-kookiemonster]

I need some advice and maybe you can help my dilemma lol so I am absolutely dying to see BTS on this tour at MetLife Stadium and I'm tempted to shoot my shot getting a ticket when they go onsale. However literally no one knows that I like BTS nor do they even know who they are so that means I'd have to go by myself I guess... I'm 19 and it doesn't bother me but idk if it's a good idea or not😖 I just know this will probably be my last chance to see them ugh my internal struggle idk what to do

well! if you have the money to go…just go by your damn self lmao. i went to the love yourself tour by myself!! i ended up meeting someone there, but i bought my ticket by myself with the complete intention of showing up by myself and crying by myself where no one i knew could see me 🤣i gave zero shits, i just needed to see them, because i was positive that would be the only time i’d get to. and i had a fucking blast!! best concert i’ve ever been to.

so my advice is…if you want it, go for it. don’t worry about what other people think! and this goes for life, as well as bts concerts lol. go to restaurants by yourself! go to movies by yourself! there is nothing wrong with enjoying your own company 🤷🏽‍♀️

and in this scenario, you’re gonna be too busy freaking out to even notice you’re not with a friend lol

[someplace-that-is-else]

GOOD AFTERNOON, LIKERS!!!!

  I guess I'm doing too much.

I think more people who #read here know how much I believe #horoscopes. And when my own tells me to do something, I tend to either do it, or I grumble...and try my best to do it. Its sticking point this week? That it looked like I was doing a lot. However, it was a lot of nothing. Meaning? That I was starting, perhaps even getting to the middle of my projects. But that light at the end of the tunnel? Naaaaah!!! Forgetaboutit!!!!

Like I said in several posts, I had three different #projects that I was working on. HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES, CROSSOVER, and DARKENED SOUL: THE BREAKING OF CIRCLES. Of the #three methods of editing, writing, and typing, I found that I've been finding time to edit more than the other two. And that...was not good.

I had pushed back the next book in the DARKENED series to make the time to do other things. And now? Here I was finding it hard to just work on #one. Clearly, I was going to need to plan better.

  So while I think I will have other side projects to #work on in the foreseeable future...well because I'm my #sign heheh...I was going to just focus on one of my novels.

   And of course #promoting. I mean...after all, what was the point of me working on anything, if people did not know that my #books were out there. Speaking of which...DARKENED SOUL: WITCH'S ABYSS...is #onsale for 99 cents!!! Currently on Amazon. ;) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HRH2V5Z/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5

Let's see how this #new schedule worked out for me...

[chaos-and-recover]

Let’s all hug it out and not stress about  getting tickets tomorrow

Hi! I know we’re all hype as hell about My Chem being back and also anxious as fuck about the North American tour going on sale tomorrow, but let me tell you a few things, based on two decades of buying concert tickets and 14 years of selling them, including 4 at one of the arenas they’re playing on this tour.

1. There are no presales*, and that’s great for us.

Most tours these days have at least a fanclub presale, some have fanclub and LiveNation and Facebook and credit card restricted (think Amex Front-Of-The-Line or Citi card) like 4 different radio station presales. Each of these presales has an allotment of tickets, which takes away from what’s actually available by the public onsale. They also create more stress for us, and usually aren’t even all that exclusive if you know ANYTHING about the band (the passwords are so, so often just the name of the latest album or the name of their biggest song, try it for your favourite band next time, you’ll be surprised how often it works). But there aren’t any* for MCR! And that’s excellent! We’re looking at full capacities (minus various contractual holds) being available starting tomorrow.

*Not including PSL offers for certain season seat holders for whichever NHL or NBA team plays in that venue. Mine offers some premium season seat owners to purchase their seats for concerts ahead of the general public, but only premium seats, and only some, based on their season ticket contract and whether that’s grandfathered into it. 

2. It won’t sell out immediately. They’ll tell you it will. Don’t believe it.

Tomorrow, once you’re in Ticketmaster and have gone through the queue, you  might get a page that tells you there are no tickets available. Do not exit Ticketmaster. Refresh the page! Once you’re through the queue, you will actually have a certain number of re-directs you’re allowed before you’re kicked back into the line. No tickets available do not mean they’ve all sold, it means a) there’s a problem with the site (lol) or b) they’re all in other people’s carts. Not all of those people will complete their sales. Cards get rejected. People forget passwords (for the love of GOD log into your TM account before you do ANYTHING. Make sure your card info is up to date and that you have enough money on it. Save yourself the disappointment). Carts timeout and systems crash. Sucks for those people! Now their tickets are back out there for you.

The radio and news and social media is all gonna say “Sold out in 3 minutes!” This is a bold-faced lie. I recently bought tickets during a presale after spending about 5 minutes in the queue, completing my sale 10 minutes after the presale opened, and then hearing for DAYS about how the presale sold out in 90 seconds. Obviously the fuck it didn’t.

Speaking of the queue, I can only imagine you’re gonna get stuck in one tomorrow. If you don’t buy a lot of tickets or haven’t bought a ticket to a high-traffic show in a minute, you might not know what the queue is. It’s a virtual system for managing traffic to the Ticketmaster site so their servers aren’t overloaded. If you click Buy Tickets before noon, you’ll get sent to a virtual waiting room. At noon, the queue will open and you’ll be randomly assigned a place in line -- it literally doesn’t matter when you join the waiting room. You could get there at 11:59 and end up closer to the front of the line than someone who went on as soon as the waiting room opened (usually 1/2-1hr before on-sale). Don’t stress about it.

