WOO-HOO! All caps shout out to TicketMaster

TM and U2 make good on membership benefits

If I could, I would shake my booty online to show how jazzed I am. Ticketmaster emailed, called and offered me the purchase of a General Admission ticket on the right date for the right show. I bought it!

Lyrics for General Admission fans:

I'm ready to duke
I'm ready to dive
I'm ready to say
I'm glad to be alive
I'm ready
I'm ready for the push

The cool of the night
The warmth of the breeze
I'll be crawling 'round
On my hands and knees




Lisa and Steph, will those be our hands?

International connections

I've launched a new program through my Brave Writer business. It's a free email list that supports homeschooling moms who want to succeed at teaching their kids to write. I also offer support in the entire area of living language arts which bleeds over into just having a rich, interesting life at home.

In less than two weeks, there are about 300 women who've joined the program. My in-box is full of emails from moms who have questions and comments. Such a blast!

What's touched me the most, though, is connecting to moms from outside the U.S. I think back to my time in Morocco and France (oh, how the Internet would have been such a lifeline for me!) and just love that I can reach out to moms living in Papua New Guinea or Fiji! (Both last week)

Today, I received the sweetest note. At first I worried. The woman writing it had horrible grammar and some spelling issues and she was trying to tell me how well my writing program was working for her family. Cringe... until I got to the end of her note:

Well in me you have a rare case because I am applying and adapting  your amazing ideas to Spanish, so I have to work twice, and please you are a writer so excuse my English grammar because I am doing my best because in spite of I understand to read it,  I'm learning to talk and to write it. 

You are excused. I'm humbled.

Gracias.

Women vote in Iraq

(image from Fox News)

May today be the beginning of real salaam in Iraq.

Cause I could never understand, the mysterious distance, between a fan and a woman...

This week will live in my memory for one thing: the week that I identified with the marginalized. And the crazy thing is, I experienced it as a white, middle class, band fanatic.

The U2 presale is being dubbed, "Tuesday, Bloody Tuesday." Clearly, the demand for the Vertigo Tour outstripped supply as well as technology and thousands of "paid up" members were unable to obtain seats at all, or were stuck with nosebleed seats they didn't want. But undaunted by their anger and disappointment, these same fans (and me) attempted to purchase our tickets today on the day of general sales... only to be shut out again.

Entire venues were completely sold out in 15 minutes.

E-bay had tickets on sale before the open sales even began.

What's more interesting to me than the fact that I didn't ever get a General Admission ticket is the way various fans are interpreting this week's events.

Ticket holders shame the fans who didn't get tickets by saying really helpful things like:

"Life isn't fair. Get over it."

"You were only promised a chance to get a ticket, not an actual ticket. You took your chance and lost."

"I prayed and it worked for me. You might want to pray."

"Don't blame the band. They are awesome and it's a privilege to hear them play (and I'll be the one right next to the stage with my wristband firmly attched to my writst)." My note: since when is it a privilege to pay $40 in order to get an advantage to buy tickets and then not benefit from that advantage?

It's the stunning lack of compassion I'm observing between ticket-holding fans and those who were victiims of a deeply flawed system that sent me over the edge today. Some of the ones who got tickets credit their speedy typing abilities (I type really fast), others believe that they were just the lucky ones and that luck is one of those things that goes both ways (and don't want to admit that something went terribly wrong with the whole system).

Overall, though, there is a glib judgment against any expression of anger because they have tickets.

In theological terms, we call that attitude: privilege. Privilege corrupts. It's the sister to power.

The fans without tickets are rightfully angry, hurt, disappointed and disillusioned. Instead, they are shamed for expressing their feelings by the ones who got tickets.

I couldn't help but think of the following comparions:

Whites speaking of the conditions for African Americans—This is a land of opportunity. Take advantage of it. Use the opportunities that are there instead of complaining. Anyone who wants to succeed badly enough can. You must rise above the conditions of your poeple who have contributed to their woeful condition. (Similar to, You take advantage of the ticketing chances there are. Everyone has equal access—oh really?)

