Month: June 2010

Speaking about Mike, it is his 29th birthday today.

Mike is a pretty decent guy. I can’t say that he’s let me down all that much in my life and if you ask him, I’m sure I’ve let him down a lot more times than him! Don’t get him started on his ‘battle wounds’ that he acquires when he’s out for a good night of drinking with me. At one point, Mike’s parents were thinking of taking out extra insurance out when he goes out with me!

Mike shares the same qualities that I do…he is constantly striving to be a gentleman, he cares about people and he likes to have a good time.

What friend would feed you beer while you’re relaxing AND wear a shirt with ‘Palmer’ on it? Only Mike!

I am honoured to call this man my friend and I hope he has one of the better birthdays he can ever have.

Mike obtains a lifetime pass to our hot tub on his birthday today. Cheers!

I expect everyone to give Mike some birthday wishes today!

**Picture taken from the Ottawa Citizen news article.

It’s definitely official…the man who is Mayor in Ottawa is running for another term.

I’m actually excited that he is running again for the fact that I was saying the other day that I don’t really know of what he or the city council have accomplished in the past four years. With him running again, I’m sure his promotional campaign will make it clear what they accomplished!

Too bad that they can’t really put anything that matters to us most…the future of public transit (Hello Light Rail!), street expansion (is it just me or is Trim Road faster to walk down than to drive down these days?), and general awesomeness.

My favourite moment of the Mayor being in Office is when the day after he was elected, Mike says “I’m sure glad I didn’t vote for that guy!” but meanwhile, the month before that he was commenting about how he was excited to see him in office and when it came down to the vote, I think an episode of Golden Girls was on and he decided to watch that instead.

Mike, history will never forget that you thought Gollum would have made a decent mayor. At least the history of Palmer won’t allow it to be hidden from the public!

Anyhow, here’s to an interesting election. I’m excited to see how the spin doctors will make it sound like the Mayor accomplished much of all. $10 says they’ll mention something about a successful bus strike in the cold cold winter months of ’09!

I am alive and well after the Earthquake of 2010. Actually, I haven’t heard of anyone perishing.

I was in my office on the 5th floor when the building started to shake. It literally felt like a dump truck driving by…I thought that was strange considering I never feel that near the building.

Sure enough, the real tremors started a second later! It was quite intense. I really had no idea what to make of it at first. I was thinking something in the basement may have blown up (like the boiler room or something) but then after 30 seconds I realized it must be an earthquake of some sort.

I’m not sure if this follows strict evacuation procedures, but I hightailed it out of there! Grabbed my iPad and made a run for it down the stairs. I have to admit that I was a little fearful being stuck inside a building when an earthquake happened. In hindsight, it wasn’t a big deal, but at that exact moment, it was a big deal.

I made it outside and didn’t see any of my team mates (I sit in another area so didn’t see them on the way out). I roamed around a bit…everyone’s cellphones were jammed and people were wondering what the heck was going on. I did manage to find Stephen and Aski and hung out there for awhile and then noticed that some team mates were still in the building ten minutes later! I was quite mad but then realized that they were still waiting for the evacuation order.

In the end, we were asked to go home for the day and I pondered how I was going to get my car out of town. I was headed to Perth to see Lynn and Sue and my parents. Here I was stuck in Quebec with my wheels, and word was that traffic lights were down on the Ottawa side, everyone was in the streets and there are only a few bridges from Quebec to Ontario.

What to do? I did the most logical thing anyone can do in a situation like this…make your way AWAY from the crowd. I started taking some back streets and got stuck in a few places. I may or may not have travelled across what can only be described as a ‘most certainly not legal pathway for a vehicle, but most certainly awesome pathway to another street that would get me out of town’ and headed West. Traffic didn’t seem too bad until I made it to the Island Park bridge (I since found out that traffic is usually pretty bad around that area anyhow) and hightailed it on the Parkway, down Carling all the way to Kanata and then hopped on the 417 and headed out of town.

I make it sound like it was a quick trip but it took me an hour to get to Kanata from Gatineau. I’m trying to figure out how long it would have taken me on a normal day….I would say I spent an additional 20 minutes on the road which isn’t too bad.

Perth actually isn’t that far from Ottawa. 50 kms later, I arrive at Lynn and Sue’s place which was a wooded paradise. 12 acres of land gets you that! I had arrived just as my parents arrived so we got the grand tour. I especially enjoyed the trap door to the basement! The tranquility of the woods was amazing as well…and they are right next to the Tay River!

