Category: Music

The Cure vs Ticketmaster

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March 15th was presale day for the upcoming Cure tour. It was announced rather last minute considering the tour stars in May.

The Chicago concert is June 10th at the United Center (last time we saw them was June 10, 2016).

I registered simply out of curiosity – wanted to see what tickets would cost – but got wait-listed. Thank goodness I wasn’t actually planning on going! Besides risking my ears, I didn’t want to chance catching COVID. Unless they play an outdoor venue, I won’t be seeing them live again and I’ve made peace with that. I’m not happy about it, but it’s also not worth it to my health to see them again if I can’t do so in a safe environment.

Robert Smith has gone to battle against Ticketmaster but they are so shady they keep screwing things up and I don’t think it’s unintentional. They want to make artists regret trying to help fans get tickets at reasonable prices. The whole process from what I’ve read has been a shitshow. Some fans got access to tickets at multiple venues whereas some got no chance at all and it was very unfair.

Here’s an example of what went down:

Fan #1 put their first and only pick as Chicago.

Fan #2 chose Minneapolis as their first pick and Chicago as their second.

Fan #2 was sent a code to get tickets at Minneapolis and bought a few. A little while later they were sent another code to get tickets at Chicago.

Meanwhile Fan #1 never got a code at all!

How is that fair?

There’s a girl I know who sees them at every venue possible and I’m sure registered for the max venue picks (five, I believe) and got zero chances to get tickets. Now her only option is to either buy resale from the states where it’s allowed (Illinois unfortunately being one of them) or get a ticket through the official fan exchange.

Because the only way to buy/sell tickets in most states is through this official fan exchange, if someone bought four tickets and they are not able to go, then the other three ticket holders can’t go either because the person who bought the tickets has to show ID & credit card to get into the venue. There’s no way for them to list them for sale on the fan exchange and ensure those three people are the ones to buy them either.

Someone suggested people should only buy tickets for themselves but how does that make sense if you want to go with other people? There’s no way for multiple people to buy seats next to one another which is why one person buys them.

Ticketmaster has also cancelled legit tickets claiming the person violated their terms of service when they did absolutely nothing. They didn’t list their tickets for sale because they were planning on attending. Tell me that isn’t also intentional on TM’s part. I do not trust that company one bit.

I wish we all had the fortitude to refuse to buy concert tickets at all until things change. The fact that Ticketmaster is also a large reseller creates a conflict of interest. They have the incentive to not let fans buy tickets at face value and funnel them directly to the resale site at much higher prices. It’s criminal, and if the government doesn’t step in it’s going to continue to happen because there will always be people who will willingly fork over obscene amounts of money to see their favorite band live.

In any case, this seems appropriate today.

USPS Ridiculouness

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I had to make this it’s own entry since it’s so long.

Back in December I posted this to Facebook:

Let us count the ways in which the post office has screwed up in the past two weeks, shall we?

– 1 package was marked delivered 12/12 but has never materialized. Filled out a form on 12/17 and have never heard a peep from anyone. Since as far as the seller is concerned, it was delivered, so we have no recourse (it was a Christmas gift for me from Joe) and are out $20

– 1 Christmas card envelope was delivered without the card inside

– 1 Christmas card (from Terri) was in our Informed Delivery on December 23rd but has never materialized

– We received 3 village newsletters (1 on one day and 2 together on the same day)

– We received 2 pieces of mail that are not ours (one for the next door neighbors and another for someone who lives two miles away)

– My Cure Wish box set is missing. I pre-ordered it over the summer and it was supposedly shipped in November. This one might possibly still show, but I have no way to ever know where it is because the seller doesn’t provide any tracking information. Lesson learned; will not order from overseas again. To add insult to injury, I’m out $31 and could have gotten it from Amazon already for $10 less.
Until this year we’ve never had an issue with the post office but this is beyond ridiculous!

In January I posted this update:

1 – Today a man left the missing Christmas card from Terri in our door. This was caught on my doorbell camera. I do not recognize him from the neighborhood and when I went out to retrieve the mail, he looked to be sitting in a car out front, so who knows how far away he came to deliver it, but that was super nice of him! Unlike whichever neighbor got my Christmas gift and kept it. Lord help me if I see someone in the neighborhood wearing my t-shirt….

2 – I previously filed a second claim, this time online, for the missing Etsy package and the post office came back saying the postal carrier delivered it (I’m sure they did – just not to the right box), so I spoke to Etsy customer service, opened a case, and was refunded yesterday. I tried dealing with the seller directly but all they kept saying is “tell me how I can help” even after I told them how they could help. I was even willing to order again from them if they could ship the item UPS (which I told them I would pay for) but their response was “tell me how I can help”. I think there was a language barrier. An Etsy rep assured me the refund would not be deducted from the seller before I summitted my claim (I think Etsy eats the cost) as I did not want to harm a small business. It’s not their fault the post office sucks!

3 – I’m still waiting to hear back from the place I ordered my Cure box set from. I submitted an inquiry a week ago and it said to expect 5 business days for a response due to heavy volume. I wonder how many other people never got their orders. Without a tracking number how can I confirm they even really sent it? Ugh.