Evangelical Christians speaking of those they consider "lost"—There has to be real consequences to sin. It wouldn't make sense that everyone goes to heaven. People who are lost (and have never heard of Christ) deserve hell. (Similar to those who never got tickets didn't deserve to get tickets.)

Privilege is a dangerous elixir that makes us unable to appreciate another's pain.

I'm glad I got to identify with the marginalized fan this week.

WCKY—Move over Rush

Air America Takes Cincinnati by Storm

I confess. I'm a talk radio junkie. It started years ago on Christian radio when my toddler only knew how to climb the refrigerator and tear up the house. I kept radio on in the background to stay sane!

First xtn radio: Rich Buehler and John Stewart in California (KBRT and the FM xtn station). Then: Rush Limbaugh "back in the day" (before Snapple went public and Dan had his national Bake Sale).

Consistently I've listened to John and Ken (KFI), Dr. Laura (pre-syndication and beyond—before her conversion to Judaism—Did you know she used to treat homosexual callers like decent human beings who were held to similar standards as heterosexuals in their relationships?), Bill Handel, and some of those KFI wacky Sunday night guys.

I moved to Cincinnati just as the John and Ken show failed here (no surprise—local talk radio discusses whether the flower shop in Clifton ought to be incinerated for painting its store purple, I kid you not!). John must have caused car accidents.

I was stuck with few choices so I continued to listen to Rush. Glenn Beck came on the air just as 9/11 occurred. Then Sean Hannity kicked Pat Berry off the air and you had one long white male conservative diatribe from 9-5. If you tuned in all day, you heard the same articles dissected by three guys using the same talking points—sometimes you couldn't even distinguish the difference in voices. It was nuts!

Needless to say, I am tired of it.

I want a woman on the air (for one thing) and/or someone who isn't just toeing the Republican line with his every breath and loyal nads. We need some critical thinking, for heaven's sake.

Glenn Beck thinks he is smart. He is not. Rush is smart and a good showman, and more human than he used to be. But he is blind to his myopias. Sean Hannity drives me crazy. He shouts over his guests and says the same things every day, especially how great his fans are and then they say back how great he is and then they go round and round about humility and how great they all are. Nauseating.

So when my Jon called last week to tell me to tune in to Jerry Springer, I thought he'd lost his mind. I had already heard Al Franken (a complete loser as a talk show —he's not funny) on the Internent version of Air America. I couldn't imagine I'd find anyone interesting on WCKY. But I liked Jerry Springer, amazingly.

Then last night I tuned in to Ed Shultz and Randi Rhodes (A WOMAN!) and was shocked. They were actually good radio show hosts. Yes, they are completely unabashed progressive liberals, but that is actually interesting to me since I just don't hear that position represented around me, like anywhere.

This morning, the Mark and Mark show had a segment about National No Name-Calling Week (sponsored by the LGBT), and introduced the segment calling the right "Neo-Con Fascists of the Death Cult" which I found hilariously ironic.

The big shock, though, isn't the hosts. It's the quality of the callers. I am still reeling. These are articulate people who call in. I can't believe that they actually sound like they have real points to make, that they can string together six sentences without needing the intervention of the host, and that they might have read a book once.

So I figure to give them equal time, I must invest about fifteen years of listening. Then I'll let you know what I think.

Recovering lost adrenaline: U2 ticket debacle

I, and thousands of others (not Lisa), did not get the U2 tickets we hoped for today in spite of our membership presale advantage. U2.com and Ticketmaster are responsible for the biggest presale debacle in recent memory. The TicketMaster agent I spoke with today said that in all her years working there she had never seen anything like it. Thousands of fans had passcodes they had paid $40 to receive, that did not work, that looked like they were working only to lose the tickets they thought they had secured (that would be me). It was an infuriating, unbelievably stressful hour of increasing despair.

