Robert Baird

It's Monday. It's raining. And people, tourists in particular, (excuse me, why don’t you just poke out the other eye while you're at it!) cannot walk with umbrellas, so let’s talk Ticketmaster.

In late September/early October singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams is coming to both Los Angeles and New York for multi-night stands where the first set will be one of her older records in its entirety and the second a mix of new stuff. It's a wonderful idea that I wish more artists would adopt. In some ways, it's a dream come true. How about the Stones do Let It Bleed or Exile followed by their new, ahhh, crap. Or Springsteen does, The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle followed by his ahhh, well, we will find out in the fall when his new record comes out.

So in the pouring rain, I walked over to the New York venue to avoid the service charge of buying on the web. The problem is that like many venues Town Hall doesn't sell tickets to its own shows until 3 weeks prior which in most cases means by then it'll be a sell out and there will be no tickets to sell. Which means, of course, you are trapped into going to those robber bastards at Ticketmaster.

Of all the despicable creatures that swim the music business seas, none are as slimy and calculated and utterly crooked as Ticketmaster. It's like what would happen if an Octopus and a Great White mated. It's ruthless and it's everywhere. Worst of all, they rub your nose in it by calling their exorbitant fees a "Convenience Charge."

I know, I know, I'm raging against the wind. It's a monopoly, and whatever big business wants is all good for the USA right? Sometimes it's just all about the rant.

Now that I was soaked and ticketless I alleviate my disgust with BBQ. In the middle of lunch I heard, "I Wouldn't Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me)," by Bobby Blue Bland and couldn’t help but think of Michael Vick. The whole bloodsport animal fighting culture, which I've always thought of as a rural, redneck kind of weirdness, is sick and horrible beyond words. Oddly enough humans killing humans seems easier to swallow than dog fighting because animals are so defenseless against our twisted designs. If represents for me, mankind at it’s very worst; like going backward several steps back in our mental and emotional evolution. If Vick is found guilty of bankrolling and being part of this mess, the NFL should lower the boom and banish him immediately.