3. Don’t panic and fuck up your purchase

If you get tickets you want, you have like 10 minutes to complete your purchase. Doesn’t sound like a lot but, honestly, it is. Just go slow. Make sure you fill everything out properly. Better yet, if you have credit card information saved on your TM account, it’s even faster. Keep an eye on that lil clock in the corner, but take your time.

And don’t waste your money protecting your purchase, it’s almost impossible to get a refund through that if you can’t go, don’t bother. Just sell your tickets.

4. On that note, don’t buy third party

It’s possible that I’m wrong and it’ll sell out (or appear to sell out) in a matter of minutes. Don’t go running to Stubhub or Seatgeek or Viagogo or wherever else the kids are buying tickets these days. Your seats are not guaranteed. They aren’t ‘yours.’ You might get turned away at the venue because someone else came with the same tickets and already went inside, or the owner transferred them to someone else after you bought them and now yours aren’t valid. Usually, when you buy a concert ticket on a third party site, what you’re getting is a PDF that the original owner downloaded and then posted. They still have full control over the ticket and they can do that as many times as they want, or transfer it out of their account. Whoever’s name is on the account in the primary ticketing system is who owns that ticket. It won’t matter to the venue staff how much you spent or where you got it. If your name isn’t on the account they can see, they can’t help you.

You’re also gonna be paying exorbitant markups, and I very much do not recommend that. Every few years someone tries to find a way to keep scalpers from getting tickets, and it never works. The only way to stop ticket brokers and resellers is if people just stop fuckin buying from them. So don’t do it.

But if you must go third-party, insist that the seller transfers the ticket to you through Ticketmaster (or LiveNation). Do not buy from some rando on Facebook or whatever who won’t transfer it. On that note, be skeptical of randos on social media selling tickets because they “can’t go.” Check event pages for other dates, or other events in your area. I guarantee you’ll find the same names offering tickets for sale because they can’t go. Don’t buy from them.

Buy Verified Resale through Ticketmaster if you have to, but because then the ticket is transferred to you and you’re protected (you can still get turned away if the original account was flagged for fraud, but you’ll get your money back). You’ll still be paying absurd markups plus higher-than-normal Ticketmaster fees. Don’t let ‘em get you twice.

5. Be patient. “Sold out” never means sold out.

Here’s a tip that’ll come in handy for every show you go to for the rest of your life: We, as box office staff, can almost never use the phrase “sold out.” We’ll tell you there are no tickets available, but not that it’s sold out. Because it isn’t. So if you can’t get tickets tomorrow, or even just can’t get seats you’re happy with, don’t run to the third parties. Just relax, be patient, be happy for your friends who did get tickets, and then bide your time.

Tickets, sometimes entire sections worth of them, are held back from sale all the time. Some of those are for guest list, radio contests, promotions, and whatever else. If they’re not used, they’ll go up for sale, because why not get the butts in the seats? There are also production kills that are held back until the tour actually goes into production, sometimes right up until load-in when the roadies start building the set and then the promoter realizes, oh shit, that section right on the side there? It’s not actually blocked! It’s got a killer view! Let’s sell those seats! 

I’ve scored some of the best seats I’ve ever had at big shows the day before.

They’re always really conservative about what gets put up for sale because it’s easier to sell them later than to find relocations for seats you sold and then realized they’re obstructed (ask me about the nightmare that was Maroon 5′s last tour some time (:)

Artist tickets probably won’t get released until, like, an hour before gates open, and I’d be surprised if many shows had any left since everyone and their uncle will come crawling out of the woodwork asking for tickets, but you never know. 

tl;dr, don’t get too worked up over the on-sale tomorrow. Be patient. Be  calm. We’ll get through this together, and we’ll all be able to see My Chem without lining the pockets of rich-ass ticket brokers.

[5hfanfiction]

Come Back, Be Here- Chapter 52

“So you just left. Just like that?” Keana asks as she cooks her best friend some breakfast.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, Ke, but we need a break. She needs a chance to get her life together and find who she used to be. If I stayed in that apartment with Camila, well with the person she’s become, I’m worried it would have only led to a divorce.”

“I understand.” Keana nods her head as she transfers the scrambled eggs from the pan to a plate and then sets the plate in front of Lauren. “So when are you going back to Miami?”

“I’m not.” Lauren answers immediately. “I would never dream of leaving her in this city alone. I want to be here in case-“

“Something happens to her.” Keana finishes her sentence.

“Yeah. I have to be here in case she needs me.” Just as those words leave the brunette’s mouth, her phone rings and she looks down to see Camila’s picture on her screen. She sighs and sends the call to voicemail.

“That’s her needing you, Laur.” Keana nods her head in the direction of the phone.

“No, it’s her wanting to beg for my forgiveness and apologize for things she’s not willing to change about herself. If she really needed me, like emergency wise, I know she’d try to get in contact with you or Dinah, and then one of you would get in contact with me.” Lauren says as she picks up her fork and transfers some eggs from the plate in front of her to her mouth.

“In that case, you know you are welcome to stay here as long as you want and I won’t tell her you are here.” Keana says and Lauren nods as she swallows the mouthful of eggs.

“Thanks, Ke. I’ll pay rent I swear.” Lauren picks up her orange juice and takes a sip of it.

“Don’t bother” Keana waves her hand dismissively. “My roommate is studying abroad and she is paying half the rent. I just won’t tell her you are living here.”

The mention of studying abroad makes Lauren’s heart sink. That’s how she met Camila, the girl she thought she would never in a million years walk out on.

The girl she thought she would never in a million years catch doing drugs.

Lauren doesn’t notice that Keana had taken a seat beside her until she feels an arm wrap around her shoulders.

