I'm still looking for Tori Amos tickets for next Friday at Massey Hall.. If no one comes through I'll try my luck with scalpers at the door..
[5:24:48 PM] []

Incidentally I do have 2 extra tickets to next Sunday's Music Without Borders concert (The Hip, Alanis, Our Lady Peace, The Ladies and Bruce Cockburn).

They're in Section 102, Row 28, Seats 19&20 (it's at the ACC, west end stage setup). Email me if you're interested. If no one's interested I'll dump them on EBay in 48 hours. Bonus! I'll give you a ride to and from the show if you live in Waterloo.
[5:23:06 PM] []

Best article on scalping I've found: 'Ticket Scalping'
[5:20:32 PM] []

Tickets went on sale today for the Music Without Borders show w/The Tragically Hip, Alanis, the Barenaked Ladies, ...

Cell phone in hand and notebook in my lap I tried my hardest at noon today to secure the best tickets possible and failed. While the seats I did manage to buy (I managed to not buy a lot of half-decent seats because Ticketmaster sucks) aren't bad they aren't great either. Now I've had problems with Ticketmaster before and have mailed them bitching about their service but they have a monopoly on the concert business so what can you do?

What can you do? Certainly not much. If you're unhappy with buying shitty tickets through TM the only apparent solutions are to buy on EBay, buy scalped tickets at the door, or to use a ticket broker. In all three cases you'll be paying well about the face value of the ticket. Actually a good read is The Economics of Getting Scalped.

Is it fair that corporate sponsors and more affluent customers get the best seats? I don't think so though it is in keeping with some pretty basic economic principles.

Problem: Fans of a popular band have a hard time securing decent seats without paying crazy amounts of money for them. Not only that but all the extras of the event such as parking, beverages, food, and merchandise will sometimes double the cost of the event.

There must be a fair solution. After one over priced concert this summer where we had absolutely awful seats John remarked that we need a concert co-op. A group of people who bring the band in and charge the fans at cost. Of course we'll still have the problem of demand exceeding supply especially if everyone wants good seats. But I'm sure a co-op could manage a fair way to distribute the good seats. They wouldn't necessarily go to the corporate sponsors, or get 'iced' (' a slang term for bribes given in exchange for tickets at the box office, and fraudulent promoters who divert the best seats to networks of connected brokers'). There could be a lottery, or the good seats would rotate among co-op members (i.e. you be guaranteed good seats for at least x events that year..), or the band would distribute tickets to hard core fans ahead of the general public (some bands already do this..).

Bleh. What am I trying to say? I think it's that I'm frustrated with seeing my favorite artists in large venues. Of course one day I'll be rich and I won't complain that I can go on EBay and shell out $500/ticket, but till then... :)
[5:11:17 PM] []

Some more people have written in and so I have much more to read before I can make more comments. I also have to finish reading today's paper (I only read the paper on Saturday and don't watch CNN anymore (which is probably very healthy)). I should also brush up on some history too.. So more comments later. In the meantime I'll resort to some fluff.
[2:16:37 PM] []

Dave is also commenting on on the $10MIL from the prince of Saudi Arabia.

I agree with Dave when he says, So what if the Sheik wants to say something. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. We should thank him for sharing his opinion, and listen and maybe learn something. (full comment)
[2:10:16 PM] []