#it’s the same thing with concert tickets and the insane prices every year | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

iloveuchuu · 5 months

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I love BP dearly but when I tell you I’d never have paid for a born pink ticket I meant it. And a lot of blinks took some people criticizing the show as hate but is a valid criticism specially if you spent money for that. The tickets were super expensive (significantly more expensive than a ticket to see bts, who love or hate them always put on a great performance). I feel like the girls didn’t feel energetic or motivated during the tour and i am a firm believer they weren’t ready for a tour this big and YG just keep on adding dates despite the exhaustion to beat bts’ record and media-play with it and in case the renewal negotiations went down the drain and this could be their last BP tour.

And it wasn’t even just a bad performance one time. It was consistently bad all around. And the whole Jennie controversy I am going to be real — Jennie only puts effort when she likes the audience. Is that unprofessional? Idk. Maybe she just gives the energy the audience gives her. Lisa does consistently well but there’s not much she can do alone because the choreographies requieres an energy and a synchronization they severely lacked during tour. All the media outlets that went to review the show said the exact same thing. It’s not some racist and bigotry statements. The problem with blinks is that they take every criticism as hate and eat up every content even if it’s bad. This is why YG doesn’t put any effort in the material. They know fans will love it because they waited for so long and any content is better than not content.

👏🏻👏🏻 absolutely!!!!

I was a BLINK from debut up until just before Love Sick Girls where I became a much more casual listener and eventually fell off from following the girls much. Which is why it’s always funny to be labeled a hater by other BLINKs when we critique the group or the company. The fan mindset of “you have to love everything or nothing” is so toxic and at the end of the day really does negatively impact the quality of the music and fandom. I think if anyone should be free to express opinions and valid criticism it’s fellow BLINKs lmao

And exactly; the ticket prices were insane. I remember looking to see if I could afford cheaper seats and even those were priced so high. I was thankful that I ended up not going because of the quality of the concert performances but I do truly feel bad for the fans who spent that much money for what they got. You bring up such a good point about it feeling rushed for the sake of “outdoing”BTS; this is a phenomena I’ve noticed a LOT of over the last few years with many groups but YG especially with the girls.

Your last sentence is similar to my post about their album and basically sums up my feelings on the outcome of the tour too:

“YG and Teddy are relying on the popularity of the girls and the solid fan base to support the album (and it’s working). And while there’s nothing wrong with supporting the girls or liking the music on the album (if you do I’m happy for you, genuinely), I do think it’s unfair and lazy to the girls themselves and the fans to not put effort into the product.”

Why should fans settle for mediocre performances, songs, and experiences just because they want to support BP when the company who owns them are rich and capable? We shouldn’t be settling. I was talking with a friend about how much Blackpink would KILLLLLLL concept like "Cool Hot Sweet Love" by Red Velvet where Jennie could do a slower and more sultry rap, Jisoo and Rose could sing in their lower registers, it would be a more "mature/elegant" style. Or even a concept like After School's Bang could be SO COOL from Blackpink.

As for Jennie I always want to stress I sympathize with the fact that she may have some health issues, as someone who has a disability that comes with chronic fatigue and pain I understand. HOWEVER: The excuses I’ve seen ranging from “it’s her shoes” to “she was never trained properly” (quotes from her) to “she’s allowed to have a bad day” (from fans) are very telling when the same people excusing her (sometimes) lack of effort are also dragging other idols for their bad days.

I have seen how she performs for Western audiences in the same outfits that she claims are too hard for her to perform in poorly for Korean audiences, and that’s veryyyyyyy unprofessional to me.

And this is not me saying Jennie isn't talented or that she's horrible and the devil incarnate LMAO; I'm speaking purely from two places-

a former BLINK and a KPOP fan of over 13 years who has seen idols be professional even if they don't like the material/audience.

All this to say: The girls have talent, YG once again loves to mismanage a group once they bring in money despite the group having so much more potential, and I think it's reasonable for fans to be pissed about low quality and low energy concerts when they're spending upwards (and over) $200 for a ticket.

#blackpink critical #discourse #discussions #kpop critical #asks #again anon I LOVE having these conversations thank you for sending asks!! I don't usually get any so this has been really cool!

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bxllafanficc · 3 years

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¡Skate/sing your hearts out! (Yuri Plisetsky x reader)

(part seven)

Part one. Masterlist!

Summary: After last year's cancellation of Figure Skating Grand Prix, Yuri Plisetsky finds himself unable to bring out his inner skater after a year of doing nothing but enjoy life like a regular teenager. That's when you enter the picture; We Are Voice Grand Awards's currently hottest competitive vocalist come first place two years in a row. Just like the other competitors of Grand Prix, it turns out that Victor and Yuuri faces the same issue. With an arrangement between Victor and Yakov, they agree to travel to Japan and hire you as a mutual coach for Yuri and Yuuri to help bring back the emotion into their performances like before, maybe even more intense than ever. Yuri however, who's never experienced issues with his coaches before, for some reason finds this one particularly difficult to coexist along with in their (reasonably) odd partnership. Warnings: none

*Yuri's POV*

(Next week)

A week had passed by in a rather slow pace. Yuri's recovery seemed to never end when it had just been a few days. But those days were spent sleeping and eating, using his phone and sleeping some more. Mostly he had no one to talk to since everyone were busy with their own lives. Especially (Y/n) who had to keep her inner performer alive at all times. Her coach came with the idea of hosting a smaller gig where (Y/n) would perform about two or three numbers for the people of Japan. It was planned out as a small nightclub gig at first but the numbers of interested in Japan rose over the charts and well... (Y/n) said that she didn't want to let anyone down. Though her coach was apparently hesitant into taking more than a hundred people. 'Three numbers are too little for a concert.' They said but the people of Japan insisted on paying for the price a concert ticket anyway.

(Y/n) had told him this two days after his fever started. He remembered it made him scoff at how she decided the ticket would only cost a quarter of what a normal concert ticket would then. He had told her it was a ridiculous way of thinking.

He barely saw her after the first day of his fever. The way Yuri had taken a hold of her hand and fallen asleep... She waited until he woke up. Well, not exactly waited. She fell asleep at the edge of his bed.

And since that, the two of you barely talked during the days. They barely even met before she went to bed because she spent every waking hour to practice her numbers with her backup dancers. She still made you breakfast when she head the time though.

Yuri's glad it would soon be over and he could go back to normal. Everyone had been attending to him like he was some child and he felt like a huge burden. He had told Victor that he wished (Y/n) especially wouldn't just dismiss his attempts at doing things on his own just because he couldn't get out of bed with single effort. 'Right, she told me about that! You fell on your face right after while trying, didn't you?' He had replied.

So... yeah... Yuri wanted things to return to normal real fast. Yakov had promised him that he would get to start his session with (Y/n) as soon as the music for the program was set. And that was what Victor had been helping him with a couple times. It was hard to find something he wanted to use. Everything felt overused and boring. Just another performance. Yuri didn't want it to pass as that. He wanted to stand out and earn his gold medal for real just as last year. Now was also really the year of improvement so the music had to be well thought through. He was certainly going to take advantage of having a coach for emotional performances with him this season as well. Meaning, his free skate program was already set to be something hurtful and strong. Not love, he already did that. Something far more serious. He wanted the audience to cry after his performance. Everyone should be bawling. Yakov, piglet, Victor and even (Y/n).

Most important of all, no one would be expecting him to do a program with such deep meaning. Because he was one to avoid it in the past.

His short program should be something upbeat and flashy. He wanted the choreography so intense that he'd be coughing up blood at the end of the performance, if that was possible. So the music had to make the pulse of the audience rise when hearing it. Meaning, the music would be in the rock genre. And he already had just the song for it.

This performance would show off his skills and flexibility as well as the importance of his stamina since the entire program would be non-stop step sequences and jumps throughout almost the entire music. Since he intended to be in better shape than ever before before the competition started, he felt no point in holding back on anything. If he played it safe, then what was the point?

"Ah! Good morning Yuri! I come bearing gifts!" Victor busted the door open with his foot and stumbled inside the room, balancing a tray in his hand. The tray was set down in front of him and Victor sat down at the end of Yuri's bed.

"Where's (Y/n)?" Yuri was truly surprised to see Victor being the one to bring you the breakfast today. It had been her until now. And he hadn't even seen as much as her face today since she left so early.

"Ouch. I'm replaced already? I can't go on knowing I'm not your favorite anymore, you know." Victor put a dramatic hand to his forehead and fell backwards onto Yuri's legs. The tray with the breakfast threatened to tumble and Yuri made an effort to stabilize it. It was bacon and eggs with apple slices. A part of him felt a little sad that the slices weren't in the shape of stars...

"You were never my favorite, old man. And you didn't answer my question." Yuri picked up the fork and pointed it towards the man slopped unto the bed end. He ignored the sad pout he received and took a bite of the apple cut into pieces. Each slice were to large and it didn't even taste the same even though they were of the same apples like yesterday. The eggs were decent and the bacon slightly undercooked. Victor's efforts to cook for the household during the day were appreciated of course. But there was no wonder why (Y/n) stood for the head of the dinner at days when her schedule wasn't as crazy.

"She's practicing like mad. Called her dancers to say that she would be starting a few hours ahead of time because she got an energy boost. She wants the show to be at her best efforts possible."

"I haven't even seen her today. How can she practice like a maniac when she's probably already learned her numbers flawlessly?"

Victor was watching Yuri with a funny look. Probably wondering where all those questions came from.

"I think the show is a way for her to relax."

Say what? Going out of bed before sunrise and coming back from practice just mere hours before midnight could never be considered relaxation. Yuri would never be able to pull that off. That was an insane view of the word relaxing, definitely.

"The steam and demands from her competition in We are voice are currently lifted off her shoulders like heavy weights, you know. This is probably just fun to her. She doesn't have to compete with anyone. I think it gives her a sense of relief."

Yuri stopped eating and thought a little extra on what Victor said.

Yes. She was always stressed in every video where a fan or a nosy reporter came out of nowhere and started recording. Yuri had seen those videos. Especially the one where the random person happened to record the exact moment her mind broke down and she had a breakdown in front of a large crowd. Now there was no denying that Yuri sees (Y/n) as the most weirdest and ridiculous being alive. The way she is so determined to get her way and how much she cares for strangers she's never met. Yuri kind of still consider the two of them to be strangers, even after two weeks being with each other on a daily basis. Her eyes are also too intense for anyone to be up close with to her face and as if that wasn't enough, she's also a morning person and that's already a big warning sign to stay away from a person.

But even though he had had this mental conversation with him many times. Even though he agreed that he disliked her; he couldn't help but being captivated by her performances.