“It’s going to be okay, Lo. You two will get through this.” Keana promises as she guides Lauren’s head to her shoulder and places a quick kiss to the top of it.

“I hope so. I can’t live without her.” Lauren allows a sob to escape her lips and Keana just pulls her closer. She hates seeing her friend this broken.

Speaking of broken, Camila cannot seem to feel anything but complete and utter brokenness. When Lauren left, she laid on the floor of their apartment in a fetal position until the sun came up the next day. It was when the sunlight peaked through the blinds that she finally pulled herself up off the floor. However, she just moved to her bed and she didn’t leave it for a solid week. This past week has been the worst one of her life. She has not heard from Lauren and every single time she tries to call, she is sent straight to voicemail. She hasn’t eaten and she’s pretty sure her body is dehydrated from crying as much as she has.

Currently, it’s Friday, exactly a week since Lauren left her, and Camila is scouring through her purse in search of the drugs that caused Lauren to leave her in the first place. When her hands find the small vial of white powder, she immediately pulls it from her bag and empties all the contents into the toilet. Once the toilet is flushed, she keeps digging until her hands find the orange bottle containing a dozen or so blue Adderall pills. Deciding that she may need them in the future sometime to help her focus, she puts them up in her medicine cabinet instead of getting rid of them.

Once all the drugs are dealt with, she picks up her phone again and dials Lauren’s number. Three rings and then she hears Lauren’s voicemail. Truth be told, she keeps calling so she can listen to it. She remembers when she forced Lauren to make it. A small smile makes it’s way to her face when she hears it again.

Camila: You have reached Lauren’s phone, but she is busy right now.

Lauren: I’m actually not busy, I’m right here, wondering why on Earth I handed my phone to you in the first place.

Camila: You handed it to me because you love me and you trust me to give you a better voicemail than ‘please leave your name and number after the beep.’

Lauren: I do love you.

Camila: Anyways, there you have it people. Lauren can’t come to the phone because she’s too busy loving me. Not in the sexual type way of course. I mean loving me with her heart not her hands-

Lauren: Actually, we’re having sex so call back later!

Camila: LAUREN!

Beep.

When the brunette hears the beep, she ends the phone call and lets out a laugh that quickly turns into a sob. She cries until she physically cannot seem to produce anymore tears and then she drags herself from the bathroom to her bed. Camila has decided that she likes sleeping better than real life because for once in her life, her dreams are better than real life. When she had Lauren it was always the other way around, but now that the green-eyed girl has left her, the only time she gets to see her is in her dreams.

The only time she is happy now is in her dreams.

A couple of hours later she is awoken by the ringing of her phone. She blindly grabs it and answers it without looking at the caller ID.

“Lauren?” She rasps out, her voice laced with hope.

“Not Lauren, sweetie. It’s Eric.” Camila visibly deflates. “I know you are going through a rough time, but I just wanted to remind you that you have the concert tomorrow night. I expect you to be there and I expect you to be pulled together.”

“I’ll be there.” Camila informs him and then ends the phone call. His voice pisses her off more than anything. He is the reason she is even in this mess with Lauren.

She glances at the clock and realizes that it’s 9 pm so she decides to just go to sleep. Tomorrow is a new day and tomorrow she has to be Camila Cabello ,the pop-star who is in love with music and her career. She can’t be Camila Cabello-Jauregui, the girl who just lost the love of her life.

The next day is a whirlwind for Camila, she wakes up, gets dressed for the first time in a week, and heads to the Troubadour, the nightclub in LA, to rehearse for her gig tonight.

She sits down and makes out her setlist. She knows she wants to play her old songs that were on her first album, but she also talked Eric into letting her play her new ones too. When she’s finished typing the setlist, she prints it and tapes it on the stage for tonight.

1. Everything Has Changed

2. She Is Love

3. Love Incredible

4. How Would You Feel

5. Havana (New)

6. OMG (New)

7. Say You Won’t Let Go

8. Close To You (New)

Havana and OMG are two of Camila’s newest tracks. She recorded them a couple of weeks ago when she decided to start working on her second album. The last one, Close To You, is a song she wrote the day after Lauren left. She hasn’t played it for Eric or anyone else, but it’s her concert and she’s going to fucking sing it and they will get over it.

Meanwhile, Lauren and Keana are out having dinner at one of their favorite Chinese restaurants downtown.

“Are you going to go?” Keana finally speaks up, breaking the silence that has lingered between the two of them all night.

“Hmm?” Lauren finally looks up from the table and meets her friend’s worried gaze.

“I know you know what I’m talking about.” Keana presses.

Lauren lets out a heavy sigh. “If I see her the walls I’ve built up will crumble.”

“And that’s a bad thing why?” Keana leans her elbows on the table.

“Because we need time, Ke. She needs time to get better and find herself. If I just go running back into her arms like nothing happened, I’m worried nothing will be solved between us.” Lauren rubs her finger over the band on her left hand.

“But you’re miserable and you miss her.” Keana points out. “How about this, how about I go with you and we just stand in the very back, and I make sure you don’t do anything stupid like run on stage or try to go backstage to see her? She doesn’t have to know you were there, but I think it’ll make you feel better if you get to see that she alive and okay.”

Lauren checks her watch to see that it’s 6:00 pm and she knows the show starts at 7. Deciding that Keana is right, she quickly digs in her wallet and slaps a 20 dollar bill on the table.

“That’s my girl.” Keana beams as she slides out of the booth and follows Lauren out of the restaurant. They call an Uber and an hour later, they are standing in front of the concert venue.

