Author: Pearl L

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GRR!

ok, I actually have a lot of things to update, but i’m REALLY REALLY MAD about THIS!

so Sigur Ros is coming to the Wiltern on November 19. Tickets went on sale this morning at 10am. of course, I don’t realize this and i check at 1, and most of the tickets are sold out. fine.

but there are still a couple of rows left! so I go ahead, click on the ticketmaster link to pick up two seats up in the mezzanine level. tickets are 33.50 apiece. ok, fair enough.

now here’s the part that makes me MAD. the price breakdown.

Base price of one ticket: 33.50
CONVENIENCE CHARGE: 8.40
Total for one ticket: 41.90

Now that’s starting to get a bit hefty, right? For one freaking ticket!! But wait, there’s more.

Subtotal:
Face Value of two tickets: 67.00
Convenience Charge for two tickets: 16.80
ORDER PROCESSING: 3.70
Grand Total: 87.50

What the HELL is going on?? and this is basic US Postal Mail, not UPS (which ranges from $14.50 to $25). so basically, the CONVENIENCE charge for one ticket is about ONE QUARTER of the ticket’s total price?? AND they have an order processing fee?? WHAT THE HELL IS AN ORDER PROCESSING FEE?!?! isn’t that already in the CONVENIENCE charge?? wtf!!
OOHHHH.. CLEAR CHANNEL, I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!!!

I protest. I’m not going. I want to pay to see the artist, not fork over a shitload of cash to some corporate radio monolith. this is awful. Ticketmaster has gone beserk. Clear Channel has waaaay too much influence over ticket prices. I want to cry!

Pearl Jam was right. :(

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current affairs

it’s so depressing to read the news nowadays. I feel soooo glum after just a glance at the headlines.

I was watching C-Span2 yesterday when President Bush gave his speech on the importance of containing Saddam Hussein. More and more, my views about the war have become ambivalent… it just feels inevitable. It really makes me mad because it seems like a situation we could have easily avoided for the time being. Did the “scary Saddam” issue need to come up now? in an election year? when presidential approval ratings are sinking because the bush administration is doing nothing about the economy? I mean honestly. and now that we have brought up the issue of Iraq, if we don’t back up our words with action, then we’re basically asking for it.

President Bush has done nothing except create a culture of fear in hopes of distracting from more pressing domestic issues. Yes, the crisis in Iraq IS important, and yes, Saddam is “homicidal dictator” as Bush said in his speech yesterday. But he’s been a dumbass in handling the entire situation. It’s so crassly American to play cowboy-shoot-em-up in handling everything, crying that the UN is a poor sheriff and claiming to take over the ten-gallon hat from them. Honestly, the UN is a WORLD organization. there is no LEADER. Kofi Annan (spelling?) is just the lead compromiser in the organization, not any sort of dictator. He can’t tell individual countries what to do. And when the US threatens an unprovoked attack at another country, what does it mean for the world organization at large? what does it mean for global security and stability when one of the world powers (arguably, THE world power) suddenly decides that the world doesn’t look right by them and will wage war to correct things to suit themselves? That’s what the US appears to be doing. for all Bush’s talk on doing this for the world, if the world isn’t on our side, we’re not doing this for anyone but ourselves. What will happen to Iraq if there really is a “regime change”? Bush said that the government in Afghanistan now is better than it was when the Taliban was in power. But we haven’t replaced it with anything. Things honestly arent much better… in fact, they might be worse. We took out the Taliban in Afghanistan and didn’t do anything there once we got rid of our enemy. Is that what’s supposed to happen in Iraq too? what’s to say that the new government won’t be dangerous too?

The US does NOT have as much power as George W. Bush wants to think we do, and it’s time he and his administration got their heads out of their asses and realize what’s going on. There is no Cold War Russia anymore, Condi Rice, there is no need for war mongering, Donald Rumsfeld. Remember, it’s that stuff from the Reagan presidency that got us into trouble economically speaking during George H.W. Bush’s term.

I miss Bill Clinton. :( Al Gore made a speech about a week back expressing what a lot of people were thinking but couldn’t say about the war. For a moment, the former senator from Tennessee looked like he might be onto something and finally becoming the party leader the Democrats have needed for quite some time. But ohh… I miss Bill Clinton…

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song to disparage: jennifer love

song to disparage: jennifer love hewitt – barenaked.
didn’t she already release this song two years ago?

cheesy song of the hour: mandy moore – crush
gosh, for all the smack talking about teen pop, I actually kinda miss it. frankly, avril lavigne annoys me and she’s an even worse bit of artifice than than the music industry had been accused of before. >_

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back to school

oh ucla. *sighs*

I’m back for my fifth (and hopefully final) year at this university, finally with some semblance of direction, although not necessarily purpose (in the grand scheme of things, anyway). It’s so weird coming back to school after even just the shortest of breaks. Summer session is so different from the regular school year. For one thing, it’s a LOT less crowded. I can come to campus and find parking fairly easily, even if it means parking on the roof of that massive behemoth of a cement structure called Lot 2. that sort of ease is unheard of now; daily parking is sold out by 7am.

I’m digressing. The biggest difference isn’t just huge difference in the number of people on campus, but also the attitude. I can’t explain it… when I come on campus, I feel the urge to go shopping. I feel that encroaching smug complacency of being a quote-unquote “UCLA student,” in the land of beautiful people and pretty possessions. Now that I’ve been removed from it for a while, I can see a sort of.. sickness that pulled me and a few of my friends away in the first place. I guess… one way I’d describe it is by comparing it to how it felt on other campuses. I remember.. when i walked onto UCSD’s campus the thought that came to mind was “a great place to study.” I walked onto UCSB’s campus and thought “I’m getting drunk just standing here.” I visited Berkeley, and thought “this is where [deep voice] great thinking [/voice] takes place. One steps onto UCLA and feels like they’re being aggressively marketed to..by UCLA selling a sort of “great educational package” the way Manny Calavera sells “great travel packages.” One walks around campus and notices tons of people wearing UCLA sweatshirts and feels compelled to pick one up for oneself. One walks on Bruin Walk and feels every organization trying to sell themselves to you, the potential participant. And, not to mention that because it’s LA, everyone feels like they have to look good too… or they’ll cast a downward glance on someone who doesn’t.

Maybe I’m just noticing it because there are a lot of Greek people in this music history class i’m taking right now, or because it’s the beginning of the year and everyone’s in their mad rush to recruit/be recruited. I’m probably just speaking out of disillusion as a former recruit who kind of feels like she’s been taken for a bit of a ride. Not by the stuff she’s been part of, nono. I guess I finally feel like I’m in a place where I appreciate my education and this opportunity I’ve been given, and i’m so wary about selling it, or getting duped into buying something else. It took me long enough. *sigh*

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grrrr. the current music scene

grrrr. the current music scene really bothers me. give me good music! I want good music!

songs i’m enjoying these days:
dave matthews band – where are you going
dave matthews band – grey street
(both off busted stuff, formerly incarnated at the lillywhite sessions.)
U2 – electrical storm. the video for this is on launch.com right now. the song is great, but the video is a little… well, it’s not as sexy as it’s trying to be. sorry, boys. if you wanted to be sexy, you should have adam goin’ at it with the girl instead of larry! larry’s cute, but he’s too much of a nice boy for those sorts of shenanigans. >:)
clinic – walking with thee
suede – electricity. this is an oldie, but boy is it a goodie.
kylie minogue – love at first sight (remix). my love affair with kylie continues. but why can’t she do any good music videos? geesh. why the hell does she wear heels with her cargos?