I moaned, cried, scrambled, telephoned, emailed, posted, got angry, got sad and finally got tired. I'm out of steam.

For more details, visit the @U2.com website. And if you are a disenfrachised fan, you can join the growing ranks of fans who plan to file class action lawsuits. ::Sigh:: As David said so well in the comments section of a couple of days ago: Heroes always disappoint.

On the brighter side:

I do have a ticket to see U2 in Chicago. Not the one I wanted (it's in the rafters) and I am still planning to try again on Saturday for the General Admission ticket I had hoped for, but it is a ticket and I won't let this bad management keep me from enjoying the fan gathering my two U2 buddies and I have planned for four years.

Lisa and Stephanie: my U2 posse—I'm keeping the faith!

Chicago here we come.

Julie

The View from Here

The snow is still on the ground. This is how it looked as it fell.

My Internet is down, my phone doesn't work and

presale tickets go on sale VIA INTERNET tomorrow. Is life cruel?

At least I found out that I can't count on my Internet 24 hours before that fateful hour.

Will travel to husband's reliable workplace to secure tix to Chicago tomorrow a.m. One stop with two shows in the entire midwest. Think these tickets will be coveted much? Hmmm?

Well, back to my Bacon Turkey Bravo at Panera with reliable wireless service. :)

Drinking tea with Bono

So U2 is set to announce tour dates on Monday. U2 members, of which I am one, have the "privilege" (after shelling out a mere $40 US) of purchasing two tickets during advance sales on Tuesday. Two. Two for the whole tour. Not four. Not two now and two later. TWO en toto. What a privilege. Maybe they'll let me shell out $40 more as a thank-you gift.

Uh, I'm not sure who is advising these U2 fan managers, but like, there are four members in the band. Each band member (except Adam) has a family with at least four members. Hey U2, only TWO of your family can come to the show together. Like, did anyone actually think about how lame the number 2 is in relation to a U2 concert?

Oh wait, maybe that's it. You-Two...

In any case, all anxiety hell broke loose inside my skin at the news. I have two teens who believe they are going to see U2 this time. I have a husband who is on the fence. It's too late to shell out another forty just to get two more tickets that won't be together with the other TWO anyway...(and besides, the best arena—not on the floor—tix are going for, ::choke:: ::sputter:: $160 US!) I can't buy three tickets. I can only buy TWO. Now I can buy TWO and then one more later along with the other schlubs who didn't take advantage of the fine offer to ensure advance ticket sales... and then flip a coin to see who will sit alone in the nose-bleed seats....

Or I can go to more shows with the regular, not-as-committed fans who aren't spending all of their "family-trip-to-Italy" funds to see the band through binoculars in some ignoble midwestern town (You-Who?)...

Or I can breathe into a paper bag with my ($350 US) black and red iPod plugged into my ears and pretend this isn't happening, happening, happening...

What I'd really like to do:
Pull up a chair across from Bono, offer him some tea, square my shoulders and THEN give him a piece of... my..... m i n d....



....

....

Was I saying something? Mmmmm. Yeah, the two ticket idea is so great. I mean, I just love it. And all your songs. And you are such a good writer... Oh and I was just licking the stamp for my donation to all those poor little African kids.

And like, I can't wait to see you perform in that rock 'n roll capital, Indianapolis, and the $320.00 for two tickets is just no problem whatever....

Sign my iPod? Oh, you already did. ::blush::

Mmmmmm.

-----

Aren't they, like, the greatest band ever?

More and more and more snow!

Which means more and more and more shoveling.

I love snow to look at but this shoveling means I have to give up my New Year's resolution not to exercise for another year. My muscles are sore which I pledged to prevent by sitting on my duff typing rather than running around the neighborhood like some middle-aged woman in fear of cellulite and sagging arms.

Alas, my body is turning buff, much to my displeasure... yet to the general approbation of the masses.

(Photo compliments of my ten year old: Liam. He risked his barefoot toes in a windy doorway to capture me after shoveling the walkway.)