“So you already had the tickets purchased?” Keana quirks an eyebrow when Lauren retrieves the two tickets from her jacket pocket.

“I bought them the minute they went onsale. I just didn’t know if I had the courage to actually come to the show.” The green-eyed girl confesses and Keana just nods. Once inside, they find a spot in the very back corner of the room close to the door. Since it’s general admission, they are able to stand wherever they want. When they get situated, the lights go off and the crowd goes crazy.

“Hello LA.“ Lauren hears her favorite husky voice echo through the room and her heart immediately starts hammering in her chest. "I must say, you are looking rather beautiful tonight.” Camila is wearing ripped skinny jeans and a yellow and purple Lakers jersey that is so big on her that it reaches to her knees. She’s also wearing some purple and yellow Nike High Top shoes to match her jersey and Lauren cannot take her eyes off her.

“Fuck your girl looks like a full course meal up there.” Keana whispers to Lauren. The green-eyed girl turns to her and raises an eyebrow at her friend. Keana just raises her hands in surrender. “What? It’s not like you weren’t thinking it.”

Before Lauren can reply, Camila’s voice fills her ears and she turns back toward the stage.

Her eyes do not leave Camila for one second. Lauren is absolutely mesmerized the entire concert. Camila is so good with the crowd and her voice sounds amazing. Before Lauren knows it, it’s the end of the concert and Camila is thanking the crowd for coming.

“LA, thank you so much for hanging with me tonight.” Camila’s voice breaks Lauren from her thoughts and the older brunette frowns when she realizes the concert is about to come to a close. “I have just one more song for you before I leave. I wrote it a couple of days ago and no one has heard it. Not even my manager.” She chuckles as she pulls up a stool and grabs her acoustic guitar. “It’s a song that means a whole lot to me. I hope that it’ll mean a whole lot to you too. It’s called Close To You.”

Nothing but a tear, that’s all for breakfast Watching you pretend you’re unaffected You’re pulling our connections, expecting me to let you go But I won’t

No you don’t need my protection But I’m in love, can’t blame me for checking I love in your direction, hoping that the message goes

Somewhere close to you Close to you Like so close if they heard you, you wouldn’t find out Just say now, I’m coming right now, to be close to you

Said you let it go, you kept it Working hard to perfect it Now your fear is reckless, and it’s out of your control Would you let it go?

No you don’t need my protection But I’m in love, can’t blame me for checking I love in your direction, hoping that the message goes

Somewhere close to you Close to you Like so close if they heard you, you wouldn’t find out If you let me, I’d be there by now Close to you

Camila strums the last chord on her guitar and looks out into the audience. As soon as she does, everyone claps loudly and cheers. She just smiles and blows them kiss after kiss before setting her guitar down by her stool. As her eyes are scanning the audience, she sees a brunette leaving the building, a brunette that looks almost identical to Lauren from behind. However, once the door to the club shuts, she just shrugs and blows one last kiss to the audience before exiting the stage.

It couldn’t have been her. She wouldn’t of come to my concert. Camila thinks as she high fives everyone backstage. It wasn’t Lauren. There’s no way it was Lauren. Right?

Camila spends the rest of the night trying to convince herself it was not her wife in the back of the audience at her show tonight.

Lauren, however, spends the rest of the night trying to convince herself that she did the right thing by letting Keana drag her out of the concert venue tonight before she could say anything to Camila after her set.

But they both spend all night, wide awake in their beds, thinking of the other.

[clodplaye]

The Best Day of My Life: September 23rd, 2017.

For those that care, read below:

On September 23rd, 2017, my 15 year dream became a reality.

I don’t think people understand and/or take me seriously when I say that this band changed my life.

Most people have seen a viral video of an autistic boy who was moved by Coldplay playing “Fix You” live. Ladies and gentlemen, that was me when I was 5 years old (hence the “15 year dream.” I’m currently 20 years old). When I was 5, A Rush of Blood to the Head was released (2002). I first heard “Clocks” on the radio on the way to kindergarten/elementary school. Like my fellow autistic in that viral video, I too, was moved by the ambience of Coldplay. Ever since, Coldplay has literally been the only music I listen to (well, except Adam Young AKA Owl City, but that’s a different story..).

If it weren’t for Coldplay, I would not be a singer-songwriter. Why do you think most of my covers are of Coldplay? My voice was shaped by Chris Martin’s unique and identifiable vocals. (Most) autistics have what’s known as “echolalia.” You know how parrots repeat stuff back that humans say? That’s what echolalia is. That’s how I learned how to sing: I mimicked Chris’ voice. All of their songs give me inspiration in one way or another as well. There is no band like Coldplay, and that’s why they’re the biggest band in the world.

For 15 years, I listened to every new song that came out; as soon as it came out. I remember in middle school, my best friend and I were freaking out over Mylo Xyloto. When I heard Coldplay were coming to Seattle back then, I was already crying. My dreams were crushed when my mom said, “You have school the next day.” I was 14. My 8th grade year and life were ruined in an instant.

Then I heard about Ghost Stories, but also heard about how small the tour was. I didn’t get my hopes up anyways, because Ghost Stories was actually my least favorite album. I thought for sure that it would be the last album Coldplay would ever release…

of course, I was wrong.

When I heard about A Head Full of Dreams, I was over the moon. I was so hopeful that this tour was going to be huge. Besides, Coldplay themselves said it might be their last album. When they announced the first leg of the American tour, I was extremely sad to see that Seattle or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest weren’t included. I had a feeling that they’d be back, but I honestly thought it wouldn’t happen…

but in October of 2016, that announcement was real.