It felt so weird seeing her cry like that just minutes before her performance and then watching her going on stage having the time of her life. There was no doubt she loved her fans and performing on stage but that was one of those moments where Yuri really got to see the mind behind the happy smile. It was the first time he had seen her crying or feeling a negative emotion. It's still the first but he got a taste of her irritated self not so long ago.

It made Yuri think about her performance that day. It was a remarkable song filled with sheerness and excitement and her eyes were still wet with tears as she got up on stage.

"Remember (Y/n) performing 'Animal' during the acappella collaboration sequence?"

"Yes! One of my favorites. She was so happy on stage that day." While it had been true that she found happiness, it's not to ignore how broken she felt right before. 'Animal' by Neon Trees (A/N: listen to the Glee version of the song for the best acapella dynamic!) Was one of (Y/n)'s best performances, according to Yuri. He had watched it on repeat just this morning. There's really nothing special to the song in itself. It was the way she delivered every word and tune with such bravery after her internal battle like that. Her emotional response has always been on point but this particular song was something completely real and touching with her tears glistening in the corner of her eyes the entire performance. The tears of sadness had been replaced with joy and she had genuinely just been having a great time with the acapella group at her side, cheering and jumping around on stage with stars in her eyes.

'Oh, oh

I want some more

Oh, oh

What are you waiting for?

Say goodbye to my heart tonight'

The chorus were always his favorite part. Maybe it was the interpretation of the love-hate relationship the words of the lyrics intended. (Y/n) was belting out 'what are you waiting for' with such passion even though it was hardly a difficult song to perform.

'Here we are again

I feel the chemicals kickin' in

It's gettin' heavier and

I wanna run and hide

I wanna run and hide'

The short verse got him every time. The way her eyes watered at the end and then were immediately blown away by the chorus once again. The way she let go of her sadness and let her happy thoughts consume her. No, she let the song consume her and gave the song a completely different touch never done before.

Yuri had lost count of the time he'd watched it and he knew the choreography and song in and out by now. It was mainly intended for the purpose of studying her expression and getting some kind of inspiration for his music choice. He wanted his theme of his music choice for the free skate program to be 'to let go'. If there's any theme harder than love, then it's letting go of the thing you love. And not just what you love. Letting go to be able to love as well. Whether it's love for yourself or another person. There are countless interpretations and that's what (Y/n) had performed that day, with no intention whatever of doing it in such a way.

"I have... I have chosen the music for my program. At the inspiration of t-that performance."

Now don't get Yuri wrong. He'd never admit it to anyone that (Y/n) had been an inspiration to his free skate. He would probably had figured out the idea anyway, it would just had taken a little longer. And her performance was his own way to interpret it so he'd been the one to come up with the decision anyway. So in a way, she didn't have anything to do with it. And his choice of song would be far more intense and heartbreaking than anything Neon Trees could produce. And so Yuri told Victor about his music choices even though he had no clue why he put that kind of trust into the man.

"Those are some really clever choices when combined with your own vision. I'm almost a little jealous. Maybe I should just hire (Y/n) as my coach myself. It seems like it did wonders for you already!" The man laughed and patted Yuri on the shoulder.

"Nonsense. She hasn't began coaching me yet. She had no part in this." Yuri pushed away the empty tray to make room for sitting up and crossing his legs.

"Oh, but it seems like you learned a lot by ogling her all day long though." The smirk Yuri received made his teeth grit and his ears flush.

"I-i wasn't ogling her!"

"Then what were you doing exactly? I heard 'Animal' playing for a good 30 minutes from the wall connected to the room beside yours." Victor laughed at the startled freeze of The Russian Punk.

Okay fine. Maybe he went overboard with the video. But a new problem had seemed to appear now as he admitted defeat.

Yuri now had a witness that would have to be taken care of somehow. He leaned forwards and gripped the collar of Victor's shirt in a tight fist. The glare of daggers shot forwards onto the smiling man.

"Tell anyone about it and you're gonna have to reconstruct that pretty nose of yours. That's a promise,not a threat."

"Trust me! You won't hear a peep!"

#inspiration #yuri on stage #yurio plisetsky #yuri on ice fanfiction #yuri on ice fandom #yurianime #yuri katsuki #yuri on ice #yuri plisetsky x reader #yuri plisetsky #best anime #anime icons #animelove #anime fanfic #viktor nikirofov #yuuri on ice #yuuri katsuki

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spring-emerald · 5 years

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(i just had to let you know) you’re mine

For @yamineftis who sent this wonderful, wonderful idea. I hope you like it! :)

Five times Tsukishima accidentally called Kageyama ‘my king’ and the one time he let Kageyama know he means it.

0It’s not that Tsukishima thinks that they’re going to get an easy win. Despite the captain being in the same team as him and Yamaguchi, which is reassuring, the powerhouse second year was on the King and Shorty’s team, and Tsukishima knows that he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with. And well, his arrogance and tyrannical history notwithstanding, the King is a good player, despite his complete inability to be a team player.

Nevertheless, Tsukishima counted on his uncanny ability to rile people up, and with the combined hotheadedness and bullishness of the other three, he’s pretty sure it’s a skill that he can use to his advantage.

What he wasn’t counting on was the Shorty to get through the King, and more unexpectedly, for the King to be receptive and accepting of that, leading them to make an insane play that eventually won them the three-on-three match.

It’s disappointing, to say the least, because Tsukishima had been looking forward to winning, just so he could rub it in their faces, but some things can’t be had. Whatever, it’s not like he’s invested in the match anyway. It’s just a club after all.

This doesn’t stop him from shoulder checking Kageyama on his way out of the club room.

“Don’t think,” he starts, looming over the King and looks down at him disdainfully, “that just because you won the match today means that I will bend the knee and swear to follow your every whim. You’re not my king.”

He basks in the glower that Kageyama gives him and leaves before the other can say anything.

Tsukishima’s come a long way from thinking of the volleyball team as just a club and had long since accepted the reality that they are a team, a brotherhood of the annoying and loud kind, but brotherhood nonetheless, and that there are certain expectations and kinship that comes along with that. You don’t spend sorrow and share victory with other people without feeling anything at all after that.

It’s not that Tsukishima thinks that highly of Kageyama, but he’d come to accept certain facts about their interactions, in that Kageyama is a teammate and a valuable one at that, from a collective good and logical standpoint. And Tsukishima is not blind. He had noticed, he had witnessed how the King too had come a long way from being the tyrannical ruler that he is, to a dependable team player and game genius, albeit still a demanding and high maintenance one.

The point is, as much as Tsukishima’s changed, Kageyama did so too. Karasuno and their experiences with the team both had changed them for the better, for good.

But perhaps, the king’s old ways isn’t as easily as forgotten as Tsukishima had initially thought. While Kindaichi and Kunimi had reached the point of acceptance about what happened with Kageyama during their days in Kitagawa Daiichi, there are some that still holds a grudge.

“I didn’t want to believe it you know,” the guy cornering Kageyama, a guy shorter than him says, arrogance clear in his tone. “I worked hard to get to Aoba Johsai and get into the team to be a regular in my first year just to see if the King of the Court had truly changed. Because the thought of you, Kageyama-san, becoming one with a team is just so…wrong. I had to see it for myself you know, senpai?” The honorific sounded like an insult that even Tsukishima, who don’t particularly care about hierarchy got offended and annoyed.

And why is Kageyama letting this upstart underclassman talk to him like that? He knows how well Kageyama can stand up for himself, so why isn’t he fighting back now?

The way Kageyama is clenching his fists and his jaw tells Tsukishima that he is in fact just holding back. Tsukishima sighs. Of course. Volleyball trumps everything for Kageyama, even his own worth apparently, and would rather take being insulted quietly than fight back and risk losing his chance to play in the games because of misdemeanor.

Of course.

And since they are teammates, Tsukishima has the moral obligation to help Kageyama out.

“Oi,” he calls out, startling the two of them. He enjoys the panicked expression of the brat at his appearance and made him more nervous by coming towards them and standing in his full height just in front of Kageyama

“Come now, my king. Our match is about to start. We don’t have time for disrespectful commoners,” he says, sending the brat a mocking glance before turning around and walking away.

Kageyama is smart enough to follow after him without a second to spare.

It’s the deciding match of the season and Tsukishima is feeling his pessimistic side rise from the ashes of doubt. It’s not that he thinks they’re going to get the spot in Interhigh like it’s a walk in the park, he’s not delusional. But Datekou is actually making it really, really hard and once again, they feel like they are at the edge of the proverbial cliff, one wrong step can lead the legacy of Karasuno that rests on their shoulders now, tumbling all the way down in one false move.

Ukai-san calls for a time out and the members all gather around him rather somberly.

“Guys, come on,” Yamaguchi claps, trying to inject hope to their tired system, playing the role of the captain perfectly despite not being with them on the court. “This situation is not new to us. We can turn this around.” He gives the closest members reassuring pats on their shoulders.

Hinata slaps his cheeks and exhales sharply. “You’re right!” He agrees with renewed vigor, looking over the other members, encouraging them like the dependable ace that he is.

“That’s the spirit,” Ukai-san says. “We still got this.” Takeda-sensei nods frantically beside him. He proceeds to outline a familiar play that had always worked, tweaked a little just to have the element of surprise on their side to secure the match point, it’s a bit formulaic than what the adaptable Karasuno is known for he admits, but if it works, then it works. The whole team seems to be in agreement.

“Ukai-san, I want to try something.” Kageyama, who had been quiet through the time out interrupts before they can do their battle cry and proceeds to explain the play he’d been visualizing. Ukai-san is hesitant to give his go signal, but Tsukishima sees it all in his mind’s eye and is aware that it’s risky and too new to try out, but it could really work. His and Kageyama’s gaze met, knowing well that the setter is waiting for his decision as the court captain.

If there’s anything that had grown between the two of them from their years together, is their trust in each other. His trust in Kageyama and his judgment.

Obviously, Tsukishima nods.

And it works out, better than they had anticipated, and as the audience drown them in cheers and their teammates drown them in their victorious cries and tight hugs, Tsukishima manages to get to Kageyama and words of praise come easily between the two of them now.

“Well done, my king,” he says with a proud smile, one that Kageyama equally returned.

Slowly but surely, the ease of conversation started to breakthrough and now isn’t just limited on the court when they’re playing, but had seeped through other, non-volleyball related things as well. A comment about their respective classes’ attraction during the school festival, a suggestion of what activity to do for the third year’s weekly outing, a recommendation of songs and artists to listen to, because he’d been looking for new music and Tsukishima is the only person he knows who could give quality tunes that Kageyama has cultivated a taste for.

This leads to Tsukishima inviting Kageyama to watch a benefit concert featuring most of their mutually liked bands and artists, to which Kageyama excitedly agrees. Akiteru’s got him an extra ticket and Kageyama is the first person that came to mind when his brother said he can invite a friend and he even volunteered to drive them to the venue, to which Tsukishima, stupidly and wholeheartedly accepts.