We had an excellent feed of salmon, a few beer and rye and then we went inside to play some guitar for awhile while it poured outside. I’m not sure what time we made it to bed, but I can tell you I was up quite early the next morning with the sun coming in the windows! After some breakfast, I headed back for a nap and then we headed into Perth for a quick tour. It’s quite a lovely little town. I love towns where they have downtown on one or two main streets with a nice river running through it.

We had some grub at Fiddelhead’s Pub and Grill and then I headed home. Thanks to Lynn and Sue for the hospitality! I’m also hoping my parents are going to have a great summer down in Gaspe!

Turns out there was a little more wrong with the Mazda3 then I thought.

Front pads and rotors had to be changed, as well as the two front tires. Also, the parking brake cable had to be changed. $1,000 later, it drives like a dream. I should hope so! $1,000 isn’t something people like to spend lightly!

My only beef is the fact that I had to pay $152 to install a $102 brake cable (which arguably doesn’t have to get changed, n’est-ce pas?).

The next time I go to get some work done, I’m heading to a local mechanic to try them out. Let me know if you know of any good ones in the Ottawa area!

Fun was had by all in Ajax. The day consisted of lounging on the deck with a few beer and then Troy and I rocking until the wee hours. Is it just me or is there an inverse correlation with the age of your body and the time you go to bed? I think so!

I also tried my hand at fixing a few things on Uncle Richard’s computer. First up…some RAM! He now has blazing fast 1GB Ram in there! Hot dog! I personally noticed a difference. Not sure if he has yet.

The only other problem we had was us trying to bypass the Windows XP Genuine Advantage. I did manage to bypass it, but there was something strange going on when you went to the Windows Update site and it wouldn’t scan the computer properly. Something for me to ponder.

Dad and I went on a tour in the Mazda3 to determine what was wrong with the thing. Sounds like the brakes need fixing!

Thanks to Aunt Dinah and Uncle Richard for hosting a great get-together once again! I’ll be seeing everyone in August at the Pool Party.

Should be a fun weekend for all. I’m heading to Ajax to visit family (aka play guitar until my fingers bleed). Ah dang it! I just realized I forgot to pack the scotch. This may be a blessing in disguise. Last time I jammed with the family, this guy was TKO.

House is packed and ready to go…never pack before you need to! All the boxes do is remind you that you have two weeks to wait until you have your new house! Argh!

iplaying: Casey Jones – The Grateful Dead (Workingman’s Dead)

Troy sent me an excellent article about the woes of concert going these days…I am re-posting it in its entirety as I think if I simply put up a link, the story will be lost in years gone by.

This article makes me sad as I am trying to get Paul McCartney tickets tomorrow and the stupid system on Evenko is a random selection process.  Argh!

Originally Presented here: http://www.lfpress.com/entertainment/music/2010/06/10/14349376.html

Going to concerts used to be simple. You stood in line. You bought a ticket. You went to the show. You picked up a T-shirt, had a warm beer and a dusty hot dog. And you left with enough money in your wallet to do it again.

Not anymore. Now, to see your favourite band, you need connections.

You need to join a fan club. You need to find a presale. You need computer savvy and lightning reflexes. And if you want to sit closer than the nosebleeds, you practically have to raid your RRSP.

If it’s any consolation, fans aren’t the only ones suffering. The cash cows have come home to roost for rockers and tycoons too. Ticket sales have tumbled. Attendance has dwindled.

Artists from Christina Aguilera to Limp Bizkit have “postponed” tours.

Festivals such as Virgin, Edgefest and Pemberton are on hiatus. Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith has cut prices.

Even an act as seemingly bulletproof as Lady Gaga offered two-for-one seats to a recent U.K. gig.

In the U.S., Live Nation has waived fees at 50 venues for June. The show might still go on — as long as it goes on sale.

What in the name of Ozzy went wrong? Basically, it boils down to two words: Technology and greed. Years ago, they teamed up to destroy CD sales. Now their reunion tour is bringing down the curtain on the concert business. Here’s the story:

The Past

In 1980, Canada’s minimum wage ranged from $3 to $3.65 an hour. The average top-price concert ticket (according to my old stubs) cost $10 to $15. You could pull a shift at Mickey D’s to buy a ticket — and score a front-row seat with luck. Over the years, those numbers crept up like everything else, but the ratio held. By the mid-’90s, those fast-food jobs were netting $5-$7, while the average ticket (according to Pollstar) cost about $25.