I saw it. In that quick few seconds of that announcement video, I saw the abbreviation, “WA,” of course meaning Washington State.

I dropped my phone. My dreams weren’t shattered after all. From that moment, I swore that I was going to get those tickets to see the men that “ruined” and saved my life.

As soon as those tickets went onsale, I was ready. At first, I was only getting seats off the floor, “What? Why is this happening?? Why can’t I choose my seat?!?!” My mom knew how big of a fan I was, and I started bawling to her. “Calm down, Sweetheart. You’ll get those tickets, and we’ll do whatever it takes.” This was the woman that got mad when I told her that I wanted to be adopted by Chris Martin when I was 8 years old… anyways, I did calm down, and I tried using a different browser. By some stroke of luck… I got those tickets by the B-stage, and you better believe I bought them as fast as I could.

I cried I bawled. I just lost it. The concert was over a year away, but I was so ready to see my idols.

————————————————————————————————–

That day finally arrived on that beautiful day in September of 2017. I couldn’t believe that nearly a year flew by.

The day started off with waking up at 11:00am and taking over an hour to put all of my stuff together. I then met up with my friend and we got a few snacks before heading to the stadium.

We arrived at CenturyLink about an hour prior to them opening the gates. We were the second ones in line, too! As soon as those gates opened, we received our Xylobands and love buttons. I was already feeling the love from Coldplay and their entire team. Then, after buying some merchandise, we finally walked onto the field.

Now, I should also mention that the Seahawks also play at CenturyLink, and my family have been season ticket holders; also since 2002. I have never in my life walked onto that field before. So when I stepped onto that field… I nearly fainted.

Not only did the Seahawks (my other idols) play here, but the stage that I’d only seen in pictures for 2 years… was right in front of us. Just… right in front of us. Tears literally streamed down my face. My friend didn’t judge me at all, but I knew I was a hot mess. I had no idea if I was going to make it through the whole show (literally).

I then found our seats, and of course, we took a few pictures. I didn’t actually realize that we were only about 10 feet away from the B-stage. I thought for sure we’d be further away. Yep, I also flipped out then.

Alina Baraz was fantastic. I don’t usually like opening acts, but Alina did such an amazing job. Her voice and her stage presence were very soothing. Dare I say she was actually better than Tove Lo (in my opinion). Then again… I’m not really a big fan of Tove Lo. Sure, she’s got a great voice, but as an asexual (a sex-repulsed asexual), her music makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I found myself shaking my head during some of her songs.

Okay, and now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

BOI WHEN THAT INTRO STARTED, I WAS SHOOKETH.

This was the only part of the show that I’d actually seen before-hand. I knew Chris was going to run down to the B-stage and do that flying thing he always does during the bridge of “A Head Full of Dreams,” but I still wasn’t prepared. I was already bawling again. I couldn’t believe it was him. I couldn’t believe it was Coldplay. I couldn’t believe they were in my city.

Throughout the show, Chris kept mentioning how much he loved Seattle. He mentioned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden, and how he would try to do ‘em justice (which of course he did). That small tribute to Chris Cornell also made me tear up. Soundgarden was another band I grew up with. Chris also mentioned that the first show they ever played in the United States was at The Showbox in Seattle. I had to look it up, but it’s true. I couldn’t believe it. I was only 4 when they played there, but it was still awesome to hear. When the whole band moved to the B-stage, I held up the front of my sign. For those that don’t know, the front of my sign said, “After 15 years of waiting… [My] Head Full of Dreams came true today (Coldplayer since 2002). #believeinlove”  I believe Jonny saw my sign, because he looooked in myyyyy direction (sorry…), and he went from being serious to being extremely happy (nearly laughing)! That made me feel so good. At least one of the members saw my sign. I’m pretty sure Chris saw it too, but it was too far away for him to read at the time. He squinted trying to read it, but yeah… I think he noticed it. Doesn’t matter if he did or not though, I (somewhat) hope that Coldplay discovers my account… one day… maybe they already have… Also, before the show, a person working for the event came up to my friend and I and said, “The band is going to walk right by your seats to the C-stage later tonight. Get your phones ready!” He was really nice the whole night. The other security people… not so much. When that moment finally came during the show, I was right in front of the tape they put out for the band so they had a clear path to the C-Stage. I nearly touched Chris, but was still 3 feet away from him. My arms weren’t long enough. I still bawled like a freaking child, though. Finally, Chris said the following dialogue on the C-stage:

“So… when we were just off-stage a second ago, Will said, ‘The reason why this audience is so good is because they’re called, ‘The 12th Man.’’ Is that correct?” *audience fucking cheers loud af* “No wonder your football team is so fucking good because they got you on their side, so that’s amazing! Ah… I wish we could take you everywhere…” I fucking died when he said that.

Meanwhile, the concert went by lightening fast. When they started playing “Up&Up,” I couldn’t believe it was already over. I didn’t even cry; I was in shock.

I never understood why some people on here wrote really long, sappy posts about the show. Now I do.

From now on, I am reading every new post about the show from someone else’s experience. Now I understand why people share their experience. We all know that this band is what brought a lot of us, and the world together, but I never knew how big of an impact they made on other people.

I said this already, and I’ll say it again. I’m sorry to my future (adopted) children, but that night was the best fucking night of my life, and it will always be. I can’t even explain how I felt during that show. If you haven’t seen Coldplay live, you need to. It will change your life. That was the most “Fun” (which, they didn’t play live??) I’ve ever had in my whole life. Seeing the men that I’ve looked up to since I was a little kid… how do you even come close to explaining that?