It’s not that Tsukishima intended for it to be a date, because really, it’s just an outing between friends with the same taste in music. He should’ve known that Akiteru’s generosity comes with a price. He realized his mistake too late.

“Thank you very much, ah… Tsukishima-san,” Kageyama says with a respectful bow.

“You’re certainly welcome, Kageyama-kun.” Kageyama bows again, then gets out of the car.

“Thank you, Nii-chan. Drive safely,” Tsukishima says before opening the door, going out himself. He’s halfway away from the car when Akiteru calls out to him.

“Ah, Kei! Do you need me to pick you up later,” Akiteru asks just as Tsukishima bends down to his eye level, “or would you rather have some quality time with Kageyama-kun?”

Tsukishima watches in horror as his brother gives him suggestive eyebrow raise. He flushes.

“Wh-What?! This isn’t- we’re not- what is wrong with you?!”

To Tsukishima’s utter aggravation, Akiteru just laughs. “Quality time it is then. Anyway, be careful and don’t do what I wouldn’t do. Also, be sure to drop him off in his place, alright. Enjoy your date!” Akiteru leaves with a mock salute, before backing the car up, leaving Tsukishima to sputter incoherently at the empty pavement.

Suffice to say, the night went on a daze and he wasn’t able to enjoy the concert as much as he would’ve liked because his thoughts are a mess due to what Akiteru’s words implied and he only snaps out of it when they reached Kageyama’s house.

He’d inevitably dropped him off, Akiteru would be so proud.

“Thank you for inviting me, Tsukishima. I… I had a lot of fun. And please thank Tsukishima-san too, for the ride earlier.”

Tsukishima unconsciously smiles at the subdued but nonetheless delighted expression on Kageyama’s face. “It’s no problem, King. You’re not a bad company, surprisingly. And yeah, I’ll be sure to tell him.”

Kageyama just nods and unlocks his door. “Be safe on your way home then. Goodnight.”

“I will,” Tsukishima says, walking backwards. “Sleep well, my king,” he turns to walk away properly, missing the way Kageyama looks at his retreating back, hands clutching his chest in an attempt to calm his wildly beating heart.

On a hindsight, Akiteru had been on to something that night.

As it turns out, trust isn’t the only thing that Tsukishima had grown for Kageyama. As they spend more time together, and not just during club activities, but actually spending time together as friends, with the rest of the third years and that fateful night, where it was just the two of them, Tsukishima realized that he’d grown to have a soft spot that turned into an annoyingly persistent affection for the setter.

Tsukishima hated it at the beginning when he realized it. He tried to vehemently deny that he’s finding the King attractive more than he should a teammate, more than he should a friend, more than the kind of objective I-have-four-eyes-that-work-fine-and-it-acknowledges-that-Kageyama-is-actually-handsome-by-conventional-standards, but that he is seeing him in a shit-he’s-really-hot-and-i-catch-myself-staring-at-him-unknowingly-and-fantasizing-about-him-and-doodle-his-name-in-my-notebook-while-I’m-daydreaming-about-him-about-us kind of way.

(“Sounds like you have a crush, Tsukishima-kun.” Yachi says thoughtfully.

“Tsukki has a crush?!” Waaaah, that’s amazing Tsukki! You have a crush!!” Yamaguchi exclaims.

“No. I. Don’t. Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

God, what was he thinking? Telling them had been a wrong idea.)

There’s just no way. No way. God, this is so pathetic. He is so pathetic.

But such is the story of his life and denial can only take him to an even deeper rabbit hole.

And if he’s being completely honest, which he is right now, given the vulnerable state of his mind and ugh, feelings, having a crush on Kageyama isn’t really a bad thing.

He’s easy on the eyes and it’s no wonder that there are a lot of people that have happy crushes on him. He’s a national level volleyball player, so that’s bound to attract people even more. It’s not that Tsukishima likes him only for the shallow aspects.

He admires Kageyama because of those, but he likes him because he’d seen the way Kageyama puts an effort to communicate his thoughts better, despite his impulsivity and tendency to outright saying what’s on his mind. He likes the way he puts an effort to be a dependable senpai to their underclassmen, trying to emulate the way Suga-san and Narita-san did. He likes how he puts an effort to be a good, genuine friend, despite his general social awkwardness.

For all the ‘perfect’ things Kageyama can do, it’s the awkward and imperfect things that endeared Tsukishima even more. Tsukishima likes him for the way he’s changed and grown, and he likes that he’d been there to witness it.

And so Tsukishima has come to like the thing that he used to abhor the most back then: their tutoring session. Not to be unkind, but really, all of Kageyama’s genius had been sucked by volleyball and left little to everything else. It’s still frustrating at times, that’s true, but he’s cultivated more patience as the years went on, because Kageyama had been nothing but diligent during their sessions.

But there’s just something about the quadratic equation that stumps Kageyama.

Tsukishima massages the sides of his head and holds back from sighing, not wanting to upset an already frustrated Kageyama. “Alright, we’ll try this again. But this will be the last time I’m explaining this so pay attention, my king.”

Tsukishima proceeds to explaining, yet again, the steps needed to answer the problem, but noticed halfway through his explanation that Kageyama keeps on sending him nervous glances, looking like he wants to say something but cannot say it.

“Are you even listening?” Tsukishima can’t help the sharp tone. Kageyama sits straight, admonished and nods frantically.

“I am…but,” he pouts and frowns, as he’s wont to do when he’s confused by something that was presented to him.

“Just say it, king.”

“That. You keep calling me that…”

They’ve had this conversation before, Kageyama asking him why he still keeps calling him that. Tsukishima had been truthful when he said that it’s become a habit at this point. He’s just so used to calling him King, but that he can rest assured because it’s not meant to insult him or belittle him, not anymore, not ever. And he thought they’d reach an understanding.

Why is it bothering Kageyama now, all of a sudden?

“I told you-”

“I know what you’ve told me,” Kageyama cuts him off. “But you… you keep on saying ‘my king’, like I’m meant to be yours or something…”

Tsukishima couldn’t help the way his eyes widened and his breathing quickened. His hands crumple the page of his book. He doesn’t hear what Kageyama says next because the blood rushing to his face pounds loudly in his ears.

What?

WHAT?!

Had he really been- snippets of conversations and comments flood his mind and fuck him.

Fuck, Kageyama isn’t supposed to know yet. Dammit, he’s supposed to be clueless. Fuck! Breathe, Kei. Breathe.

Tsukishima covers his face with his arms, and oh no, it’s too late. He watch helplessly as Kageyama watch his reactions give him the fuck away and dammit his face is already burning in shame and embarrassment at being found out like this, dammit!

“…Tsukishima?” Kageyama leans closer, worry etched on the dip of his brows.

“I-I… I’m-”

“Tsukishima? Are you-”

“I like you!” Wait, Kei! No! What the fuck?! Kageyama’s supposed to be the impulsive one. What the hell are you saying?

But the damage has been done, because Kageyama’s eyes widen, the blues shining in shock, cheeks turning pink and mouth slightly opened in surprise, then it gives way to something bashful and giddy.

“I like you too,” he admits, and Tsukishima can’t be hearing this right. He lowers his arm from his face, feeling the blush slowly ebb.

“…You do?”

Kageyama nods, determined. “Do you mean it?”

“Mean what?”

“Am I? Your king?”

It’s illegal, what Kageyama is doing to him. Completely illegal. Too much. He needs to stop because Tsukishima can barely control himself over this newfound revelation and if Kageyama keeps on asking him with that expression, he doesn’t know what he’s going to do.

“Tsuki-”

“Yes, I mean it! Now can we go back to quadratic equations and not making a fool of myself?”

“Okay,” Kageyama says, but pulls Tsukishima close and kisses him instead.

Tsukishima bends on one knee in front of Kageyama and presents him with a small opened box, a simple ring cushioned inside. “I’ll keep it simple. Will you officially be my king?”

Kageyama says yes.

#haikyuu!!#tsukkikage #tsukishima kei #kageyama tobio #hq fanfic

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readwithjoy · 7 years

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Have been to see SNM multiple times over the years and just went again recently. To me, it’s starting to feel like the show has lost a bit of its magic... Not sure if that’s a “me” thing or an issue with the show. In your opinion, what could Emersive/Punchdrunk do to improve the experience for visitors (first timers and seasoned visitors)?

Oh, this is not an easy question. (Well, actually it is! Bring back Caroline and the Reverend!)

But honestly, I’m not sure. You are feeling something that is very common, not just for Sleep No More, but in fandoms in general. We find something that speaks to us, it’s magical, and then somehow the magic fades away. A writer or writers leave a TV show, a performer leaves a theater production, we change and are not the same person who fell in love with it in the first place, the show changes to meet different goals, etc...

It seems that over the years we all go through this with Sleep No More. Some fans have gradually stopped coming, some have taken breaks and then returned. Some, like me, go through phases. Right now I’m not at the show as often as I used to be, although that will probably change again. It certainly has in the past.

As others have said--if the show isn’t what you need it to be, don’t go. It’s fine to take a break. Or even to let it go completely.

But as for improving the experience? That’s tough. Do I wish we could turn back time to the early days when the show and audience relationship was much closer and much more relaxed? Of course. But those days are gone, and probably for good reasons of which we are unaware.

There are a few things I can think of:

Have a simple program for every show, even if it’s just a 8.5x11 sheet of white paper with the logo and the cast list for that performance. I find it both frustrating and disrespectful to the cast that there is no way for anyone to know who has played a character without previous familiarity with that performer. The cast board near the entry is often inaccurate and doesn’t actually list roles so it’s useless for the first time visitor.

Communicate with the audience, especially the returning audience. When something is going to happen, such as a ticketed concert, give us advance notice with ticket sale dates and times. If there is a problem or a logistical issue, just be honest and transparent. Let us know in advance about special events such as Follies and who is hosting them. The Sunday email is not enough time for someone who wants to make a special trip to NYC to see a special event.

Make the parties the insane over-the-top special events that they used to be. They came close a few times last year (the dinner for the Clue party!) and I hope that Inferno will be amazing...but over the past few years there has been a steady decline in the complexity of the parties, while at the same time the prices have been going up. I don’t mind paying a premium price for a McKittrick party. But I want it to be a McKittrick party, and not a fancy club night with a few main stage performances. Please bring back all the little things that were hidden away all over the building. I miss the parties where every 20 minutes or so a friend would run up to me and scream, “Oh my god, have you been to...” or “Go find X person! They are in...”

Stop roping off the Manderley tables from everyone. It's sad to see that rope and all the empty tables on the other side. Having reserved signs for those who are on Max’s List is fine, but don’t make the rest of the audience (who have paid a pretty steep price to be there) feel like the step-children who are not allowed into the nice place.

