THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #520 - October 8, 1997
Magical Armchair Digest Wednesday, October 8 1997 Volume 01 : Number 520
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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:
Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #515
misheard lyrics
Philly show tix
RE: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #516
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 16:26:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: JARAMINI@aol.com
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #515
In response to the recent discussion on "Video Killed the Radio Star":
Someone said that BFF has covered it before but it wasn't released, and I'm
not sure if it was released or not, but I've heard The Presidents of the
United States of America cover it too, I like their version alot, but I'd be
very interested to hear what BFF's would sound like.
John
jaramini@aol.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 16:03:08 -0500 (CDT)
From: Elizbeth Hackett <ehackett@danenet.wicip.org>
Subject: misheard lyrics
From Underground:
"Officer, friendliest little boy's got a mohawk and he knows just where
it's coming from"
From Uncle Walter:
"The voice of 50 years experience
is chuck-lagged to the television"
"He and his sol-de-sport blare
They're getting rich with a mail order scheme"
!@#$%^&*!#$%^*!@#$%^&*
On another note, how about a cover of Weird Al's "Harvey the Wonder
Hamster"?
!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&
I've noticed that amongst the Hanson criticism, the Spice Girl bashing has
been non-existant. Any words about this?
!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&*
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/2029/
!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&*!@#$%&*
Quote:
"Fly me to heaven's gate"
- -Veruca Salt
"Fly"
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 18:00:44 +0000
From: Hilarie Surrena <walflowr@Op.Net>
Subject: Philly show tix
I just called Ticketmaster and tickets for the 11/9 show at the Electric
Factory go on sale at 10AM Friday. If you buy the tickets at the TLA on
South Street, you don't have to pay service charges.
Hilarie
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 15:54:30 -0700
From: Peter Duniho <peted@microsoft.com>
Subject: RE: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #516
>Date: Mon, 6 Oct 1997 09:39:56 -0500
>From: Lee_Swartz@Sonymusic.Com
>Subject: Ticketmaster & Fees
>
>To Josh & anyone else who chooses to bitch about TicketMaster,
>
>[...]
>I don't work for T.M. nor do I give a rats ass how you get your
tickets,
>and really I should keep my nose in my own business, but you do have
>options. If you want to boycott T.M., do so, just don't use their
service
>and then bitch about it. it got old two years ago and it's still old.
>
>boy those guys in Pearl Jam sure are courageous....
This response ignores reality. The reality is that Ticketmaster will
only sometimes allow the venue to sell tickets without them. They have
a lot of clout, and for those places that want the distribution that
Ticketmaster can provide, they often are forced to agree to not sell
tickets via any other method, including the box office. Also, some
venues require that you are physically present at the box office to buy
tickets, and those venues may or may not be conveniently located to the
ticket-buyer. If the place is a two-hour drive, you may not be able to
make that drive more than the one time for the actual show. Finally,
not all venues even have a box office, per se; they may rely entirely on
Ticketmaster for all ticket distribution.
You could say "well, boycott venues and acts that put up with or
institute those kind of restrictions." However, sometimes there are
good reasons for the "must be present to purchase" rules, and sometimes
the venue has no choice. It's either play by the Ticketmaster rules, or
go under. Boycott them and the acts, and you only hurt the venue.
Ticketmaster isn't going to notice...they have a lock on ticket
distribution, and if they lose a venue, they just add another somewhere
else. A boycott hurts the wrong people.
The odd thing is that you say "boy those guys in Pearl Jam sure are
courageous," which implies that you actually understand that
Ticketmaster has a monopoloy and uses it to their unfair advantage. A
band like Pearl Jam that chooses to not play by the Ticketmaster rules
*does* have a lot to lose and it took a lot of courage for them to do
so. In fact, there are great venues Pearl Jam can't play because those
venues already have standing contracts with Ticketmaster, ones which
disallow any selling of tickets without Ticketmaster getting a slice.
In fact, agreements like this make it difficult for any other company to
get into the same business; the profitable venues already have contracts
with Ticketmaster that preclude using other distributors. And a venue
won't switch unless the alternative company has adequate distribution,
which it can't get until it starts signing a significant number of
venues. Catch-22.
Pete
------------------------------
End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #520
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