The Universal Music Store, where I ordered my Cure box set, did in fact reimburse me, so I ordered the set from Amazon and not only did it arrive in two days, it was $10 cheaper. Lesson learned; no more overseas pre-orders for this gal.

January 2023 Recap

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Egg prices were outrageous. $7.50 for two dozen at Costco which is considered a deal.

Discovered the Unsolved Mysteries podcast and started binge-listening like a mofo.

Put my Robert Smith Funko Pop on my Cure shelf above my computer desk.

Bitched on Facebook about the fact that you cannot add McDonald’s Arch Card to their mobile app for payment. So stupid!

Made cream cheese strudel for breakfast one day and dare I say it, was tastier than any stupid coffee cake you can buy at the store.

Found the cutest and comfiest slippers on clearance at Walmart ($6 each).

Started tracking my sleep with my Apple Watch in an effort to prioritize it. Gamifying life is the way to go!

Made zucchini bread with walnuts that made me question why I do not make it more often as it’s delicious!

Finished, and started, a few TV series:

Finished Better Call Saul. Final season was a bit of a slog.

Started three new series:

That 90’s Show (Netflix) – 7/10 – Love the nostalgia factor & the one girl reminds me of Alana from Broad City

The Last of Us (HBO Max) – 6/10 – Olivia from Fringe is in it. Based off a PlayStation video game

Night Court (Peacock) – 7/10 – Bernadette from Big Bang Theory is the judge & John Larroquette reminds me of an old Billy Eichner. Loved watching the original when I was at my grandparents house.

Culver’s ruined my day, and all future trips, by switching rom Pepsi to Coke in all their restaurants. Coke is too sweet and rips up my stomach so it’s a sad day that yet another restaurant only serves Coke products. I normally do not get soft drinks when dining out anyway, but the kids meal at Culver’s comes with one and I looked forward to a little Pepsi with my burger. I refuse to buy soda for at home when a case of 12 is $8 and you used to be able to get a case of 24 for $5!

The main tv in our living room (a Samsung 55″, which we got in June 2015) developed the purple spots of death meaning we’ll need to replace it relatively soon depending on how quickly the rest of the backlit LEDs burn out (or how much it starts to annoy me seeing a purple cast on everything). So far it’s just in two spots along the top and left side so they aren’t always noticeable.

Discovered our new favorite ice cream brand – Favorite Day by Target. All the flavors we’ve tried thus far are delicious (Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Fudge, and Mint Cookies & Cream). Didn’t think to check the ingredients until the third container, only to realize there’s high fructose corn syrup in them. No wonder! Will probably still get it, but won’t go as hard on them moving forward.

Finally added Wish to my vinyl collection. It’s a re-issue that I preordered from my new favorite record store, Mile Long Records. The prices are a bit higher than you’d pay on Amazon or Walmart, but I like supporting a local business and it’s owner, Mike, is really nice.

Decided to stop spending hours every night scrolling TikTok and get back into reading instead. Set a goal of 24 books this year and was ahead of schedule after reading 4 books in January alone. Since my eyes suck and I’ve yet to get bifocals or progressives, I dusted off my old 2010 Kindle and started using that again. Other than needing to be charged more frequently than when it was new, it’s been great!

Family Dinner

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The kids came over Friday (just them) for dinner. They were a bit late (we agreed on 5:30, they texted earlier in the day to say they’d be over closer to 6, but arrived around 6:10 (turns out K had been at Indiana Beach with her SO and they caught traffic getting home)).

E brought us another copy of Aggravation.

I’m not terribly fond of this version. It’s sweet how he always buys them for us, though.

He also got me a Cure vinyl import called Pillbox Tales I had never even heard of!

I made spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread for dinner, which they loved (my meatballs came out fantastic even though I haven’t made them in years) and we played UNO all evening. They left around 11 pm.

Yesterday I realized you can make public portions of your collection in Libib (a free app/website I use to track all our music, DVDs, and video games) so I published my vinyl collection and shared the link with E. He in turn shared his whole collection from the same app, haha! I wonder if he got the idea to use it from an Instagram post I made a few years ago when I started using it. I’ll have to ask him next time I see him.

Sofi Tukker

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Last night I watched a stream of a full Sofi Tukker set from June 16th @ The Greek Theatre in California. It was soooooo good! I only wish it was longer. Their sets tend to be just over an hour most times. I’ve been spoiled by The Cure’s 2-3 hour sets.

Needless to say, I had a very suggestive dream about Sophie last night. Yes, I said Sophie. She is H-O-T and no worries, Joe knows how I feel about her. :)

Anyway, I just realized I never wrote about their newest album, Wet Tennis. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first but it quickly grew on me and I love it! When it first came out I was playing it over and over nonstop on Spotify while waiting for my pre-ordered CD copy to arrive.

I was even able to snag a signed copy for ordering so early!

I just love their vibe so much. They come across as genuinely nice and caring people. We don’t see enough of that in the world, particularly these past few years.