Pay the black masks, bar staff, and FOH people a living wage with good benefits. Treat them with respect. I know so many people who have left even though they loved the show and the building because their job there was unsustainable, either financially or personally. I hate it when my favorite bartenders, security people, FOH folks, managers, etc. leave. They are such an essential part of what makes that building wonderful.

#sleep no more #sleepnomore #mckittrick #punchdrunk #sleepnomorenyc #Anonymous

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ratfarm · 6 years

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What can I say about finally seeing Iron Maiden? It was a dream come true and was SPECTACULAR! They sounded absolutely perfect in person and the energy of every band member was totally nuts! These guys are such masters of their craft, they stand up great on their music alone and their stage presence is the icing on cake. It was truly awe inspiring. The theatrics were over the top and included changing backdrops, huge blow up figures, costume changes, big hot flames shooting out of the stage that we could feel from our seats, and a battle with a giant Eddie the concluded with him getting his heart ripped out and thrown into the crowd. Bruce has the best stage presence and energy I've ever seen, his operatic vocals soared immaculately as he raced about, giving life to their concept album set in a steamy jungle with the other band members also on the move and interacting. There were big screens on either side of the stage that alternated live scenes of what was happening and graphics.

Our seats were to the left of the stage, alarmingly advertised as "Obstructed View" but we honestly couldn't have seen things better without being in the front rows and the floor was quickly sold out and not practical with a five year old anyways, even if we've done the floor at small shows. My back appreciated the break and he enjoyed being able to sit or stand on his seat. We could see EVERYTHING and it was awesome! The tickets drained our entire concert budget for the year for around $300 total but it was still a pittance compared to the Black Sabbath reunion I passed on (nearly a grand for shit seats for the three of us). Iron Maiden is definitely one of the biggest metal bands ever and it goes to show that they don't need or want to jerk their fans around with insane ticket prices. It's always a pleasure to support a uniquely talented and likable act, too. Iron Maiden remains a band for the people, extolling acceptance and brotherhood and Bruce Dickinson is curious fellow as rather than ride the waves of fame and excess in the typical Rock & Roll fashion, he used his resources to pursue education and expansive pursuits and styled himself into a modern day Renaissance Man or polymath. Bruce is a entrepreneur, brewer, writer, commercial airplane pilot, Olympic level fencer (inspired after a night of drinking that bummed him out and made him rethink life), and besides putting an insane shows while also flying the TOUR plane, he's also done various humanitarian missions and is helping develop some sort of crazy super plane that can stay in the sky for weeks at a time and deliver entire hospitals worth of aid to impoverished places! He didn't get hard into drugs and his new autobiography isn't mean to anyone or exploitative to his family. Bruce is a class act.

The set was focused on the current album and with such a big library to choose from I didn't hear my personal oddball favourites, but honestly that was okay. It was such treat to see the old ones dusted off that they did perform and hear the new stuff from Book of Souls that I'm glad Maiden doesn't fall into the habit of playing the same predictable lists that big acts always seem to get stuck on. Honestly, Iron Maiden is a band of such consistent quality and expansive catalogue that it's hard to narrow down "the hits" to a single performance and there's no songs of theirs I dislike. This translates to fresh sets which each tour being a wholly unique experience. It was such a great show and very long! Near the end Bruce gave a heartwarming speech about how it doesn't matter where you are from or who you love that we are all Blood Brothers before launching to the song by the same name. A very happy experience and I was glad to be able to share it with my family.

Setlist: [Doctor Doctor - UFO song] If Eternity Should Fail Speed of Light Wrathchild Children of the Damned Death or Glory The Red and the Black The Trooper Powerslave The Great Unknown The Book of Souls Fear of the Dark Iron Maiden Encore: The Number of the Beast Blood Brothers Wasted Years [Bright Side of Life - Monty Python]

Iron Maiden with Ghost (see previous post) at eXcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, The Book of Souls World Tour.

June 16, 2017.

#Iron maiden #book of souls #book of souls tour #heavy metal #rat farm #adventures off the homestead #Minnesota #st. Paul #Minneapolis #twin cities #Bruce Dickinson #metalheads #permissive parenting #gentle parenting #unschool #metal kids #family outtings #adventures

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jukeboxgraduate · 7 years

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SPRINGSTEEN ON BROADWAY: Some Common Sense

Disclaimer: Yes, I got tickets. I am really effing lucky.

When the rumor of this engagement first surfaced, my first thought was “Oh no.” Not because I don’t want to see Bruce in a small theater or doing a Storytellers/Somerville/Christic for the masses, but because 1) There would be no way to go every night, which would mean that Bruce is playing in my city and I can’t be there, and 2) It was going to be expensive.

Before they even announced a price range, I looked at my budget and decided what I could afford/what I would forgo to buy a ticket and determined a price range. I discussed this avidly with friends, some of whom decided they would just go for the highest priced ticket because they felt there would be less competition. Other friends were at the other end of the spectrum and could only afford the lowest priced ticket. And yet other friends made the call that they were going to sit this out and hope for a tape, that the combination of what would undoubtedly be a high priced event plus travel and hotel was something they could not do or were unwilling to do.

I asked every friend I knew if they weren’t going to please sign up for Verified Fan in case I did not get a code. (No one did, fwiw.) I also connected with my Bruce peeps (as the kids say) and had a reasonable sense of confidence that if someone in that circle got a code and I didn’t, I would get offered something at some point during the run (which happened, a friend offered me his second before offering it to his wife, who is a big fan but not a crazy fan). And as a backup, I do live in NYC and have the advantage that I could invest some time into looking for a miracle if I got shut out. There might be drops; there are always people whose companion gets sick. There are ways.

But I didn’t just expect to get a code and do nothing to plan around the possibility that I might not get one, which seems to be what many people yelling on the Internet did (or didn’t, rather.)

The Actual On Sale

If you are not constantly buying tickets for concerts, you do not have a barometer as to what is a disaster and what is just a tough on sale. I know people think that the Broadway sale was a disaster but the fact is that it was not. It was just a tough sale.

I have done Verified Fan five times now. With the first three, something major went wrong: I didn’t get the code and had to find it on the registration website, the code didn’t work, there was no place on the website to input the code.

This is why I did a practice run for Verified Fan for the latest batch of Hamilton tickets that were put on sale for the NYC production, because I felt like this would be a VF sale that Ticketmaster would not want to fuck up. (I would have liked to see the show again but that $250 was needed for my Springsteen ticket budget.)

The behavior of the website during the Hamilton Verified Fan was equal to the behavior of the website during the Springsteen sale. Even with that practice, during the Bruce on sale I panicked and ended up buying what was supposed to be a backup pull on my phone and now have to sell tickets to another concert because I picked a random date and forgot I already had a show that night. And I buy tickets all the time to shows of all different sizes at all different venues with varying levels of urgency.

If you weren’t successful buying tickets, ask yourself: how often you do this? Ask yourself, were you absolutely ready for the sale? Did you have the code already copied into notepad? Did you have your phone on Do Not Disturb so your mom didn’t text you in the middle of the sale? Did you run a speed test on your internet connection to make sure you had the amount of bandwidth that you pay for? Did you reboot your router the night before? I don’t want to be “Maybe y’all don’t know how to buy tickets” but based on a lot of the complaints I saw online, I think some people do not know how to buy tickets for a high pressure event and were woefully unprepared. People complained that they couldn’t afford the tickets they were offered but how many people threw them back and tried again? (Because that worked.)

“Verified Fan is Bullshit and didn’t work!!!111”

This statement is just plain wrong. Right now, on Stub Hub, there are on average only 2% of the house available on a per-night basis. That doesn’t account for what already sold on StubHub, but the ratio is consistent enough across the entire run that it can’t be some kind of coincidence. There were roughly 77k tickets available for the entire run (without accounting for VIP or lottery).

This is a very good ratio. It is not suddenly mathematically invalid because you couldn’t afford what was offered or you didn’t win the initial lottery selection to be able to purchase. (I’ll get to the price point later.)

The fact that you did not get a code to buy tickets does not mean that this was a disaster. It is exactly the same as not getting tickets during an onsale. You just got eliminated before the ticket purchasing part of the process. This is what we are not used to. But being unaccustomed to a new process does not mean the process did not work.

But why couldn’t they just send everyone codes???111

Because they did not have enough inventory and all it would have done is created a situation. One of the critical things Verified Fan accomplishes is creating a firewall-type effect that prevents the bots from flooding the servers so that they can buy all the tickets in the first 10 minutes. This is the kind of thing that happened when U2 played Madison Square Garden in 2015. Those shows were genuine on-sale disasters because no one could get through, period.

(And please do not hold up U2 as a thing that Bruce should do [setting aside his vocal dislike of fan clubs] because for the most recent tour if you weren’t a fan club member, Ticketmaster was upselling fan club memberships on the sale page for each show--”Do you want to buy tickets ahead of everyone! Just join the fan club right now!” And it is too late for Bruce to take on the Ten Club model.)

What Ticketmaster undoubtedly did was hand out codes in the quantity that matched the amount of tickets that were available. When there were still tickets left (probably because people rejected the price or the location, or only bought one ticket) they then released additional codes to standbys.

The fact that you could still pull tickets in a 975-capacity theater one hour into the on sale means that Verified Fan worked.

A limited inventory of 77,025 tickets in total (and that’s without deducting for VIP or lottery) doesn’t even come close to covering the Springsteen fanbase in the Tri-state area, let alone extended areas (Boston/Philly), the rest of the US, and definitely was never going to include Europe. (Also, Europeans, if you haven’t stopped to consider that this might be coming over to you, you are not thinking clearly, given that Bruce makes exponentially more money in Europe than he does in the US.)

There was no way on God’s green earth that everyone in the core fan base was going to get tickets! A lot of people were going to get shut out. There was simply insufficient stock. Period.

Pricing

I grew up on musical theater. I was a drama club kid. But I also remember the point at which I realized that I had to choose between going to the theater and going to concerts because the theater was insanely expensive, and the work to get the cheap tickets required more time than I was willing to devote to the pursuit.

Theater tickets for productions that are in-demand are not cheap; small show runs are not cheap. The Walter Kerr holds 975. (The Richard Rogers, where Hamilton is playing, holds 1300.)

Given that $75 balcony tickets are selling -- and they are selling --- on StubHub for $1000 a seat, Jon Landau and Bruce and whoever helped them price this run were 100% on target. In fact, to be perfectly honest, looking at the secondary market action, they probably underpriced the seats.

