Ann Arbor Show, help!!!

@stoger wrote:

But truly, Lucinda, Tom and her management team have done about all they could to bypass Live Nation/Ticketmaster and/or give “rebates” to fans forced to deal with that monolith. And I think tom’s offer here is more than generous.

At the risk of being labelled a “butt kisser” (again), I agree 100%, stoger…

Yes, there might be some bias locally going on–but even that beats a 100% Ticketmaster set-up. How many shows have we all been to where there’s not even an option of dealing with “locals” by way of purchasing?

IMHO, “locals” ALWAYS have an advantage, at least for those venues that have a physical box office. It’s always easier to find out what’s going on regarding ticket sales, etc., and to buy the tickets themselves, when you can walk up to the venue & talk to a “flesh & blood” employee…

Good luck in Ann Arbor, stoger. “Gird thy loins” appropriately… 😆

Tom

@mrm717 wrote:

I wish the forum would take my posts as a dialectic and not be so defensive, but possibly learn from this episode.

If I may be so bold as to speak for stoger, who I know personally, I sincerely do not think he was being anxious or defensive, just a wee bit sarcastic. He’s like that… 😉

And, in regards to Lu & her management being sensitive to TicketMaster / LiveNation issues, etc., you might want to search the forum for the many discussions held in the past on this very subject. Lu’s manager & husband Tom Overby (“TOverby” in this forum, fka “InsideJob”) has gone so far as to threaten to cancel a show (in Ventura, CA, last Summer) due to outrageous TM/LN fees being charged after he had been promised they would not be nearly as high. This “threat” succeeded in having the fees substantially reduced. IIRC, some fans who had already purchased tickets even got fee refunds. Also, during the last major tour in 2009, Lu & Tom gave credits equal to the total of all TM/LN ticket fees at the merch table at several shows. I took advantage of this generous offer myself at one show, buying a heavily discounted t-shirt…

Tom

Thanks –I will check that out -as yes, we may be back later in the year with the band. I do look for as many non-Live Nation rooms as possible, but in some cities it’s very challenging if the only “right” place to play is LN.

@wickisticki wrote:

Sign me,
Ann Arbor Yuppie

Welcome to the forum, wickisticki / Ann Arbor Yuppie!

Tom

And here is yet another single GA ticket for sale on eBay. This one is a bidding auction (as opposed to “Buy It Now” at a fixed price). As of this posting the bidding is up to $64…

Tom

Why I feel Blessed:

Surviving hurricane no vacation for tourist

Of The Oakland Press
Clarkston resident Michael McCarthy assumed his trip with 11 friends to New Orleans in late August would be like so many of their outings in the past – plenty of fun, a little gambling and good eating.
On Aug. 26, McCarthy, 52, a single, retired GM quality engineer, met his friends – a plumbing shop owner, several engineers, retirees and an employee with a utilities company – at Detroit Metro Airport, and they fl ew down together.

When the group arrived, broadcasters were talking about Hurricane Katrina heading toward Florida. On Saturday, Aug. 27, forecasters reported the hurricane heading toward Louisiana.

“The locals told us that it happens three times a year,” he said. ” ‘Don’t worry about it.’ “

Then word came Sunday to evacuate.

“There were no flights available,” he said. “We still thought we would stick together and get through this.”

Before the storm hit, it was “business as usual” in the French Quarter. “People were walking around, going to restaurants, enjoying themselves,” he recalled.

That night, McCarthy, who had been at a Holiday Inn, moved into the Hotel Monteleone with one of his friends.

The group went to the lobby to watch the storm. McCarthy stayed up all night as it raged for four hours.

“I never heard such a piercing sound from wind,” he said.

The next morning, the street had twigs and palm fronds and sewage, but no signifi cant fl ooding. The hotel had about 500 living there, said McCarthy. Kids tracked sewage in, making it “grungy,” he said, but people were surviving. Then the power went out. The group spent a fi tful night in stifl ing heat.

On Aug. 30, the group tried to rent a bus, but the plan fi zzled.

