Senators To Staffers: ‘Quick, Find Me Some Taylor Swift Lyrics I Can Use To Bash Ticketmaster’. You and I both know that’s how this happened:
Several bipartisan members of the subcommittee were flummoxed by the lack of accountability. Many quoted Taylor Swift lyrics to tell him so. “Live Nation and Ticketmaster is the 800-pound gorilla here. You have clear dominance, monopolistic control. This whole concert-ticket system is a mess. A monopolistic mess,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said. “May I suggest, respectfully, that Ticketmaster look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m the problem. It’s me,’” he added, citing lyrics to Swift’s 2022 banger, Anti-Hero.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the top Republican on the subcommittee, added a reference from another 2022 song, Karma. “Karma’s a relaxing thought,” he said. “Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?”
Fanboys? I think not. That’s no reason not to break up Ticketmaster, though. They and Live Nation are music’s Evil Empire.
$122 Mill For Leg Hall Expansion? Maybe, maybe, you can justify some sort of parking garage. The rest?:
Studio JAED determined a 60% increase would be needed for public spaces, a 32% increase for private spaces and 73% in spaces for operations and infrastructure. Based on those numbers, the company suggested an approximate 57,000-square-foot addition to the hall.
Stemming from projections made during a Legislative Building Committee meeting last August, the estimated project budget totals $122 million. Of that, $74 million would go toward direct costs like the parking structure and site work; $24 million would cover indirect costs like administration and contracting; and $24 million would pay for other services, such as moving, storage and design.
Riverfront Development Corporation Goes After Black-Owned Business. Great piece by Amanda Fries, horrible behavior from the RDC and the rest of Gentrification, Inc.:
When a hookah lounge opened along the Riverfront in January last year, there was little fanfare.
No one – from the surrounding bars, restaurants, offices and retail space to the Riverfront Development Corp., which oversees development at the Wilmington Riverfront – appeared to have an issue with Pure Flavor Hookah Lounge opening at 960 Justison St.
But when the lounge’s owners applied for a taproom license to serve alcohol, that changed.
In a July 19, 2022 letter to the Delaware Office of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner, development corporation Executive Director Megan McGlinchey asked the commissioner to deny the Black-owned business’s request because “there have been numerous complaints” about the lounge and “the operators.”
RE: ticketmaster/live nation – obviously no one here is a fan of kid rock but years ago he stopped having his tix sold through live nation and set up his own ticketing company and tix are less than through live nation. so you’re telling me mega stars cant set up their own ticketing?
I’ma guess the demand for Kid Rock tix is several orders of magnitude lower than the demand for Taylor Swift tix.
Which makes more reason for the bigger stars to establish their own agencies
And more reason for fans to stay home with a bottle of wine and a download of the latest album. Or start going to small venues with emerging artists.
Yup.
or small venues with exceptionally talented long time performers
It’s amazing how many bands from the 70s and even 60s are still touring.
The “this is totally not about race” hookah lounge statement reads like it was concocted by someone who thought is was 100% about race.
Very brave of the business owners who complained to offer “no comment” to the reporter.
Megan McGlinchey is Brian’s wife. How much is she paid for running this “quasi-public” money sink?
Hey, don’t forget–they were gifted tax-exempt status from the Generous Assembly last session, with at least two members on the RDC Board. It’s also where Mayor Mike made his bones.
So DeSantis declares war on “wokeness”, perhaps the most nebulous political term of all time, suspect it really means we hate anyone who dares to disagree with us. A definition? Anyone? Anyone? On to Ticketmaster, they have been the bully on the block for decades if memory serves. It’s a monopoly, and since we no longer enforce the law it is allowed to go on and on.
Got another entreaty from the Delaware Democratic Party today. You know, to make sure I didn’t miss the opportunity to join (with my $$’s) the Democracy Defenders.
Once again, it was addressed to ‘Kyle’.
So the Grateful Dead certainly sold more tix than Taylor swift. Who remembers filling out the paper exactly to their specs and paying with a postal money order, all done through the mail? I am 100 show survivor which may explain some things.
I guess it’s more manageable that way when each customer is buying tickets to multiple shows. I had a friend who used to use his two vacation weeks a year to follow them around every summer.
And of course if you couldn’t get Dead tickets you could always wander around the parking lot telling people it was your birthday.
Chauncey DeVega makes a good point: The media isn’t reporting the real story of national politics, which is that the Republican Party is carrying out a war on democracy.
https://www.salon.com/2023/01/26/dupes-the-media–with-desantis-help-race-for-is-no-real-competition/
Gee, when a story like this breaks, you think you’d see a big list of all the nursing frauds in Delaware and beyond:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2023/01/26/business-fake-nursing-diplomas-indictment-nursing-education-rescource-center/69845513007/
Not to be. But the next time I see “Dover man arrested with drug paraphernalia on New Street,” you betcha it’ll say his name, age, address, next of kin, and have a lovely picture.
Wonder why.
It will be interesting to see whether said fraudulent nurses gravitated to certain employers.