I am not thrilled with an $850 ticket price point. I am not thrilled with a $400 price point. But there is zero doubt that Bruce Springsteen can command that level of ticket price, and I would rather see him pocket the cash than a ticket broker. Don’t throw “Well so much for his image as the advocate of the working man” at me. If that was true he would’ve had $25 seats in the upper level for years instead of pricing every seat the same. I can argue this point until the cows come home. There are so many things that could have been done over the years to make the shows more affordable to a wider range of people, but no one cared about that until they suddenly couldn’t afford a ticket.

The argument “How much money does he need?” is invalid. I don’t like someone telling me how much I should be making, and if you’ve read Born To Run, you will understand...a few things.

The argument “WELL ONLY HIS RICH FANS WILL GO TO SEE THIS THEN” is farcical coming from people who regularly see multiple shows on a tour. If you can’t afford it, well, you can’t afford it. I know it sucks to not be able to afford something you usually can afford. There is a larger conversation here about economic inequities and the availability of entertainment, but that’s why I know people who will never go see a concert in an arena or a stadium. That conversation, while valid, is not specific to Bruce Springsteen or this engagement.

The plain and simple fact is that Bruce Springsteen has underpriced his seats since the Reunion tour. His peers have been commanding more for decades now. Bruce never went the Irving Azoff/Eagles route where they create a carefully crafted maze of multiple levels of VIP seating designed to maximize profits. Bruce never did Golden Circle the way most legacy artists do these days. For years, they left so much money on the table, while the secondary market cleaned up. They tried to battle the scalpers with the jailbait seats and then by going GA floor. The price crept up on the last tour, but so has gas / insurance / salaries / production and the like. And, again, it was still drastically underpriced.

Have you bought tickets to the Rolling Stones? To Paul McCartney? The Who? Madonna? And these are people playing stadiums and arenas, not 975 seat theaters. Those are not cheap tickets. (Please do not start with ‘They cannot hold a candle to Bruce Springsteen!!!111” because that is just such a basic argument.)

I know these prices seem crazy compared to what we are used to paying, but they are not crazy for what this is. Yes, only Hamilton is this crazy, but this is better than Hamilton (with apologies to Lin-Manuel Miranda).

I need to point out: I was flat broke during the Seeger Sessions tour. I saw one show as a result. That was what I could afford to do. I was also in a precarious financial position when the GOTJ shows were announced and only saw two shows (and only saw that second because someone offered to drive me). It sucks to not be able to afford things you used to be able to afford. I offer this because of all the dudes sliding into my TL yammering about rich people.

Things That Could Have Been Done Better

Communication: This is not anywhere near Ticketmaster’s first Verified Fan sale and they could have done a much much better job in communicating clearly about the process. They didn’t tell you what to do if you were verified but didn’t get a code, for example, until people started to complain on Twitter. They could have been more precise in telling people when the code would arrive--e.g. “You should have the code when you wake up on Wednesday and if you don’t, contact us at this address.”

The language in the emails for people on Standby was vague and ambiguous, and created a great deal of uncertainty. I’m not sure that they needed to say “we were unable to verify you” because I’m not sure that actually happened. I think the standby people just didn’t get randomly selected and saying “Sorry, you weren’t chosen as part of our random selection process but you are on standby and if more tickets open up you will be notified” would have been clearer and more accurate and stopped the childish tantrums from grown ass adults about “how dare you say I’m not a real fan.”

Second Run of Shows: It is a very very common practice to hold back dates to see what demand is, and also to thwart resellers, so the whining that all the dates weren’t announced at once is just that, whining. This is an area, however, where Ticketmaster just made a huge mess of things. They should have put the tickets on sale right away and opened it up to everyone who had already registered and didn’t get tickets. Holding it off by a week just gave the scalpers time to regroup.

They also did not make it clear if you needed to register again -- I saw one FAQ saying you didn’t, and another saying you did -- and while it was not exactly fair that it was an open playing field to everyone again, once they delayed it by a week they had to let everyone in. But I’m still not clear about what actually happened here and who was eligible for the second run.

This part of it was messy, but I don’t know of a lot of people who got selected for the first batch who made the cut for the second batch, and I do know many people who were on standby for #1 who got picked for #2.

For this I’m willing to declare the communication botched but the sales went okay, especially since the scalpers were bitching they couldn’t get tickets, and if you look on StubHub, there are less tickets available for the second batch than the first one, so that seems to back that up.

Codes For The First Sale Weren’t Linked To Accounts: One of the keys to the Verified Fan system is that the code you receive is both linked to the URL that you are sent to (which I suspect points to a batch of servers outside the regular TM infrastructure, but I don’t know that for sure) and to your Ticketmaster account. This way, you can’t just create 300 accounts and hand off codes to whomever. Ticketmaster fixed this for the second sale but it is, apparently, how so many scalpers got tickets to the first run. (This information comes from a scalper who had an open conversation with Chris Phillips of Backstreets on Twitter, and also maps to what I heard from other sale participants.)

Purchase Restrictions: Everyone is screaming about the lack of restrictions on these tickets but you’re not thinking this through.

Thanks to scalpers lobbying the state legislature, paperless tickets are not allowed in New York. Yes, I know there is discussion about changing that law, but right now that is the law on the books, and it doesn’t just change because it’s Bruce Springsteen. (Write letters to your elected representatives if you are a New York State voter.)

The problem when you make an $850 purchase non-transferrable is that it’s a lot of money to ask someone to just throw away when their kid gets sick. There are many unforeseen situations in which someone needs to be able to sell a ticket to someone else. It really, really sucks to eat the price of a ticket because you have a legitimate reason to not make the show and can’t transfer the ticket to someone else.

Names on tickets do not mean anything. Scalpers will buy a pair, sell a single, and escort the buyer in. And, again, you can’t make an $850 ticket non-transferrable.

There are scenarios in which it is reasonable to make tickets will-call only and that you must enter the venue immediately upon picking up the ticket. While you can do that for a small surprise one-off club or theater show, enforcing that for every single night of a multi-week Broadway run is simply not that kind of situation where that requirement will be practical. It puts a unnecessarily high burden on the venue and on the attendees. (C’mon, the FAQ for the shows has to mention that there will be snacks available. Somehow this was not the first question I had.)

Allow resale at face value only: There is precedent for this in the marketplace. The Newport Folk Festival, for example, doesn’t send out passes until right before the event to cut down on the secondary market, but provides a face-value resale system where you in effect sell your tickets to the ticketing company and they resell the pass. I spent $250 to go to Newport, I couldn’t go, I resold my pass for what I paid for it, someone else got to go. This is a thing that JLM could have done. Ticketmaster is not incented to do this because they make money off of reselling. There is a major conflict of interest here. There was weight that could have been thrown around here if someone had thought to do it. (Or, they thought about doing it and didn’t bother.)

No One Deserves A Ticket

If I had not gotten a ticket I would have started hustling. Period. I’m not entitled to a ticket any more than you are, or vice versa. I don’t care how many times you’ve seen Bruce. I don’t care how long you’ve been a fan. There is no purity test. This is a lame argument and also is not going to get you a ticket. In fact the number of times you have seen him should actually disqualify you. Give someone else a shot.

AND DON’T BRING YOUR KIDS TO THIS PERFORMANCE. FFS.

You Always Have The Option To Sit This One Out

This is actually a corollary of #5. Just because your favorite artist is doing a thing doesn’t mean you have to go if you can’t get there / can’t afford it / can’t get time off work / your kids have a thing / your Dad isn’t well / you just got a promotion. I know what it feels like to have to pass up what seems like something amazing, but you can’t go to every show (a thing I’m fond of reminding friends, as well as myself) and you will just make yourself crazy. It is okay to say, I can’t afford it, it’s too much money. It doesn’t make you less of a fan.

Well, What Should I Do?

Start asking everyone you know. Network your Springsteen friends. Network anyone who might have a connection. Put a post on BTX or your Facebook group. Keep apprised of what’s going on so you know if there’s a drop or a lottery type situation (which it looks like there is going to be). Can you get to NYC any weeknight and look for a miracle? Look on the secondary market for something (that’s how I finally got to see Hamilton, fwiw). There will be honest people who can’t go who are reselling for face, but the scalpers watch StubHub for those too.

Beware of fake listings on resale sites. Do not let your drive to get into this show get you ripped off. It can happen to the best of us. During the U2 MSG run in 2015, so many people got hoodwinked by fake floor tickets being sold by dudes on Craigslist. Do not buy on the street. Buy from a site with a guarantee, use a credit card that has some kind of consumer protection as a benefit, and if it seems too good to be true it probably is. StubHub is safer than most because they require a credit card to list and they put a hold on that credit card for the price of the sale, but this is not an endorsement, this is a statement of fact. Caveat emptor.

[NO I AM NOT GOING TO SAY ‘FAITH WILL BE REWARDED’]

#springsteen #springsteenonbroadway

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travelonlinetips-blog · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://travelonlinetips.com/tickets-for-vatican-museums-5-secret-ways-to-skip-the-line-with-prices/

Tickets For Vatican Museums - 5 Secret Ways To Skip The Line (With Prices!)

Rome is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe if you ask me – and with good reason! There are so many great, fun things to do there, so many attractions, so much delicious food to be tasted! And the list could go on and on.

But because it is so beautiful and popular the lines to the attractions are usually veeeery long.

Vatican Museums (or “Musei Vaticani” in Italian), one of the most famous points of interest in Rome is, of course, no exception. The Vatican Museum is one of the most well-known museums worldwide and it is located in Vatican, a city-state right in the heart of Rome. The Museums bring together under one roof one of the biggest art collections in the entire world!

I am sure you already heard about the famous Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo, am I right?

It’s located at Vatican Museums as well, along with some other works of art created by masters such as Caravaggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Giotto – plus countless other masterpieces created during the Renaissance era.

Even if you are not much into museums and you find it rather boring to just walk around and admire art, visiting the Vatican Museums is a must-do in Rome!

There are more than 6 million visitors at Vatican Museums every year! Can you imagine?

The lines at the entrance are so long, you can sometimes wait up to 4 entire hours until you get inside! But no worries, I have some useful tips and tricks for you that will help you save precious time and avoid the queues at Vatican Museums.

Let’s discover my tips and tricks on how to avoid the long lines at Vatican Museums, plus a bonus on how to see the Sistine Chapel with no people:

Solution 1. Purchase Your Vatican Museum Tickets Online In Advance

Vatican Museum ticket price is 17€ if you buy it at the ticket counter there. But, of course, you won’t want to wait in the long line with the other people for hours. That is why I didn’t even add this as an option for this article.

An online ticket can be bought in advance, but you will have to pay a “booking fee” of 4€ for each ticket, so the total will be 21€. This reservation fee will be added as an extra for all the other options I tell you about below. So, in short, buying your Vatican skip-the-line tickets online will cost you 4€ more than on the spot and there is no way to skip it. But hey, this extra fee means no wasted time in line, so I’d say it is totally worth it!