“We heard FEMA confi scated the buses for their own use,” he said.

The streets were becoming more dangerous, with looters roaming around. “We could hear gunshots in the distance,” McCarthy noted.

While other parts of the city were flooded from broken levees, McCarthy’s group was not affected.

Nonetheless, on Thursday, Sept. 1, the hotel closed.

“The staff gave us a bottle of water, encouraged us to go to the convention center, and wished us luck” he said.

About 50 hotel guests, including the 12 from Michigan, left together “for safety reasons,” McCarthy said.

As they were walking, a police officer advised them not to go to the convention center. Then another offi cer steered them toward a ferryboat loading dock, across from a police command building.

Hearing hot meals were being served over a bridge, the group was headed that way when they spotted thugs wielding golf clubs.

“The locals said, ‘They’re letting the white people out,’ ” McCarthy recalled. “I felt very, very bad.”

The group wasn’t all white, he reports. “We had people from Holland, Brazil, Turkey, Chile and Australia, and several African-Americans.”

As McCarthy’s group crossed the bridge, a police offi cer fired a shot over their heads. The group turned back and stayed overnight on the loading dock. McCarthy stuffed his credit cards in his sock. He learned later there had been a riot of some kind near the bridge.

The situation felt “very primal,” he said. If they had to go to the bathroom, the people did so outdoors, he said.

On Friday, the group was taken by bus to a staging area in Jefferson Parish, about 30 miles outside of New Orleans. From the bus, McCarthy saw “all these poor, desperate people trying to get out of the city,” he said.

At the staging area, the group found itself part of a crowd of 15,000.

“I never have seen such filth in my life,” McCarthy said of the debris. He avoided the two portable toilets.

But McCarthy noticed a flurry of activity at this location.

“Helicopters were landing every 10 to 20 seconds, taking people out and bringing supplies in,” he said.

The bedraggled group was given military meals and water, and at nightfall two buses came to give them rides.

“One of the parishes had heard about our plight and had donated the buses,” he said. “People thought we were getting preferential treatment and we may have been.”

McCarthy could hear shots being fired as the buses pulled away. “People in the camp had weapons,” he said. “We all ducked down, but nobody was hurt.”

The group – referred to in the local press as the “stranded tourists” – was taken to Alexandria, La., where they found a hotel around noon on Saturday.

On Sunday at 6 a.m., the group flew out of the state, landing in Detroit around 8:30 a.m.

Looking back, McCarthy stresses the tourists had it “a lot better” than the locals did.

“Those poor people sat in deplorable conditions surrounded by rotting corpses and violent looters.”

Since he’s been home, he’s been watching TV coverage to “fill in the blanks” and listening to the blaming going on.

“FEMA, New Orleans and the state are all partially to blame. There is enough blame to go around.”

In the end, McCarthy said, he’s grateful to be home.

“We should try to find solutions and figure out how prevent this from ever happening again.”

Addendum:

Even though I was unable to secure tickets for Lucinda, I remember coming home for NOLA and being able to catch the White Stripes final show at the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit and the next night seeing Lucinda at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. Lucinda had two Louisiana musicians opening the show for her that night and I remember the tears starting to flow when she did Lake Charles as on encore. The tears where from the residual sadness of knowing so many people perished in this man-made disaster of a poor evacuation plan. I never thought I would be “looting” local stores for food and water to survive, but survive we did.
In the winter of 2008, I went into respiratory failure and thought it was a pretty screwed up life event until it was discovered I had Stage I lung cancer that was operable and treatable surgically and didn’t require radiation or chemo. My doctor who knows about my Katrina experience keeps telling me I’m good at dodging bullets. My partner went to the doctor when I was stranded in NOLA over “nerves” and it was discovered they had coronary artery blockage. They had no other symptoms. I know that I’m blessed.

Mike

Thanks LaFayette and thanks to the wonderful people of Rapides Parish who sent a bus and driver to evacuate us form the staging area on I-10 and the Causeway. Shame on the Gretna police for firng rounds over our heads as we were trying to cross the Crescent City Bridge on order of the NOLA police.