Chris: “… I hope we’ll always come back as long as you want us to; whether it’s The Showbox or CenturyLink!”

I sincerely hope so. Chris, Jonny, Guy, Will, Phil, and the rest of the team: from the bottom of my heart, thank you. You gave me a show and a night that I will never forget. Those 15 years of waiting were certainly worth it. “See You Soon”… -PJ (AKA Clodplaye; that chick that makes fun of you in the best way possible)

PS: HIGHLIGHTS (TL;DR)

Chris didn’t fuck up during the concert

Chris said that their first show in the US was at The Showbox in Seattle (I know exactly where that is, and I freaked)

Chris sang a tribute to Chris Cornell (Soundgarden; formed in Seattle) at the end of “The Scientist” (”Black Hole Sun”)

Chris: “Pearl Jam forever. Nirvana forever. Soundgarden forever,” and also said (somewhere) at the beginning of the show that he hope(d) Coldplay would “do ‘em justice” (they did in my opinion) 

“And this time, I’m gonna say, ‘JUMP’, let’s really fucking jump!!!!” ~Chris Martin

The band praising “The 12th Man” (now known as “The 12s,” actually), and how loud and amazing we were (I would know, I’ve been going to every Seahawks home game since I was 5 years old as well)

Coldplay didn’t play my request song. They played “Us Against the World” (another request from Instagram) because of the live album! Chris said: “Now listen, I know some of you are superfans, and you probably say, 'You know, they keep getting the same song requested,’” *laughs* “and you’re right, you’ve called us out! We’re making this live album, and uh… we wanna put this song on it-” *bangs tooth on microphone* “…is there a great dentist in the room? Anyway, …because we feel like we never quite got it right on record. …this evening, we’re gonna try another take… maybe with Seattle and the 12th man… with a banged up tooth, maybe we can capture the right performance tonight with all of you, that would be wonderful. Thank you for letting us keep requesting the same song.” It finally made sense, and I was nodding in agreement when Chris said the superfan part. LOL… I’m still salty that “42” wasn’t played, though…

WILL SANG “DON’T PANIC” INSTEAD OF CHRIS AND/OR JONNY

I left my icon picture on my chair (my reputation is out the window already, what the hell)

They didn’t play “Fun” live...

A PSA that I fucking died and had an out-of-body experience that night

[joyffree]

➜ #SeriesTour #Giveaway Love in the Suburbs by D.E. Haggerty Genre: Romantic Comedy

*About Face* My grandma is trying to hook me up. To be painfully specific, my seventy-five-year-old grandmother thinks a little hanky-panky would cheer me up. Direct quote. Since I’m currently living with her, I can’t escape the endless line of grandchildren of friends who keep ‘dropping by’ for dinner. Literally, I can’t escape. I can barely manage the trek to the dining room at this point.

*At Arm's Length* Jackson Schmidt is the biggest jerkity jerk ever. They should totally erect a statue to commemorate his jerkityness, jerkdom— Uggh! There are literally not enough words for ‘jerk’ to depict the man. Unfortunately, Jackson is also the most gorgeous specimen of manhood I’ve ever laid eyes on. One look at him and I want to jump and climb him like a tree. But whenever he opens his mouth, his status as the biggest bastard on the planet is immediately reinstated. It’s impossible for the man to say anything remotely nice – at least not to me. To my best friend, though? To her, he’s Mr. Perfect Gentleman. Did I mention he’s carrying a torch for my engaged best friend?

*Hands Off * I don’t care how much billionaire Roman Cadwell pushes (and, oh boy, does the sexy man push ALL my buttons), I am not dating him. Especially not when he’s wearing a golden band around his ring finger. I do not get involved with married men. Call it my line in the sand. If a man can’t be faithful, I want not one single thing to do with him.

#Win #Amazon #BookTour #Giveaway #BookBoost #Contemporary #Romantic #Comedy #LoveInTheSuburbs #onsale #99cents #kindleunlimited @dehaggerty A Wonderful 🌍 of Words

[shirlleycoyle]

Ticketmaster’s Anti-Scalping Technology Actually Helps Scalpers, Not Fans

Presale tickets for Harry Styles’ world tour went on sale Monday morning, and #Ticketmaster is currently trending on Twitter for exactly the reason you’d think: The onsale was a complete shitshow, as big-ticket concert and sports ticket onsales have been for the last two decades.

Now, fans are upset, scalpers got tons of tickets, and everyone is mad.

This is a familiar story for Ticketmaster. An "onsale" is when people try to buy tickets for an event the moment they go on sale. It usually happens at 10 a.m. local time. For big artists, this means thousands and thousands of people trying to buy tickets at the same time. This often results in Ticketmaster's servers breaking, and the show completely selling out within seconds or minutes. Thus, "onsales" are the only time it's even possible to buy tickets for lots of artists.

On one hand, Ticketmaster is in a difficult position: There are far more people trying to buy tickets for artists like Harry Styles than there are actual tickets available. On the other hand, Ticketmaster keeps breaking its onsale system in new and exotic ways. It has been selling tickets online since 1996 and, if anything, it has gotten harder for fans to buy tickets when they go on sale, not easier.

Despite Ticketmaster repeatedly saying it cares about fans and hates bots and scalpers, there is little reason to believe this is actually the case. All of its changes to ticket onsales actually benefit scalpers (for a lot of different reasons), and there is simply no reason to believe that Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, even remotely cares about fans. Earlier this year, Live Nation’s president of U.S. concerts Bob Roux was caught directly transferring nearly 90,000 Metallica tickets to the secondary market.

