Sunday, February 19, 2017

Ticketshock [+ CORRECTION]



All right, Confessors, let's get some reports from Ticketstock, and photos if you have them.  (Send to ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com)

To my surprise, The Girl said she was game for some Ticketstock.

In the past, I have usually departed work early on Friday to attend.   I would arrive at the Irving Convention Center maybe four-ish, and the crowds would already be good and the booths lined up in several rows and along the walls.

This time  .  .  .

We arrived around 6:30.  Paid the $5.00 for parking.  (That's not extortionate for parking, but The Ticket should say something about that in their promotions since they stress that the event is free.  Maybe that's why they always stress it's "free to enter."  It's not free to arrive, but free to walk in the door.)

I will confess, Confessors, that I was rather startled.  I had prepared The Girl for a milling, noisy, T-fueled crowd.

But the crowd was very sparse; not a "crowd" at all.  There was a group of people sitting on the ground in front of the stage listening to (and enjoying) the round table, but the surrounding floor in the convention hall was pretty empty.

And there was a lot of floor to be seen.  The number of vendors with displays there was way down from the last time I was at a Friday Ticketstock presentation.  No need to place them in rows, there weren't enough of them to make up rows.

Just a strange vibe.  Despite the rich possibilities for TicketChick costuming from the Eighties theme, they appeared to be wearing the same outfits they'd worn a few years before when the theme was supposedly "Mardi Gras" (although I recall zero promotion for that at the time).  The three I encountered a couple of times seemed a little unsure of what they were supposed to be doing.

And in the past, they had moved bleachers up to an area in front of the stage to accommodate people who wanted to listen to the show.  On Friday, the bleachers sat unused against a far wall and people who wanted to listen (you had to be directly in line with the speakers -- a little off to the side and all you could hear was Corby's keening howler-monkey larf) had to sit on the ground or stand.



Now I'm thinking a couple of things here in possible mitigation:

(1) Maybe vendors figure Saturday is the big day so in these uncertain times they don't pop for two days, and there were a lot more on Saturday.  What was the vendor/booth situation like on Saturday?

(2) Maybe people were holding off until Saturday because they'd moved the TimeWasters' performance.  All the headliners were for Saturday.  I heard Junior say Saturday morning that they were expecting the biggest crowd in the history of TicketStock that day, but when I tuned in around 5 that afternoon I thought I picked up one of the Roundtablers making a sideways reference to a thin crowd, and there was little crowd noise being picked up.  How was the Saturday crowd?

(3) Maybe the bleachers were really only for the TimeWasters' performance in the past and so had not been put in place on Friday, and they got moved up on Saturday.

I applaud The Ticket's community outreach with its Guys Nights Out (Guys Night Outs?) and Ticketstock and all the rest.  I've enjoyed them all in the past.  But this one seemed a little denatured, a little dispirited and frankly, a little half-assed.

But give me your experience, and set me straight.  I'm thinking Friday was an outlier and that things must have turned around on Saturday.

The Girl was puzzled.

LATER:

ERROR ERROR ERROR:  Just heard Jake and Sean, whose reportage I trust, talking about how the crowds were amazing Friday night and also Saturday, bigger on Friday than Saturday, even.  Biggest Ticketstock ever.  So I must have gone at a quiet time, sample size too small.

Your Source for Quality Ticket Journalism regrets its misleading analysis.

Alert Snopes.

FURTHER:  To see how way wrong I was, see NTexas's sister's photos in the cut-and-paste link in the first comment.  Thanks much for that.  Man, I shoulda hung on.


30 comments:

  1. My sister went and took pictures some time this weekend.
    https://flipboard.com/@tporter2/ticketstock-q5mkeo4hy

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  2. Cactus posted in the Wednesday thread but here's the full Timewasters performance:

    https://www.periscope.tv/w/a3hvuDI2MTI1MzV8MU1ZeE5MZXJxUnBHd1d9R5xBDPqTiYU8Gcz0vbpta9YI_9m37dBqPnnIG5yT

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  3. Shag, even though you hate the Constitution, thanks for posting the link. Very cool to see them in action.