The easiest solution is to buy your Vatican tickets on the official site.

TIP: In case you are booking last minute and can’t find any tickets left for the date of your visit, I recommend trying GetYourGuide – a company that I trust completely (they are an authorized ticket seller for Vatican Museums!). Moreover, if you decide to get the audio guide as well (recommended!), the ticket is a bit cheaper than on the official Vatican Museums website.

The best part? You don’t even need to print your ticket, you can just show it on your phone at the entrance and they will scan it!

PRO TIP: Wondering when the best time to go to Vatican Museums is? A good idea is to go early on Wednesdays, as the majority of people will be attending the Pope’s audience at the Basilica and they usually arrive at the museum in the late morning, after 11:00 AM.

PRICE: 21€ (17€ for the ticket and 4€ booking fee/person). The audio guide is optional and it is 7€ more (or 5€ for the kids’ special audio guide). If you are a student less than 25 years old, the price is 8€ (but make sure to have your student ID with you to show it at the entrance!)

As I mentioned before, if you cannot book your Vatican tickets on the official website, make sure to try this link as well – it’s possible that you will find some tickets left for around 2€ more!

Solution 2. Join A Guided Vatican Museum Tour

Visiting the museum with a guide will enhance your experience and will help you learn so much interesting information! Moreover, the guide will take the group directly to the Vatican Museum entrance and will skip the lines!

Here are my recommendations for guided tours at Vatican Museums (group tours and private tours as well):

Guided Group Tours:

On their official website you can find guided group tours for 33€ per person. The tours take 2 hours and they’re available from Monday to Saturday, in English, Italian, French, German and Spanish.

IMPORTANT: You will still have to stay in line for the security check (that is mandatory) and nobody can skip this step for security reasons. I recommend not going with tour companies that tell you they can skip this step.

Another great idea would be to book a combo Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel plus Saint Peter’s Basilica tour. If you decide to buy these Vatican tour tickets, your group will also get to enter Saint Peter’s Basilica using a special group entrance that individuals cannot use. It’s a win-win situation and, if you ask me, this is one of the best Vatican tours out there!

PRICE: 33€ for the guided tour on their website, 50€ for the combo guided tour

Guided Private Tours:

Although it is, of course, more expensive to get a private tour, in general, you will get to experience the place without being part of a big group and you can directly communicate with your guide and ask all the questions you want!

So, if you are looking for Vatican city tours, this private one takes 3 hours and you will get to visit the museum, including the Sistine Chapel. As a bonus, you will also get access to some closed zones and you will benefit from the skip-the-line entrance to Saint Peter’s Basilica as well.

PRICE: 310€ per group of 2 people

Solution 3. Buy The Omnia Pass

The Omnia Pass is a city pass for 3 days that includes free transportation as well. If you buy it, you will get skip-the-line access to the most famous attractions in Rome:

Vatican Museums

Saint Peter’s Basilica (free audio guide included)

Colosseum

Moreover, the pass includes unlimited transportation in the city, a Hop-On Hop-Off bus, and some good discounts to more than 30 attractions in Rome (Planetarium, Contemporary Art Museum, Palazzo Valentini are just some of them).

NOTE: You will have to select your desired dates for the fast track tickets when you pick up the pass, not before. When you arrive in Rome, you will have to pick up your pass at Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi Office (it is extremely close to Vatican Museums).

You can find more information about the best tourist passes in Rome in this article.

PRICE: 113€/person

Solution 4. Visit the museum during a night tour

Would you like to visit the museum after its official closing time? It is possible!

If you happen to be in Rome in any of the months from April to October, you will actually get the chance to book a night Vatican tour with skip the line. Plus, you will also be able to witness an amazing concert INSIDE the Vatican and you will get exclusive access to some areas that are usually closed to the general public! How awesome is that? Did I also mention that you will see the great Sistine Chapel without the big groups of tourists? And that the price is the same as the one for the daytime skip-the-line Vatican ticket?

It sounds insane, I know! If you are interested in booking it, here are all the details you should know:

The night tour takes place only on Fridays (7 PM to 11 PM; last admission at 9:30 PM), from April to October.

ATTENTION: Make sure to book your night tour beforehand (it can only be bought online) as it gets sold out pretty quickly!

OPTION 1: If you want to visit it without a tour, you can find the tickets on their official website, as well as the list of museum sectors that can be visited during this tour.

OPTION 2: If you want to visit it with a guided tour (recommended!), you can book your spot here.

PRICE: 21€/person for the ticket from the official website (self-organized), 59€/person for the guided tour (you have to have at least 2 people to book it).

Solution 5. Go to the museum before everyone else

Would you prefer to wake up in the morning and see the museum before everyone else? Don’t worry, I have the solution!

Book an early entrance ticket to Vatican Museums and you will be able to enter the museum one hour earlier than it usually opens to the public – the tour starts at 7:30 AM, while the museum is open beginning at 9:00 AM. Here you can find the Vatican Museum hours.

Plus, you will get access to some areas that aren’t usually open to everyone and, of course, you will see the gorgeous Sistine Chapel without any people!

The exclusive early access tour takes around 3 hours and it will take you to the Vatican Museums, St. Peter’s Church and Raphael Rooms. Or you can book this tour for a morning Sistine Chapel tour; afterwards, you can visit the rest of the museum at your own pace.

PRICE: from 53€ to 90€ depending on the tour you choose and the active promotions

Bonus: How To See The Sistine Chapel Without Any Crowds?

I want to share with you one more trick – how would you like to visit the Sistine Chapel without any crowds!

The solution is very simple (plus, it is free as well!):

Book the earliest ticket you can (see Solution 1 for my tips about buying your ticket online), enter the museum and then go to the exit right away. Even though it sounds unusual it actually makes sense as the Sistine Chapel is located at the end of the visiting route! You will have the place all to yourself to admire without any people. Afterwards, you can go back to the entrance and visit the museum as you would normally do.

NOTE: Here is the official map of the museum where you can check the visiting route and see where the Sistine Chapel is located.

Another option to do it is to take a private night tour (Solution 4).

BONUS: You can listen to this free audio guide while visiting the Sistine Chapel, it is very useful!

ATTENTION: If you want to enter the Sistine Chapel as well as some other parts of the museum complex, please make sure that you are covered and dressed appropriately. They have strict rules and you may not be allowed to enter if you are dressed in tops with no sleeves (or very short ones), short skirts, shorts, short dresses, and hats. It is better to respect these rules – you can take a summer scarf with you in case it is too hot for long sleeves. Better safe than sorry!

NOTE: Even though the schedule shows that the museum closes at 6:00 PM sharp, it is better to arrive there before 4:00 PM, as the museum is big and 4:00 PM is officially the last admission time. At around 5:30 PM you will be required to go to the exit, so make sure you plan your visit carefully so you will have enough time for everything!

NOTE 2: Except the last Sunday of each month (when access is free for everyone), Musei Vaticani is closed every Sunday. Because it is free on that last Sunday of the month, there will be tons of people crowding to get inside, so I definitely do not recommend going then as you won’t be able to enjoy anything!

Conclusion

The lines for the Vatican Museum in Rome are usually very long, but you can avoid this problem very easily if you plan your visit beforehand!

In this article I have provided you with 5 amazing solutions on how you can skip the long line to Musei Vaticani – you just need to choose the one that fits you best! Plus, I am giving you my tip on how to see the world-famous Sistine Chapel without any people – pssst: it’s free!

I hope that you will have a great time in Rome and that you will get to save some precious time using my tips!

In case you have further questions, do not hesitate to tell me in the comments below. I love hearing from my readers!

Yulia

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valleyofthegroupies · 7 years

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A Flaming Love Affair

Fearless, wild, irreverent, wicked weird and ultimately magic. If that doesn't describe The Flaming Lips I don't know what does. A band from Oklahoma that started as punk as it gets and has been constantly evolving going through several genres and styles but never loosing that cool originality that sets them apart from any other act out there. With insanely creative lyrics that talk of embryos, bugs, magicians, mars, robots and pretty much anything that causes awe in the human psyche, their child-like fascination with our world is contagious to anyone that stumbles upon them. Such was the story for 10-year old me.

Back then I was a scrawny kid with massive ADD (this was before schools acknowledged ADD was a thing) failing school and unable to concentrate on pretty much anything for too long including TV...that is unless we were talking about MTV and their music videos which were short and interesting enough to keep me seated for a while. One predestined night I came across an insanely colorful and wild video of a man with carrot-colored hair and a girl in a bathtub eating breakfast. I was too young and still didn't speak a word of English so I couldn't really tell what the heck the song was about...but something stuck with me...the Vaseline factor.

The video was “She Don't Use Jelly” by the Flaming Lips. The lyrics talk of a girl who makes breakfast but instead of jelly she uses Vaseline. I know that now but back then I was taken by surprise by this colorful music video with really cool musicians singing about Vaseline and tangerine, the only two words I could make out and stuck with me.

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I became obsessed with what I dubbed “the Vaseline song” and not knowing much of the band or anything else really I would visit music stores with my parents asking for the Vaseline song. It comes without telling that nobody knew what I was talking about. I must have sung the Vaseline/tangerine chorus a hundred times to different record-store employees during that time of my life without any success. Without internet back then it was a shot in the dark finding out more about the song. So I slowly gave up and resigned myself to never listening to the Vaseline song again.

A couple years later the movie Batman Forever came out, and as any kid my age I went to see the movie, and obsessed with what I thought was the coolest movie ever I asked my parents for the soundtrack and if there is something my parents always promoted at home, was music and books, so I got it. It was a wonderful surprise to find that the very last song on the CD was “Bad Days” by The Flaming Lips themselves. It sounded so damn familiar to me, could it be the same band that played the Vaseline song?

With a band name things became much simpler. I gotta say that even though record stores were a pretty big deal back then, it took me a while to find one that had anything by The Flaming Lips, but thanks to my parents support for my obsessions one day my quest came to an end, I had in my hands a cassette tape of “Transmissions from the Satellite Heart” the album with the Vaseline song. I must have listened to that tape over ten thousand times, it's a good things tapes don't get scratched like CDs because that tape was abused until the song titles printed on the deck became almost illegible.

At some point I got tired of the tape and moved on to other music, so let's skip some years until I was in high school. I've probably mentioned before what a drag High School was, especially if you live in a small town that has very little tolerance to young antics. Well back then my friends and I would use any opportunity to flee the small town, take the half hour drive to the next town over and loiter in the record store for hours. Well during one of those days I came across “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” by The Flaming Lips. An entire wave of nostalgia washed over me as I recalled nights spent jumping on the bed with “the Vaseline song” playing so loud my dad had to come in and yell at me. It comes without saying that I had to buy the CD.