A few years ago, I wrote a feature about Ken Lowson, a ticket scalper who for nearly a decade broke Ticketmaster’s online ticketing systems and was able to vacuum up hundreds of thousands of the best tickets for the most sought after events. In one case, Lowson’s company, Wiseguys Tickets, was able to buy 496 of 500 tickets that were made available during a presale for a U2 concert in New York City.

At the time, Ticketmaster told me that, today, fans can’t buy tickets to shows for major artists because "there are more people who want to go to a show than there are tickets available.”

"For example the 2015 Adele onsale, there were about 10 million people lining up to get tickets and we only had a little over 400,000 tickets. There's a big difference there and we're sensitive to the emotions behind these on sales for passionate fans,” a spokesperson for the company said at the time.

That’s understandable. What is not understandable is that Ticketmaster’s website, apps, and servers continue to crash under the weight of people trying to buy tickets for high profile events, which causes mass confusion, anger, and heartbreak. The company has been doing this for nearly 25 years and still has not figured out how to handle an influx of people pinging its servers during a hot onsale.

A bigger problem, however, is that Ticketmaster is also constantly tweaking how its onsales work: Gone are the days where you merely refresh the page, type in a presale code, click “best available,” enter a captcha, and hope for the best.

Now, Ticketmaster has “waiting rooms” that only allow a certain number of people to buy tickets at once. It also attempts to verify that its users are real people by requiring that they give the company their phone number and enter a verification code sent via SMS, and it only allows each user account to wait in one waiting room at a time.

When a user gets through the waiting room, they are greeted with a buggy and complicated seat map, where you can select specific seats rather than the “best available.” When hundreds of thousands of people are trying to buy tickets at once, this means that the tickets you select might already be spoken for.

There are many places where this process can error out: During the waiting room process, during the ticket selection process, and during the payment process. When I was trying to buy Harry Styles tickets for my sister this morning, I got errored out during both the waiting room process and the payment process. I didn't get any tickets.

For four years during college, I bought and scalped tickets on the side. I didn’t use bots and I wasn’t good at it. I ultimately lost a lot of money. But I did learn quite a lot about the ticket scalping industry. And I learned enough to know that the “anti-scalper” strategies Ticketmaster has deployed in recent years benefits scalpers, not fans.

It is the full-time job of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world to buy tickets during hectic Ticketmaster onsales and sell them at jacked-up prices. When Ticketmaster tweaks how sales work, scalpers have lots of time and incentive to learn how to optimize for its new systems and to circumvent its anti-scalper tech. By making onsales more complicated, Ticketmaster is hurting average fans who buy tickets using the site only a couple times a year and helping the people who buy tickets every single day, in dozens of different onsales.

There are easy ways to circumvent every new hurdle Ticketmaster has, each of which you are more likely to do if buying tickets is your full-time job:

SMS user verification can be circumvented by creating multiple (or dozens, or hundreds, or thousands) of cell phone numbers using either Google Voice or pay-as-you-go burner phones.

It’s easy to create dozens or hundreds of accounts to allow you to wait in a bunch of different waiting rooms at once, giving you many more bites at the apple. This is something that makes sense for a scalper to do, not a regular fan.

“Fan” presales are not really for fans at all—every serious scalper joins fan clubs and is willing to pay for fan club memberships because they can make money doing so.

Credit card presales benefit scalpers, too, because every scalper has many, many credit cards. This is because having more credit cards makes it easier to circumvent Ticketmaster's ticket limits, but also because ticket scalping requires putting down a lot of money, which is easier on a credit card and scalpers are also obsessed with credit card miles.

The end result in this case is that, while an actual Harry Styles fan has just one chance to buy tickets, which is completely ruined if they run into an error, the average scalper can have dozens of chances to buy tickets. If one transaction errors out, they can have many more browsers and accounts and can simply try again.

Ticketmaster’s Anti-Scalping Technology Actually Helps Scalpers, Not Fans syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[sheeran-usa]

Ticketmaster has slowly been rolling out its bot/scalper beating Verified Fan initiative over the past six months. But when tickets for Ed Sheeran’s massive U.S. arena tour went on sale earlier this month, VF got its biggest test to date. (see related story in Venues Today March magazine). And, to hear Haley McCollister of Messina Touring Group tell it, the results so far are pretty impressive. “We are very happy with our experience with the Verified Fan presale,” she said. “Combating the secondary market has always been really important to Ed and his team. Getting tickets into the hands of his true fans at a fair price (the price we set) has always been a top priority for him. It's incredibly disheartening to see so many postings on the secondary market for tickets significantly higher than face value.” Because of the rabid nature of Sheeran’s fanbase, and the sheer volume of tickets that were going on sale for the 60-date tour, both TM and MTG put a premium on making sure bots and scalpers were kept out, with McCollister noting that TM went “above and beyond" to offer support for the onsale. “The biggest advantage the program offers is the ability to prescrub your presale list,” she said. “After spending a lot of time with TM learning about the program, I feel confident we were able to get codes to the real fans.” Verified Fan uses TM’s technology platform and considerable live event database to help fans get the best chance at tickets beginning when an artist announces a tour. That notice directs fans to a responsive registration page where they identify that they are a real person by providing information such as an email address, phone number or Ticketmaster account before selecting the shows they want to attend. The pleasant problem McCollister pointed to was that there were so many registrations there just wasn’t enough inventory to accommodate everyone who wanted tickets. Given that shortfall, she said TM suggested MTG go a step further and offer their stock of canceled tickets to the verified fans. “We have always scrubbed our accounts once sales are completed (for over the limit offenders and known brokers), but in the past, our only real option was to sell the inventory back to the general public — which ultimately could give those same brokers a chance to purchase them again,” she said. “This is the first time we were able to sell any canceled tickets to true fans by offering them to our existing registered Verified Fans. We were even able to exclude those who were able to secure tickets during the presale — giving fans who didn't have tickets yet a better chance at getting them.” She said MTG canceled more than 50,000 tickets during their scrub, and by the time sales are completed — an additional 11 shows do not go on sale until Friday (March 24) — she estimated that they will have sold over 350,000 tickets to verified fans. “I think VF is a great option for artists like Ed,” McCollister said. “True fans shouldn't have to compete against brokers and bots. VF gives fans an opportunity to identify themselves and a chance to purchase tickets. In our case, we were able to give them the first crack at tickets during the presale process and the first chance to purchase any tickets we canceled.” Via | www.venuestoday.com (This is actually super amazing and I'm so happy that Ed and his team take this issue so seriously!)

