Depressed by TomPetty.com

I just bought my tickets to see Tom Petty (my all-tim favorite band) in some town called Estero, FL May 1, 2012, and I am very disillusioned and depressed by the long, arduous purchase process.

To get pre-sale tickets, I had to sign up for the Highway Companion Club (HCC). I was already a member from a few years ago when I attended a Tom Petty concert. I kept waiting to get my pre-sale access code in my email on the morning of the ticket sales, but nothing arrived. I went to the account page of the site, and it said my HCC membership was expired. So I had to renew – for $45! There was no indication on the website that the club costs money. I don’t remember paying for it before. Do you?

So I went ahead and renewed the membership, feeling ripped off and deceived.

Then I log into the Tom Petty page AGAIN, waiting for the code and how to buy tickets, only to learn you have to go to Ticketmaster.com.

So I had to log into that page (meanwhile I’m at work; I asked my boss for permission to buy the tickets using my computer at work because you’re not supposed to shop online during work).

I did not realize the tickets were on ticketmaster, and I did not have my password for their website with me. So I had to request a new one, go to my gmail, get that, log in AGAIN only to be notified that the credit card I entered does not match the one they have on file for me. What the hell? Who cares which card I use? They make it hard for you to give them your money, and they charge a fee; no wonder everyone hates them. So I have to start all over with them, entering my account information (meanwhile the counter is ticking away about to give up my seats and my blood pressure was going up).

The best seats I could get from this pre-sale are in the third section back. Each section has 20 rows! That’s not pre-sale, if you ask me. And I paid $250 by the time all was said and done. That kind of price should get me into the first 10 rows or so.

What happened to the Tom Petty who said he fights to keep ticket prices down?

What happened to the Tom Petty who fought the record company and industry when they wanted to raise the price of an LP?

What happened to the Tom Petty who wrote the songs on the album “The Last DJ” , excoriating the radio business that has been taken over by corporations, greedy record executives, high prices for seats, the Golden Circle, etc?

What happened?

I can’t imagine he when over to the Dark Side. That’s as inconcievable as Neil Young loving war or Bruce Springsteen hating the USA! Impossible.

I am very disillusioned, and this may be the last concert of his I ever go to. I feel that the presentation of the information about the pre-sale was deceptive. The fees are too high, and the choices are too limited, considering all the hoops you have to jump through. And I don’t live anywhere near Estero, FL, so I have to drive hours to get there, spending even more money to see the show.

I compared prices on brokers’ website ,and they are selling seats in the first 20 rows for $450 each and more. That’s insane. How do they get those seats, and why does Tom Petty allow them to buy them? He’s got enough clout to set a standard.

I don’t go to as many concerts as I used to because of the price. I pick and choose, and Tom Petty shows are on the top of my list of shows I am willing to pay a little extra for good seats. But to get seats three sections back for an exorbitant price is more than I think I’m willing to do anymore, even for my all –time favorite band. It’s a sad day for the rock and roll fan.

He should listen to what he wrote in his own song, “When Money Became King”:

http://www.lyricstime.com/heartbreakers-the-tom-petty-money-becomes-king-lyrics.html

Addendum: It’s 24 hours later, and I’m still pissed. Good thing the concert is five months away. Give me time to get over it, I hope.

Two weeks later: Those “premium” seats they are selling go for$250 each, and they do not let you know what seat you got until you pick up the tickets! Ha! They could be anywhere in rows 1 – 15. In the Germaine arena, the first section has 8 rows. That means you may pay premium, but you don’t get premium. “Premium” to me means the first section. I am very disappointed. I know I have to get over it. I have been a T.P. devotee since 1981. It’s hard to adjust.

Two New Blog Pages Added

I added a new page for my YA novel, County Line Road, soon to be available on amazon.com

County Line Road

The other new page is for my screenplay, Super Shark.

Super Shark

Click on the tabs above to check them out!

From my Android phone

I just downloaded the app for my Android phone and am trying it out.

Vaclav Havel has died

I saw him in L.A.
What a great man, my hero.
If there were more people like him, the world would be a better place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16236393

Commencement Address by Milton Mayer

This is one of my all-time favorite essays. I read it regularly as a checkup on myself.

“Commencement Address” by Milton Mayer:

As you are now, so I once was; as I am now, so you will be. You will be tempted to smile when I tell you that I am middle-aged and corrupt. You should resist the temptation. Twenty-five years from now you will be ineluctably middle-aged and, unless you hear and heed what I say today, just as ineluctably corrupt. You will not believe me, and you should not, because what I say at my age should be unbelievable at yours. But you should hear me out because I know more than you do in one respect: you know only what it is to be young, while I know what it is to be both young and old. In any case, I will not lie to you in order to make you feel good. You will be old much longer than you are young, and I would rather that you believed me the longer time than the shorter. . . .

Click on this PDF link below to see the whole essay:

Commencement Address Milton Mayer

Reprinted in What Can A Man Do?, 1964

Edited By W. Eric Gustafson

Covey’s Third Alternative

These videos give a good, brief overview of the ideas behind this new approach. The important question to ask when in a conflict, they assert, is to ask if you want to reach a win-win solution that is better than anything we have thought of so far. I like it. It’s good for brainstorming on a positive footing.

http://www.the3rdalternative.com/special-training/special-training-video-1/

It gets you thinking beyond the framework that there are only two ways to look at something.

 

 

Let There Be Peace on Earth

Peace Concert Held at Korea’s DMZ

August 16, 2011

Daniel Barenboim, the world-renowned conductor and pianist, led a peace concert performed by the West -Eastern Divan Orchestra in Imjingak near Korea’s Demilitarized Zone on the country’s Independence Day.

Part of the WEDO’s tour in Seoul, this finale concert was organized in efforts to bring “understanding, patience, courage and curiosity to listen to one another,” the 69-year old conductor said in a video message prior to Monday’s concert amid high tensions between the two Koreas. The WEDO performed the Beethoven symphony cycle during its three-day concert in Seoul, culminating in No. 9 in D minor “Choral” at the Korean border.

Beethoven’s 9th symphony, also known as “Ode to Joy,” was chosen to deliver a message of peace and “strength of humanity,” according to Barenboim as Beethoven composed this widely celebrated piece while losing his hearing abilities. . . .

 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/daniel-barenboim-conduct-peace-concert-koreas-dmz/story?id=14314750

Video of 1960′s Tour de France

This is a great video of the Tour:

It shows the people waiting for the riders to come by, the caravan, and the riders. It’s a time capsule of an era gone by. The old cameras with the flash bulbs. The racers running into a pub to get beers. The fans helping push the riders up the gravel mountain roads. The race unites, then and now. It was amazing to be there in 2010 and experience it first hand.

The credit date at the end is 1966, but I’m not sure of the exact date of this Tour. Jacques Anquetil won in 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964. It looks like him on the podium. Is that Poulidor in second place in the Mercier jersey? In any case, I love watching this video, and I’m glad that it was posted on vimeo.

Tour de France 2010

We just got back from our trip to see the Tour de France. I made a new page with photos and travel descriptions: “France 2010″. Check it out.

Reading: J.M. Coetzee “Summertime”

In Summertime, his new novel, J.M. Coetzee has chosen to write about himself as if he’s died and a biographer is trying to piece together a vision of the man from fragments.  (See the Books page for more.)