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Back home listening to the album I was surprised how much their musical style had changed. The punky vibe had somehow evolved into a playful psychedelic rock that spoke of robots with feelings and a hero named Yoshimi that would save all humankind. It was incredible and I was back on the Flaming bandwagon. I listened to that album until the CD became so scratched you could no longer listen to it, so I got a new one and listened some more.

The year after that re-discovery I learned that the Lips would be playing a show in the city that was an hour drive from me. I was so damn excited to go that I jumped on the ticketmaster website only to find out it was sold out. My disappointment lasted only the mere seconds until I remembered ebay. Unfortunately the price for the tix had gone up a bunch, that was money I did not have. I was not ready to give up. I plead with my parents to buy me the tickets but back then credit card scams on internet purchases had my dad on the fence about the whole thing. I really don't remember how it was that I ended up begging my marine-bio teacher for the tickets and she was a badass of a person who knew the struggle of being a young rock fan who would bleed for some tickets. In the end we made an agreement, she would buy me the tickets and I would work all summer to pay them back. I could not be more grateful to anyone the way I am to that teacher for one of the greatest nights of my life. If you have ever been to a Flaming Lips concert you know I am not exaggerating, nothing compares to a live show of the Lips. It is an experience that blows your mind. It starts as a regular concert, then Wayne, suddenly starts bleeding from the head, the blood soaks his white suit and hundreds of people dressed in animal costumes come out to dance on stage and amongst the public. Confetti and streamers fall from the ceiling and when you least expect it, Wayne is walking ON the public inside a giant balloon like some sort of sci-fi prophet blessing us with his presence. There are balloons and Santa Claus is there giving you candy and at some point you are making out with a pretty girl and there is not a single person in the theater that is not having the damn time of their life.

Their colorful presence like an acid trip stays with you for the rest of your life. After that concert I was a fan for life. Their fearless leader Wayne Coyne is a force of nature, his unstoppable creativity has lead them to make a cult movie “Christmas on Mars” as well as fabulous spectacles like their yearly tradition of having a concert for the animals at the Oklahoma zoo every Christmas. Their songs have been on commercials and movies and in 2005, their childhood friend Bradley Beesley published a documentary about the band called “The Fearless Freaks” which surprises you with the fantastic story behind the band as they started as a group of neighborhood kids looking for the ultimate high from making stunts worthy of Knievel himself.

In 2009 my dream of meeting the Lips became true as they had an album release event for their hardcore fans complete with meet and greet and autographs. When the event was over and the theater had to close down for the night, the band stayed behind to greet every single fan that attended the event, this shows that their fans' devotion is well placed, the band knows it and so do the fans. With every new album the Flaming Lips reinvent themselves without loosing their essence. Through bankruptcy, addiction, loss and other adversity the band keeps playing for the fans and not the critics or the recognition. That need to create art that goes beyond acceptance is the substance that makes The Flaming Lips one of the greatest bands on earth.

-Dirty Gadjo

#valleyofthegroupies #the flaming lips #Flaming Lips #valley of the groupies #wayne coyne

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childofthecornmusicreview · 5 years

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Broccoli City Festival 2019

It was the perfect April day for an all-day out door music fest. The sun was bright but the wind kept things cool for everyone in attendance for the 2019 Broccoli City Music festival. Taking place in a parking section outside the Washington Redskins stadium, the two stage set up was filled with Instagram art pieces and tents from local business for attendees to shop around in-between sets. In general, it was a big turnout and the venue seemed to get filled up more and more as the day continued. I’m not am able to compare to previous years, but with the help of some popular head lining acts, I feel as this festival this year would be considered a success

I must have heard “Mo Bama” and “Sicko Mode” a dozen times each throughout the day, but in general the people on stage were able to keep the audience entertained in-between acts and get the energy levels up so that they would be hyped for the next person performing. From my location, every act sounded great and the way the stage was set up, multiple screens made it easy to watch if you were too far from the stage to see what was taking place. For the most part I was there to see the headliner act Childish Gambino, but it was great to watch some new comers perform prior. I found YBN Cordae to be very entertaining with his performance and Lil Baby got the crowd hyped as soon as he came on stage and performed his hit “Drip Too Hard.” With the unfortunate death of Nipsey Hussle, the festival paid respects with a touching memorial by showing highlights from his performance the previous year at Broccoli Fest.

My only complaints I would say about the festival were that the venue was large enough to accommodate, but because it was being held in a parking lot there were very little grass spaces for people to sit on and for most part as a spectator you were forced to stand the entire time or sit on the asphalt. The food truck situation was a bit ridicules because after standing for 6 hours by that point, the last thing I want to do is stand in line for over an hour and wait another 35 minutes to get my food after placing that order for a sub sandwich. Either let people bring in their own food or get more trucks because the venue was more than capable with how much open space that was not being used in this massive parking lot. Due to this chaos of getting food, I missed out on Ella Mai’s performance which was one of the artist I was looking forward to watch.

As stated above, I was there mostly for Gambino, but it seemed as most of the crowd was there for Lil Wayne. Rappers being late for a show is nothing new to me, and the fact that it was a festival and Wayne was not the closing act, I was not surprised when he showed up an hour late and then proceeded to only performed for 30 minutes. With the Carter 5 released last year I was afraid that the whole set was going only new material, but thankfully he jumped around his whole catalog and played a lot of hits from his Carter 3 album. Wayne was colorful and had a great set up, but it seemed as if he was tired and would be out of breath trying to keep up with the pace of his own lyrics at times throughout the performance. For what it’s worth it was cool seeing Lil Wayne perform, but I think I’m good with not having to go out of my way to catch him in concert again by himself.

Once Wayne had finished, I saw a somewhat exodus from the festival as I’m sure people starting to get tired by that point. I completely understand because by the time Wayne left the stage I had been standing for at least 8 hours by then. With a decent amount of people leaving I was able to make my way closer for Childish Gambino’s performance. I was very impressed by the stage set up with the rising platform, choir, band, and back up dancers, it was quite a site to see everything come together for his performance. I did not realize I was in store for a more Neo-soul show rather than a rap performance, but Gambino wanted to make sure the crowd was having a good time and asked politely for people to enjoy themselves by not being on their phone the entire time. He wanted them to have an experience and be truly involved in the show which he did by doing a cover of the Gap Band’s single “Outstanding” as well as literally going off the stage into the crowd and singing with them.

I missed Gambino when he came through D.C. last year and if the rumors of his retirement from music are true, I’m so glad that I was able to see him perform at least once. If there is a bright light to his performance, he did perform a new song that has yet to be released so I’m not sure if he’s truly retiring of perhaps just his rap persona for a more soul singer career. Either way, you cannot say the man doesn’t work hard from acting to comedy to music the guy is very talented and was clearly demonstrated in his performance at Broccoli City. By this time though, I had been standing for over 10 hours and Gambino had already been performing for 90 minutes. So after he performed “Sober” and “3005” I started the journey of getting out of the venue and making my way back around towards the metro. The night had cooled down and as I started my mile walk back towards the metro I could hear “Red Bone” being performed in the distance ending on a high note of a long day.

Overall, it was the perfect weather for Broccoli City Fest and by being able to get major artists to sign on for the cause will only allow for Broccoli City to continue to grow possibly into a multi-day festival. The venue was large enough but I feel they need to make an arrangement to have the stages be inside the football stadium so that attendees are able to sit if they would like or find a different location that has more places to rest rather than blacktop. Additionally, the food truck situation could be improved because there was more than enough space and lines should not be that insane to get some overpriced food. Still, the festival had a great line up for the price of the general admission ticket and I would be willing to go back again next year if there were acts that I really wanted to see. This was the first year in which Something in the Water Fest was also taking place in Virginia Beach and it just so happened to fall on the same Saturday as Broccoli City. Hopefully this won’t be the case in the future, but I could see people ultimately taking sides on which to attend if they had to choose. Personally, I would much rather sit on some sand next to the water, but being able to use public transit to get to the area was way more accommodating compared to what I can only assume the nightmare ride share surge prices of Something in the Water.

#broccoli city fest #broccoli city #washington dc #ybn cordae #lil baby #lil wayne #childish gambino #music festival

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thejustinmarshall · 6 years

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Dead Daisies “Burn It Down” all Around the Globe

Interview by Danny Coleman

“We had a little time off; at our age now they try and give us a little time off so that we can take our arthritis medicine,” laughed a very relaxed and well rested John Corabi during a break in The Dead Daisies current tour which saw he and the band recently return from runs in Japan and Europe.

Comprised of Corabi on lead vocals, Doug Aldrich on guitar, Marco Mendoza on bass guitar, founder/guitarist David Lowy and current drummer Deen Castronovo, the band is loving life and enjoying recent success overseas and even now in the United States. A recent trip to England only served to buoy the five rockers confidence and based on crowd reactions; they appear to be firing on all cylinders.

“It was insane! It was funny, before we even got to England all of those shows were completely sold out,” said an appreciative Corabi. “All of the shows in Europe were either sold out or close. We’ve got a new album out called, “Burn It Down,” and it’s been very surprising as we’re actually charting on American radio which is a first for the band and the Billboard charts in America. We are charting on a bunch of charts in Germany, England and everywhere. It’s weird how the charts work; I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff. I’m just waiting for when they give me the green light and management comes to me and says, OK you can start shopping for your Shelby GT Cobra, then I’ll know that things are good (laughs).”

Despite their best efforts, it seems they struggle for the same results here in the U.S. and as stated the band is just now charting for the first time on American radio and often seem to fly under the radar but that appears to be changing.

“It’s weird, it’s different perspectives in different countries; not to sound weird but the only country where we are flying a bit under the radar is America. Everything takes time and we’ll eventually get to where we want to be. The music scene in America is different than it used to be, it requires a bit more time and patience and work but we are definitely seeing growth everywhere that we go and that’s even here. Hopefully I’ll be able to order that Shelby Cobra soon but I won’t put a time frame on it (laughs).”

So as a unit; does the band feel a letdown going from sold out European shows to less than the occasional stellar crowds here at home?

“No not really; look, like you were saying earlier, we’ve all been doing this for so long, we know how it works. This isn’t the first band that I’ve done where I’ve had to work it from the ground up. I’m not sure if Marco, Doug and Deen have ever been in this situation before but we understand; you’ve got to earn your stripes in America just like you do in Japan or Germany. America is a little bit of a harder market, it’s such a huge country and there’s a gazillion things to do here. I did an interview with somebody from overseas and I said, when I turn my TV on I have 1800 channels (laughs) and nowhere else in the world will you turn the TV on and have that many channels, it’s crazy. So trying to get somebody in America to leave their house, first of all get off their couch; that’s the big one, put their remote down, get in their cars, you’re spending money for gas, spending money to park, spending money on a ticket or cover charge, maybe have a couple of beers and buy a tee shirt, you’re talking a couple of hundred bucks. I’m just as guilty, I’ll have friends text me and say, hey we’re in town we’re playing here or there come on out and see us and I’m like, yeah OK cool and then I’ll talk to my wife and she’ll come home from work and be kind of tired and by then I’m like, yeah I’m not feeling it either and we stay home and watch eight episodes of, “Sons of Anarchy” (laughs) and we say, ah lets just stay in tonight; so I’m just as guilty of it as well. Overseas, for some reason when a band like us goes to Europe or Japan it’s more of an event, it’s like the whole, “They’ve Arrived,” type of thing. I don’t know why it’s that way but if I could figure it out and bottle it I’d be a very wealthy man.”