[bassnectarofficial]

BUTTERFLY BEINGS OF BASSNECTAR: LEA GIAMMARVA

How did you discover Bassnectar? 

You know, the exact origin of my Bassnectar discovery still escapes me. I do know I was a sophomore in high school using Limewire and Myspace to expand my music collection. My guilty pleasure was always electronic music and somewhere along the way I found Bassnectar's Underground Communication and The Glitch Mob's Crush Mode, both of which were very important to me over the next few years. I have a very distinct memory of blasting Verbing the Noun and Ridiculous Wobble through my headphones during lunch and shuffling down the hallway. Ohhhh, little did I know what was in store over the next ten years…. 

What is your favorite Bassnectar memory?

So flash forward to the fall after my high school graduation, my best friends and I all bought tickets to see Bassnectar at the Limelight in Nashville, TN. We all drove up from Atlanta blasting his IDJ, BBC, and KISS FM mixtapes the whole way. The small local venue ended up being 4x over capacity (not sure on this exact info but it is what I have gathered from others who were there and comments on youtube videos, lol) so they moved his stage outside to the parking lot to fit the crowd. Side note: crazy to see him go from selling out this little venue to selling out Bridgestone Arena which was just a hop and a skip away, even more of a drastic change for the people who saw him earlier than 2010. This was my first live electronic music experience, so of course it has a soft spot in my heart as is, but the fact that it was Bassnectar really took it up to a whole new level. We danced all night and ended up finding a campsite on the water where we could rest our eyes. So obviously, this is my most prized Bassnectar memory, although each new show continues to add meaning to the madness.

How has being a part of the Bassnectar community impacted your life?

Phew, in one word: monumentally. Profoundly. The Bassnectar community totally changed my whole world, as I know it did for a LOT of us. I obviously to this day am still best friends with most of those who were with me that first night! The countless other friends I have crossed paths with over the years and friends I made through BNF in the early days .. Its just so much to take in some times. It really is impossible to measure the amount of love that has been shared and spread through one man's epic brainchild. It is infinite, endless. I will never forget how BNF rallied behind me after I expressed I needed help. I was so moved, and that was just the beginning of happy tears that would flow down my cheeks. I am so proud of what the BN community gives to not only me, but every single person who decides to explore what "Bassnectar" is all about.

Tell us about an accomplishment that you are most proud of.

Well well well… I'm gonna go big and state the obvious here to most people who know me. So long story short, I was riding as a passenger in a friends car when we got into a serious wreck, flipping the car multiple times. I was wearing a seat belt, doing nothing wrong, but came out with a broken neck among other serious injuries and to this day 5 years later am still paralyzed from the chest down. About a month after the wreck the first "Bass Lights" was happening a few miles from where I lived. I had bought my tickets the day they went onsale (by then I was prepared for nectar tickets to be snatched up within minutes) and was BEYOND crushed that I was not stable enough to make it. I tried so hard to get stronger and be able to not have complications so I could somehow, someway, be escorted there. But there was just no way, I was still very fresh and had a ton of issues with my recovery like having very impaired movement in my hands and arms… not even able to hold a pencil. But flash forward to now.. I've garnered 23 Bassnectar shows alone post-injury, with only 6 being before. I have exceeded my own expectations with my independence and ability to move forward from this. I've created a huge surge of empathy and mindfulness in the community I think, and have impacted tons of people just from showing up and being present. I've shown strangers (who have become friends) who deal with their own physical or mental, sometimes both, obstacles that we can press on and still have an incredible social life and concert experience. I volunteer at the hospital where I did many months of rehabilitation to talk to the kids there about how life will always continue on with or without you, and that it is important to find your own slice of heaven again after a serious and debilitating injury.

What social issues are important to you and why?

Well, I'll start this by saying I am a HUGE Bernie fan. I believe that a healthy and happy society is necessary for a country to truly thrive. My main concern though is inclusivity. I have personally experienced both unintentional and intentional discrimination solely because I am "handicap" and have different needs than able bodied people. I have been brought to tears an unacceptable amount of times over this issue, and I wish there were more allies for the "disabled" in modern day society. I therefore feel such a incredible amount of empathy for any and every marginalized group that is dealing with prejudice at this day in age. The thing about the "disabled" is it is the only minority group that is accepting new members daily. The only minority group that does not care about your age, your race, your class, sexual orientation, nada. It will accept anyone. That fact alone is something that inspires me that every day more people are realizing that accessibility in every sense is a huge issue that needs to be looked at more intently. I believe the future, the revolution, will be inclusive, open-minded, and ready and willing to raise up those who cannot fight on their own.