    Junez looks sick, and I am taken aback at Jub diddling his fiddle. Jub is an enigma. Danny's legs looked like Amy Winehouse's arms in her final days. Not sure how he held the weight of that bass.

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  4. Yes, a big thank you to sweet clean P1 Quinn Geer for periscoping the entire Timewasters show. This Arkansas P1 appreciates it.

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  5. Donovan gets my vote for best performance of the night with Jungle Love.

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  6. fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd

    Not sure where I went over the line back there PMan, but it's your call. Sorry about that. Thanks for the edit.

    Y'all carry on. Sorry for the interruption.

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  7. Now sing "You'll Never Walk Alone," cactus...ya know that's what's being sung at the end of that ass kicker of a Floyd tune, right?

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  8. Regarding yesterday's THL segment about songs about presidents:
    I realize that it's very common to complain about Corby's cluelessness about anything that came before him, so I shouldn't expect him necessarily to know that Dion had a big hit named "Abraham, Martin and John" about the time he was born. But Corby played a bit of the Marvin Gaye version, claimed that Gaye wrote it, which he didn't. No reason to expect Cobra to know that, but if he didn't know who wrote it, then he shouldn't have said he did.

    But the most appalling part of it is, he listened to the song pre-show, then announced during the segment that the "Martin" in there must have been referring to Martin Van Buren, despite the fact that the song is talking about assassinated figures, and came out just a bit after the death of MLK.

    This probably didn't bother anyone else, but as one who defends Corby a lot, it really rubbed me the wrong way.

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  9. For those interested, the entire Ticket Timewasters performance is on Youtube. Just search Ticketstock 2017 and it is the hour and a half video. Again, a big thanks to Quinn for scoping the entire show!!

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  10. Because, ya know, Marvin Gaye felt deeply about Van Buren's legacy.

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  11. He knew the secret handshake of the Van Buren Boys. It was his nod to that infamous NYC street gang.

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  12. And tonight Corby says that the actress who played Gosling's sister in La-La Land (Rosemarie Dewitt) was Peggy in Mad Men (actually played by Elizabeth Moss and doesn't look like Dewitt).

    Sigh. Maybe I need to ask THL to let me do E-news.

    (To throw Corby a bone: Dewitt was in Mad Men for an episode or two)

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  13. Bathroom talk = instant punch out.

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  14. @Anon1125

    Liverpool!

    Not really. I still haven't developed a rooting interest in the EPL. It's on the tube while the TeeBox is on in the background but I have no one that I can call my team. If that theory of the team will find you applies they are damn sure taking their time. Every one of mine is inherited. The Stars and Mavs were adoptees of my own but it was a given that I would be a Longhorn and a Cowboys fan.

    I like soccer. But, I am barely aware that the leagues exist. Kinda like Nascar. It's background visual noise while I listen or do something else.

    I am not ashamed to say I miss the Dick Hicks Nascar CD.

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  15. Lord, cactus, you're starting earlier and earlier with each passing year, brutha. Try to eat some food between "feedings."

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  16. I was out and about yesterday and was fortunate to be able to catch a lot of BaD radio, which I don't get to do often enough.

    I have a question.

    This is a real question about the show, not a veiled criticism.

    Are T.C. and Machine a more or less official part of the show, or are they popping on?

    Again -- I'm not criticizing, I'm not saying I don't want to hear them, I heard T.C. say something funny, I don't care how Bob and Dan decide to run their show. I'm just wondering if they're a part of the show like, for example, Danny is on The Hardline.

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  17. Machine was filling in for Jake.

    Jake contributes on-air a good bit every day, especially for Mavs talk because he knows the Mavs and the NBA better than the others do. (Machine does as well)

    TC also contributes regularly but not nearly as much as Jake does.