The Eagles blew that to hell. When the California rockers buried the hatchet for their 1994 Hell Freezes Over CD and reunion tour, they became the first band to sell $100 tickets. And since there’s a sucker born every minute, people paid. Naturally, other rockers took notice. Many followed suit, jacking prices — while sellers upped service fees to get in on the action.

Fans felt the pinch. But when the Internet arrived, the squeeze really began. When ticket-selling empires went online, the game instantly changed. Instead of just vying with neighbours for seats, you went against a global army of scalpers who scarfed up tickets and resold them at usurious rates. Ticket companies got into the game themselves, redirecting buyers to their own reselling sites. (And let’s cut the crap: Anyone who resells tickets at inflated prices is a scalper. They can blather all they want about serving consumers; they’re still pond scum. And they will have a special place in hell — in line for eternity outside a Hendrix gig without enough money for a ticket.) Anyone over 30 probably recalls the last time they lined up to buy tickets, only to be told the gig had sold out online in minutes. And they likely recall thinking: This system sucks.

The Present

Today it sucks harder. Online piracy has decimated CD sales — fewer than five million albums were sold in the last week of May, the lowest total in decades. As a result, artists must tour farther and longer to fill their coffers. And since many still live in self-centred, champagne-filled dream bubbles, they don’t seem to believe the principles of supply and demand apply. They think they can tour in summer, though hundreds of acts are scrambling after the same shrinking pot. They think they can still charge big bucks (today’s average price: $63) in a dollar-store economy.

And — in a move so deluded, short-sighted and self-sabotaging even Wile E. Coyote wouldn’t try it — they believe they can soak fans for even more with VIP packages. For $350, you can watch Justin Bieber’s soundcheck. For $1,300, you can keep your folding chair after the Bon Jovi show — and perhaps take a picture of Jon’s maracas (sadly, this is not a euphemism). Before Aguilera folded her tent, she planned to charge $800 for a picture with her. And she was one of few artists willing to meet fans.

Most VIP packages include tickets down front, refreshments and a bag of swag, but zero contact. If that sounds lame, consider the widely circulated online tale of one fan who said he shelled out $1,100 for a VIP package, only to be “treated like s—” and laughed at by an apparent insider who told him the band makes its money from “dumb” fans like him.

The Future

So there you have it. And here we are — inundated with concerts we can’t afford, played by elitist stars whose priority seems to be fleecing the suckers one last time. Is it any wonder fans are staying away in droves? Is there anything to be done? Glad you asked. Now that we’ve cleared the air, let’s talk solutions. Here’s how the industry can get the concert scene back on the road to health:

Get Real

Do you have a one-named singer? Does your catalog have enough hits to fill two hours? Have you made an album this decade — and did anyone care? If not, you are not worth $100. So get over yourself and stop gouging us to make the mortgage on your mansion. We’re getting by with less; you can too. Oh, and instead of slashing prices when tickets aren’t selling — which only burns dedicated fans who already ponied up — sell them cheap first to get the ball rolling, then raise prices. As for vendors — you sell hundreds of thousands of tickets a day; adding 30% of the price in so-called service and convenience fees isn’t helping.

Space Out

There are 12 months in a year. But every summer, every act jams their tour into the same 12-week period from June to August. Next year, hit the road in the off-season. In much of this country, the concert calendar is a dead zone from December to March. You could literally be the only game in town. Yeah, it’s cold. But I suspect you’ll get a warm welcome from fans.

Scalp Scalpers

The Industry maintains scalping can’t be stopped. Really? Seems pretty simple: 1) Stop presales; 2) Put the attendee’s name on every ticket sold — no exceptions, no TBAs, no duplications; 3) Prohibit resales, changes or transfers; if you can’t use your ticket, it can be returned for a refund (minus a service charge) and goes back for sale at face value; 4) Make fans show photo ID at the gig. I’m no genius, but it seems that would work. So why hasn’t it happened?

Could it be because artists want to justify their own money-grubbing tactics? And if you think a ticket-name system would be cumbersome:

Have you flown lately? Your average airport processes several times more people every day — and searches them. Checking IDs at an arena shouldn’t be tough. If it is, let patrons check in early — hours or days — and get a wristband so they can breeze in at showtime.

Respect Fans

This is the big one. And the most basic. Stop treating people like walking ATMs. Stop treating rich ones better than regular ones. And stop putting money and marketing before music. Nobody wants a folding chair with your name on it. They want to hear you play. And if you want them to keep coming en masse, you need to make them all feel special.

If you don’t, it’s only a matter of time before all your gigs are private shows for millionaires.

And they aren’t big on folding chairs.

