I went to my first rock concert in 1978. The tickets were bought over the counter by standing in line. This dawned on me on how simple it was watching how getting access to a major event is something the internet hasn't made easier. In fact it might be a little more messed up. If you were a kid of the burbs, you could walk up to the National Record Mart (remember them?) and get tickets from somebody who acted like a rock star because he worked in record store, making minimum wage.

Inflation does what it does. Remember when a souvenir t-shirt was under $10? but the idea of if you can get through the Ticketmaster, Tickets.com, or Live Nation sites when a major show is announced, order your two seats and pay a "Convenience" fee tantamount to buying a third ticket? That is a little nutty, when the convenience means your printer at home, your toner, their lack of an actual person aiding your purchase. Who they paying with that fee? The electric bill? The good folks over at Kleinhans Music Hall have been hosting concerts of all colors once again and that is a great thing as the place is perfect. I had to laugh a little when a poster on twitter lamented how they were just using their box office staff instead of a "robust ticket selling website like Ticketmaster." The same robust site that crapped out on numerous Springsteen and Roger Waters hopefuls earlier this week.

Give me a robust busy signal for a few minutes or a short line to wait in for the real deal over the computer freezing anytime. The net ain't there yet.

Got my seat though.

Procured tickets for the umpteenth time to see Bruce Springsteen (yeah, I know, old guy tunage) tomorrow. Since the first time I've done that, the world has certainly changed.

The first instance was my best bud and I cobbling together our allowances, giving them plus the unspoken you're going to give us a ride surcharge, to his older brother for the whopping sum of $10 for two tickets. Two years later, my mom cued up at National Record Mart and got us the tickets. I had a test, so Mom came up home with two in the first row of the upper golds of the aud (she got a cool story out of it and much respect from my school crowd) We rode with his brother again and might have spent the towering sum of $20.00 for two tickets. Got a chance to tell that to the man himself during a brief exchange of hellos in 1994.

Those were the days, no service charge and the souvenir shirts that you HAD to have were all of eight bucks.

It tells you something that the economics have shifted where you look at a concert ticket and think a $75 price tag ain't terrible. But the evil ticketmaster will mess with us all to be sure. Stories of the computers freezing up between Live Nation and other shows going on leaving mostly the working folk out in the cold peering into the windows of StubHub.

And that $20, that is still around, as the "convenience charge" for printing at home.

Been at this awhile...Got a feeling this will be for my age bracket what say, the Foo Fighters show was in September for a slightly younger crowd, you start going to the Sportmen to fit in better than at the Old' Pink.

I'm not sure, but it was too nice a pose to not snag a picture.

the folks at Sweetness 7 rock

There was an awful lot of whining going on about when are we going to get ours in terms of snowfall? I really wanted these people to shaddup because if in Buffalo you ask for snow, chances are it will still be in here in APRIL! It’s less charming then, in fact, after the holidays, I’m sort of whatever. But some things are certain, death, taxes, the Mets sucking, Snow in Buffalo? Settle, it came.

So, it never ceases to amaze that there is somebody driving down Elmwood, with a few inches of snow covering their car, windshield barely defrosted, no lights on.

I don’t mind the snow, just what can happen mind sets. Having four wheel drive is the key to NOTHING and there are few folks in the city who think having a four drive car has given them the powers found usually with residents of Krypton.

It’s the little things that make it even more interesting.

The traffic light on my street took on disco light flashing, which brings an even busier intersection that much more of a mess as we all forgot the four way stop rule they teach you in driver’s ed.

There isn’t that much snow as I write this but somehow folks are already in the streets.

It is what makes the “Where is our snow” facebook status updates and tweets sort of laughable.

“It’s here!”

Alright, I need a word with you, yeah, you, the yahoo who posted on his Facebook or Twitter feed to "Bring it On!" with the forecasts of cold and snow. You, dear sir, are a schmuck! You complacent, commuter cup swilling, jug head. I thought of you while waiting for AAA Tuesday morning. I enjoy the seasons to be sure, but those who somehow measure their manhood by snow piles I think need to be smacked back to consciousness, preferably with something frosty. Changing tires is not a six degree sort of activity.
Yes, we have handled snow just fine, but 6 degrees is cold, too cold to enjoy the snow for very long.

It's cold, especially if you develop a car issue, as mine did, on the way to work, for the first time in almost a week, on a busy street, during rush hour, with a grumpy teen in the car.

While waiting the admirably fast AAA folks, (helpful dude showed in 30 minutes) all I can think about were the yahoos who filled social media spots with "Finally" "Bring it On" "Bout Time." There will be time for all the fun stuff as we enjoy Winter until May, then have near winter, not winter, then near winter again. So, settle down as the tire that might need changed tomorrow morning might be yours. Don't go tempting Karma like that, she's burn out a headlight in temps like this and make you drop the most important screw into a dark corner that you can't see into and your fingers will be too big too reach.