    They're not as big a part of the show as Danny is with THL

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  18. My kid went to a Liverpool game in London last week and played me some audio of "you'll never walk alone". I never knew that was the name of the song. I played him "Fearless" and told him it was from 1971, 26 years before he was born and told him it was from the "other brick in the wall" band (that's his only reference). He gave it a thumbs up. Score one for the boomers.

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  19. And let's keep the T.C.- and/or Machine-bashing under control here, OK? I just want to know what their official or semi-official role is on BaD.

    You got a judgment about them, pro or con, fine, just keep it substantive and civil. Fair?

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  20. I need to find a way to listen to that show more often. I haven't had time in the past to listen to podcasts, but that may be changing.

    So here's a dumb podcast-tyro question: Are all or part of Ticket shows available as podcasts? What's the best way to get them?

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  21. usave.it, $13.10/month gives you access to all full shows and archives

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  22. Also, BaD Radio's website has lots and lots of audio

    http://www.bobanddan.com/dans-audio-bag/

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  23. Hey nonononever :

    On youtube there is a video of both the Liverpool and Celtic fans singing it -- it gives me goosebumps every time... I believe the song is originally from the musical Carousel... Everton (Liverpool's rival) have a good singing tradition as well...

    Random Thoughts:

    Corby's "if you don't think like me you're old/dumb/closed minded" shtick was in full effect during CQH yesterday talking about the feds cracking down on recreational pot. I don't care about pot being legalized, and there are certainly some real good federalism, War on Drugs, resource allocation arguments to be had but nope... What we get from Corby is "only old people who hate gays could possible be in favor of the criminalization of pot." Corby isn't abrasive - his takes are just bog-standard liberal "I just read this on slate.com" fare. He's half as liberal as Gordo but 15 times less thoughtful...

    After the monster thread on politics a couple of weeks ago, I think my biggest problem is that the hosts are so ill-informed my non-sports and non-pop culture stuff. If you don't even know the basics, just shut it... Whatever your views on the bathroom stuff, if you don't know the publically available history of how it became an issue in NC, or the events surrounding HERO, or if you are unable to meet your opponents' best counter-argument instead of finding a disagreeable facebook rant to make your target, perhaps it is best that you wait to offer an opinion on live radio...




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  24. P-man, IMO Jake is definitely a "part of the show". He brings knowledge and intellect. TC, on the other hand isn't a part of the show. He offers nothing but a barrage of nonsensical windbaggery and eBrakes. Machine is just filling in, but he's no Jake. He's brings a whole lot of meh. I can't wait to see how much BaD improves once Jake has an even bigger role and TC is sent out to pasture for someone that knows what the hell they are doing.

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  25. TC having any sort of on-air time is inexplicable. does he have some sort of legal matter which requires ktck to employ him or is it by their mercy for a nonce?

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  26. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  27. Well, looks like DA's and others' poster boy for the one national show that could perhaps make a dent in our Heroes's hegemony is about to be scuttled by the USS PC Police: Dan Lebatard is very likely about to lose his up til now inexplicably lucrative career.

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  28. In reference to Anonymous 3:05 above.

    http://mashup.weei.com/sports/2017/02/24/dan-le-batard-magic-johnson

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  29. hmm somebody went sideways besides me too.
    re Corby and the evil weed
    yeah sorry, the ones that are against legal pot are the same ones that are bound and determined that theirs is the only one true religion. That Venn diagram does not have much room for other circles. There are a few law and order types that don't cotton to religion, but mostly it is the holy rollers and the Chosen that have determined we must be saved from our sins.

    I still like the political talk. We are still getting a heavy rotation of Trumps at the 7:00 Gordo.

    Hey, is anybody else looking forward to the Campound?
    I could not possibly care less about the combine. I'll be avoiding that festival.

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