Be Your Own Boss

Need a role model? Try Bruce Springsteen. He disdains VIP packages.

He battles scalpers. Tickets for his last tour reportedly maxed out at $98. And he seems to do OK. So it is possible to sell out without being a sell-out.

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I had a pretty eventful day yesterday. I had an interview at work as well as get my diploma in the mail!

For those of you who have lost track, I actually finished University last year, but I missed the convocation and they only print out the diplomas once a year so I had to wait!

Turns out that I am Cum Laude. I’m going to assume that this means I’m smarter than my own mother, but considering I don’t even know what it means, I can’t be THAT smart.

Also, Rob called me yesterday saying he found a gold mine of moving boxes at the local elementary school. We loaded up the vehicles and the garage is now full of 100+ boxes. This was like winning the lottery! Forget the $50M from Lotto Max!!!

So the packing shall commence soon enough now that we have tons of boxes. It will be a busy month of June as Vero is heading on training in Maine near the end of June and we will both be away most weekends. Here’s to hoping that we get around to packing!

So the Gaspe Golf Tournament (held in Morrisburg, ON) was a hit once again.  I headed down fairly late on Friday only to arrive and find no one around!  I knocked on Lynn and Kyle’s room but only heard the television so I assumed someone was taking a nap so I went over to Subway for a bite to eat.  Coming back, I knocked again and finally unlocked the door to discover that there was no one there!

I spent the next hour waiting for someone to come find me as I couldn’t find anyone in the hotel.  It was a ghost town!  Lynn finally found me and we went down to the bar where I saw quite a few folks I haven’t seen in awhile…Uncle Johnny, Aunt Aggie, Kyle, Lynn, Danny and Kathy…had a few beers, chatted for awhile and basically set ourselves up to become golf champions the next morning!  (note: this worked for everyone except for me on the course!)

The next morning, Kyle wasn’t feeling too good so Lynn and I went for breakfast with Bobby and Uncle Willy.  I must admit I couldn’t finish half of my breakfast…never was a big breakfast eater!  Plus, it was a little too early for me!

11:30 was tee-off time and it was looking pretty ridiculous out.  It had already poured and it didn’t look like it would let up for the entire day.  Our cart managed to have a windshield and a cover for our bags which was nice (I can’t let the clubs Eric and Mike lent me get wet!).  We started out on the 18th hole and I must say that the few days at the driving range didn’t help me a whole lot throughout the day.  However, as Lynn says “I’m quite consistent.”  Yes, I’m consistent in the ball flying into the woods!  This was happening at the driving range as well.  Haven’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.

The skies went black fora while, but around 1PM it cleared up and we had a great day for weather (other than a wicked wind once in awhile).  Lynn managed to hit the longest drive in the Senior Men’s category as well as tying for first place in Senior Men’s.  Also, Kyle and Johnny did quite well for themselves.

The supper was quite delicious (as always) but I always forget to order the chicken (which looks amazing) and end up getting the steak.  I asked if I could switch and they didn’t see a problem with that and I’m glad for it.

Our entire team ended up winning a few door prizes…my first time winning something at the draw!  Kyle and I ended up with a set of ‘Super Lady’ golf balls (which are going straight back into the golf bag Eric lent me considering I lost a few balls!), Lynn ended up with another set of golf balls and Johnny ended up with a great golf bag!  Good score!

We headed back to the MacIntosh Inn and partied it up.  I enjoy room-hopping to find the next big party.  At one room party, Uncle Willy was listening to me talk about getting a ride-on lawnmower for the new house.  When I told him my property was 1/2 acre he said “I would hope a young man like you sits in an office all day could survive some exercise pushing a lawnmower around!”  Lynn wholeheartedly agreed!  So there you have it…no more ride-on lawnmower for me because of the wisdom of my elders!

The next morning, I headed out to Brockville and took a nice leisurely drive along HWY 2.  I was off to see Joe and Danielle whom I haven’t seen in quite some time.  Actually, the last time I went to their place was when I helped them move a few years ago!  Way too long.  It was a nice visit.  Joe and Danielle prepared a nice lunch and I got to see Joe’s progress on the man cave and hear his ideas for his entertainment center.  I am also looking into what technology to obtain so it was good to hear his ideas.

I headed back home and took a much deserved nap and then Vero arrived from being home for a week and recounted her tales.  All in all, another Great Gaspe Golf Tournament.  It is up in the air if there will be another one as the existing organizers are stepping down.  Here’s to someone stepping up to the plate to organize for next year!

Do not know what to think of the rain outside. Golf tourney may be a washout!