It snowed in real numbers in the southtowns. Go there, and settle down, we'll get ours.

Always been as much of an early adopter as my bankroll and credit lines would allow, but age is catching up there with me as number one son now regularly cleans my clock at Madden and NHL on the Xbox, and apparently I slow him down on Halo missions. That said, a friend's facebook posting about a $100 Plasma tv set had me thinking.

Anyway, it happens, I think I'm losing a step. I was watching a discussion about Nooks versus Kindles via twitter the other day with a little bit of interest. I've always been a pretty avid reader, but I'm loyal to the printed page and that will remain, but....

My final christmas gift arrived yesterday. My son's lovely mom imparted a Kindle on to me. It's a straight forward reader, which is good as I don't need another data port at this rate, but as somebody who rarely needed the directions for gizmos, I found I was looking for some directions (a first). With a little futzing and learning where the buttons are, I had two books that I was curious about, but not enough to buy loaded up at nice discount prices.

So, it's a noble experiment, figured out how to work it all in the privacy of my living room, reducing the silliness of figuring it out in front of, well, my tech savvy kids.

So far? Kinda cool. Don't think it will get in the way of any real book store purchases, but might digitally get my arse to the library a little more.

It's a silly debate and the foot dragging on the legislative side makes my head shake. Only here can we make a federal case over "Rocket Sauce"

Able to leap a split coke in a single bound, look up in the Aisle, it’s Usherman!!

Nope, despite that dramatic intro, I left work today for the part time fun in my First Niagara Center finery to work the Sabres-Senators game. As far as supplemental income, it’s pretty great, you don’t have to work terribly hard. No heavy lifting, just know where the bathroom, the people watching is hilarious, and there are other people who’s job it is to escort the overserved and unruly away from the premises.

Now, the bulk of the force is pretty established, many having been working events since the Aud, so with just 35 or so over the past year, I’m a bit of a newbie, but just established enough to get some decent spots, always get to see the event in question as some folks get a door. Me, I’d be scared the door might just be smarter than me so it is good to be doing what is roughly a bit of stand up act for a thousand people except on a one to few basis. So, I get a good spot tonight.

My regular vocation has me well-schooled in the art of the schmooze and that comes in handy as you get folks of all sorts. With tonight’s game, it was premo territory, where the Sabres would shoot twice and one of the big questions was were was there regular guy along with “good to see you again” as I had worked the same post a couple of weeks ago. Head usher swings by and give me a quick “you look tired.” Told her I had a full day of real work prior, but I’m ready and with that the doors open.

But the people watching. There is a almost cult like following to the warm up skate before the hockey game. Fans of all types line the entrances from the dressing rooms to the ice in a hope of getting close to a favorite player or a fist bump as they enter or exit the ice. This makes sense if you are an little boy seeing your heroes or a teenage girl with a crush, but the guys my age looked a little silly. The folks who wander down just to have a look before retiring to their seats at the top of the Arena make sense to me. You want to see them a little closer to remind you they are human as it does look like a different game from various levels of the place. It is hard not to smile at the little kids who come down the tunnel with their eyes as wide as saucers, seeing the place they’ve only previously seen on television. By the same token, slap that expression of wonder on a 40 year old face and it is downright hysterical. But, with a nod to good karma, I found a puck that had gone over the boards and was able to give it to a little guy who has a really bitchin’ object for show and tell.

I enjoyed chatting with two guys from the exotic land of Akron, Ohio. We bonded over the shared ancestral homeland and their first hockey experience. I brokered a seat swap on behalf of a guy with a prosthetic leg, connected with a bunch of folks on the need for hockey manners, especially waiting for the break in the play to let people return down the aisle, and with a rotating band of participants held sporadic roundtables on which Sabres would you trade. While folks were either decked out in Sabres garb or the occasional evil doer in Senators garb, there were a few who just grabbed was available. And for that I have to give mad props to the gentleman sporting the California Golden Seals jersey. That was old school as I think the Seals went out existence somewhere prior to my turning 10.

Much has been written of late about the Sabres game presentation of late. When you think of all the time honored chants of everything from “Let’s Go, Buffalo” to “1,2,3,4, we want 5″ to even “Hey Seymour, we want cheeseburgers” they all popped up when the Sabres were winning. That solves a lot. When the team is in a prolonged slump like they are, the building gets a little quieter, the music selections lame and more intrusive and the Carruba Collision isn’t a great idea when one of the colliders gets hurt. When the Sabres held a 2-1 lead, the place was jumping. Then the team started to get pushed around by the Senators. When Drew Stafford went to sleep on Ottawa’s winning goal, nobody remembered or cared what crappy pop songs got played.

Been trying to find some cool tunes to get into holiday spirit and this one certainly qualifies. It's one of my favorites