“I remember when I was growing up in Philadelphia and I was playing in the cover band scene/club circuit and we were doing originals and covers and there was this place where Jon Bon Jovi recorded next to one of the clubs and there was this band that came over from England. They stayed in Philadelphia for a while and recorded and played some shows while there and I remember those guys would go out and come to some of the rock bars to see who was playing and then suddenly they did a show with zero press, nobody knew who they were, we hadn’t heard a lick of music but they walked into a few of the clubs that we were struggling to sell out and it was like chaos. They were completely sold out and I was scratching my head and even the guitar player laughed and said, “It’s amazing how far an English accent will go,” and it was just because people saw them, I mean just saw them around town and bopping around the clubs a bit and they told people, “We’re in town and recording where Bon Jovi recorded”and word got out that an English band was recording where Bon Jovi did his record and people went crazy; so it can work the opposite way too.”

Yes, the music scene is definitely different in today’s downloadable world and with recent proclamations from various publications and online forums that the millennial generation has caused the, “Death of rock music” by abandoning the genre in droves for techno rock, Hip-Hop and/or rap music; does Corabi feel that the audiences have become less enthusiastic about The Dead Daisies or rock music in general?

“No,” he stated with conviction. “No because I think the thing that has changed everything, I think the fans are still there; when you go to these big festivals anywhere in the world the fans are still there. I think the methods that we the musicians and record labels use now are different; there is no MTV and radio has become very programmed. There’s Clear Channel, Live Nation and I think they basically own just about every freaking radio station on earth and every concert hall. So what’s happening is, you don’t have radio, you don’t have MTV so these bands are having to figure out how to promote themselves. I think that part is different, the fans are still there but they don’t know that The Dead Daisies just made a new record but here is where our management company has been incredibly genius about the whole thing. They figured out, oh there’s no MTV so we’ll use YouTube, there’s no radio so we’ll bombard Pandora and Spotify and hit iTunes; we’re going to work the audience through social media. They’ve been incredibly smart at not just alerting everybody to our tours and records but they’ve actually brought the fans into our world and they’re great at it! I don’t think the whole rock is dead thing is happening, I think that the bands are having to figure out new methods of getting the word out. I think some things are different; obviously record sales. Bands that would sell five million, three million or whatever albums, those days are gone unless you’re Madonna or a massive U2 type band but even those guys are figuring out ways to get their record out there; what was that record that U2 did where they basically worked out a deal and gave Apple their album for people to download for free? So even they’re figuring out different ways of getting through to the audiences; things are changing and the only thing that’s a drag right now is record sales. Like I said earlier there’s so many free files being shared and sharing sites that the bands are not making the money that they used to make that way. Years ago you’d go on tour to promote your record and you’d sell the record and make your money there and now you put out a record to promote the tour that you’re doing and that’s where the bands make their money so it’s kind of weird and you don’t make the money that you used to. I look at when I was in Motley Crue and I think about Nikki Sixx’s house and his toys; those days are gone. Motley and a bunch of those bands that made money in the 80’s would not have made that kind of money now because of the way things are set up, things are just different but it’s not dead.”

The Dead Daisies are currently back in home in the states and gathering momentum with each and every show. These veteran performers bring an energy and personality to the stage that many of today’s acts lack. Hard rocking, good time music combined with likable personas from each member makes for a great combination that is always worth the price of admission.

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To discover more about The Dead Daisies, please go to www.thedeaddaisies.com.

Danny Coleman (Danny Coleman is a veteran musician and writer from central New Jersey. He hosts a weekly radio program entitled “Rock On Radio” airing Sunday evenings at 10 p.m. EST on multiple internet radio outlets where he features indie/original bands and solo artists.)

The post Dead Daisies “Burn It Down” all Around the Globe appeared first on Concert Blogger.

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payment-providers · 6 years

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New Post has been published on Payment-Providers.com

New Post has been published on https://payment-providers.com/tulips-the-beatles-and-bitcoin-mania/

Tulips, The Beatles And Bitcoin Mania

Did you know that mania is considered a mental illness? Google Dictionary defines it as a “mental illness marked by periods of great excitement, euphoria, delusions and overactivity.” Among its synonyms are “madness,” “insanity” and “lunacy.”

We’ll let you decide how you come down on that as an appropriate description of the cryptomania that has seized not just the payments community, but the public at large. Regardless of whether one feels it’s “lunacy” to invest in cryptos, everyone can agree that this trend has generated “great excitement,” “euphoria” and “overactivity.”

And possibly also “delusions.”

At the very least, it’s safe to say that many speculators have visions of wealth and grandeur, as some even go so far as to pour their savings into bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies — while at the same time understanding very little about how these currencies actually work, where their value is stored or, indeed, whether they have any value at all.

Many crypto skeptics have already prophesied the bursting of the bitcoin bubble, so there’s no need to rehash that subject. Instead, here are a few examples of other times in history that people got really, really excited about things they didn’t understand, and how that worked out for them in the end.

Tulips

Mania isn’t a 21st-century phenomenon. Back in 1634, just a few decades after Turkey introduced Holland to the tulip, the Dutch were going crazy for this bright, novel type of flower. Its popularity sent prices soaring.

After a non-fatal virus called “mosaic” infected the tulip population, causing “flames” of color to appear on the petals, prices spiked even higher, as people clamored to buy the most desirable variations.

Essentially, says Investopedia, people were speculating on the tulip market. It was a bubble that appeared at the time to have no limits. Just like with bitcoin, people were liquidating any assets they could spare — and some they couldn’t — to get their hands on more bulbs. Individuals were selling off land and life savings, believing they could resell the bulbs to naïve tourists for an even higher premium.

The price of tulips increased 20-fold in a single month. That’s when the prudent folks decided to lock in their profits by starting to sell. Everyone else soon followed suit, sending prices into a nosedive and triggering a nationwide economic depression.

The Stock Market

After winning the First World War, Americans were feeling good. It was an era of luxury, as industrialization continued to gain momentum. The stock market was seen as a risk-free investment where nothing ever went anywhere but up.

Every Average Joe believed he would be able to get rich off trading stocks. But, of course, as we understand today, the stock market has winners and losers — and Americans’ bullish enthusiasm would soon make losers of them all when the market crashed in 1929.

Investment bankers, brokers, traders and even owners who actually understood what they were doing in the stock market began taking advantage of the average investor’s cluelessness. They traded stocks between themselves to manipulate prices — then sold off assets after the public cottoned on to the price progression and bought into the stock, which, of course, sent its price through the roof.

Investopedia attributes both the stock market mania and its subsequent crash to a simple bit of human psychology: herd mentality. Hapless investors were easily swept up in popular opinion, which led to the market’s rise. But they were just as easily swept up in widespread panic as the market began to collapse.

Wall Street financiers tried to hold the system together by buying up large chunks of shares, but it was too little, too late. The dam had burst, and the entire world was awash in the Great Depression.

The Beatles

Not every mania involves moving money around — although it’s probably safe to say that Beatles fans spent a pretty penny on concert tickets, merchandise and probably also travel to attend shows, or even just a chance to see the Fab Four on their way into or out of a sold-out venue.

Fans were commonly seen screaming, crying, fainting or being restrained en masse by squads of police officers. They were undeterred by the possibility that police may resort to using fire hoses to hold them back. The potential for arrest did not faze fans who rode a baggage claim conveyer belt into an airport in hopes of glimpsing their idols. Crowds outside venues were so large and enthusiastic that the band essentially became besieged, unable to break through the horde.

What inspired such — dare we call it — “lunacy?” Certainly, young music fans will flock to a band that is talented, handsome and charming, as the Beatles were. And the band’s timing was good: Its members just missed the compulsory National Service program, and the first generation of Baby Boomers had just reached their teens. It was a prosperous time in the West, and the Beatles’ music fit that mood.

More than 50 years later, though, the obsession still cannot fully be explained. Some artists just have that charisma, that je ne sais quoi that drives fans mad. Previously, musicians such as Elvis and 19th-century pianist Franz Liszt enjoyed similar adoration.

Twin Peaks

The peculiar mystery drama television series “Twin Peaks” was an overnight phenomenon that had the entire nation asking in unison, “Who killed Laura Palmer?” It was the “Stranger Things” of its time. Everyone was talking about it.

Unfortunately for the show, its popularity waned just as fast as it exploded. Fans lost patience after the first season failed to answer the critical question of whodunit (try telling those folks that “How I Met Your Mother” was in its ninth season before finally revealing the mother’s identity).

It was all over in 14 months. The show lasted just two seasons. Yet even today, it enjoys traces of the mania that marked its 1990s debut — as evidenced by the revival series on Showtime.

Real Estate

U.S. housing prices started their steep climb in 1999, eventually moving out of alignment with factors like household income. The Federal Reserve Board slashed interest rates after the 2000-2001 recession and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to encourage prospective homebuyers to borrow money.

Banks discovered they could reduce risk by bundling mortgage loans and selling them off to investors, who could make money off interest payments from the borrowers.

At the same time, global investors had noticed the rise of U.S. real estate and viewed it as a safe investment. They made the same mistake as 1920s stock market investors, believing they couldn’t lose.

For a while, everybody was rich and happy. There was so much money to be made that banks were lending to prospective buyers with subprime credit.

As long as everyone could pay their mortgage, everything would be fine. But when people lost jobs, interest rates went up and housing prices went down, it was a perfect storm that led the housing bubble to burst in 2007, sparking another global economic recession soon after.

Conclusion

As the great prophet Yogi Berra once said, a nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore. He also said, it’s like déjà vu all over again.

Both aphorisms seem rather fitting for where we are right now in the midst of the cryptomania that’s taken hold of not only the trade press, but the mainstream press too. Crypto and its regulatory implications have even made the agenda at the upcoming G20 Summit. Imagine that.

What’s certain is that fads come to an end, and bubbles eventually burst — and the life span of either is anyone’s guess. The one question today that no one can answer is when that will happen. To that question, there is one certainty: For many, it will come to an end far too late for them to recover.

You only know that the bubble has burst when, in fact, it has.