What Is Going On Around Here?

Over a week and nothing posted, what is the deal? Well, really there isn't much for me...

- Our region is on 'Floodwatch' and the river is to crest on Thursday so for the next week all I will hear about locally is the preparations for flooding. I live in an area that is safe so my concern isn't all that great but it is for a lot of others.

- UND Fighting Sioux hockey make it to the Frozen Four. They will play Boston College Thursday, April 6th and if they advance would play either Wisconsin or Maine for the NCAA Division 1 Championship.

- A friend of mine works at a popular bar in town. He recently told me that the police have been coming in on weekends and citing the bar for over-serving patrons. Are you freakin' kidding me? The place is pretty busy and your servers/tenders are suppose to know how much every person in the place has had to drink and know when to no longer serve them? Why don't the cops just stick to sitting outside the parking lot and picking up everyone that leaves? Not enough money in doing just that? Lazy bastards...

Tool: Finally

One of my all time favorite bands, Tool, will be releasing it's fifth album (10,000 days) five years after their last release, Lateralus, on May 2nd. I can hardly wait and will no doubtedly be at the music store on May 2nd to purchase the CD ASAP.

What's not only great about getting some new music from Tool but will also be the opportunity to see them live again...I'm hoping they make more than 1 stop in the upper midwest in support of this album...

No BB Here

I'm only a casual NCAA basketball fan and there is no question the NCAA basketball tournament is awesome...

But tonight I am watching the WCHA Championship game, UND vs St. Cloud - hockey.

Go Sioux!

PS3 Release Delayed.

Playstation 3 now due out in November. The question will be how long will it be out until I break down and get one... I'm going to guess 2 years just for a start...

Screenshots

It's fun taking screenshots of your favorite player after running 93 yards for a touchdown!

Xfire is pretty cool...

Brees Signs With Saints

Story here.

Dolphins signed Culpepper because Brees wanted at least what the Saints were offering and obviously thought a deal to get Culpepper was better for their team.

Hope things work out for you Drew...good luck.

Brees Watch: Day 2

Drew Brees still has yet to decide who to sign with. Reports are that the New Orleans Saints have made the better offer. Brees' agent is to resume negotiations with the Dolphins today, so by appearances, Brees looks to want to play for Miami and would like them to up their offer...otherwise, he would sign with New Orleans.

Other Charger News: Within the same article cited above, it also comments that the Chargers may be trying to sign David Givens. Which will obviously put some pressure on Caldwell, Parker and Vincent Jackson to perform.

Good Luck Drew

Reports this morning have Drew Brees signing with either (most likely) the Dolphins or the Saints today.

I'm sorry to see you go but I understand why it has to be this way. I'll still be a fan of yours for the rest of your career, unless of course you sign with the Broncos.

Chargers Sign Safety...

Chargers signed a pretty good safety, Marlon McCree who played for Carolina last year. Looks like a Rodney Harrison type safety...not really a guy getting a lot of interceptions but a good tackling ball hound. I think moving McCree to strong safety and leaving Jue at free safety is the logical move. Jue is probably the Chargers best safety and McCree, at first glance, looks to me to be at least equal to Jue's ability and could quite possibly even be better...

I like this first move in free agency for the Chargers, signing a guy in the secondary. I'd really like to see a good offensive lineman (or two) get signed as well now.

Where Everyone Knows Your Name

A friend of mine just opened his own bar. Last night was his first night open and the bar was packed! He has a huge circle of friends so while there last night I probably knew 30 people...so it was like a huge party with a bunch of friends...A bonus (or maybe can be seen as a negative) is that his bar is within walking distance (5 blocks) of my house... I think this bar is going to be the site of some really fun times...and of course I'm already working on making it the 'official' San Diego Charger football viewing bar...but status of that project is still to be determined...

Corporate Teams

We all could see it coming. When will corporations just side-step sponsoring sporting events and just buy and name their team(s) after their corporation? Major League Soccer is the first league to do so by allowing Red Bull to purchase and rename a team. Yes, the Red Bull New York team will not only bear the name of the owning corporation but as the article points out that they will also play in Red Bull stadium - or whatever they desire to name it.

Of course I'm like most Americans and don't really care about soccer to any degree, but once something like this infiltrates one sport, regardless of how insignificant the sport may seem, may be a precursor to what's to come for the major sport leagues...

NFL Owners Agree To New CBA

The NFL owners last night approved the player's collective bargaining agreement to run until 2012. What that means for the Chargers, who were sitting pretty good under the cap under the old cba will really be sitting good under the new salary cap of around $102 million, with the Chargers currently (about) $27 million under that number. Free agency begins tonight. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Chargers acquire at least one if not more quality defensive free agents...as I think many Charger fans are hoping.

NFL Free Agency Delayed - Questions Surround Brees

With a new collective bargaining agreement (cba) not reached between NFL owners and players gave the Chargers a couple extra days to decide what they want to do with Drew Brees. On ESPN's ticker yesterday I saw that they were reporting the Chargers were to allow Brees to become a free agent. Today the orthopedic surgeon came out to say that Brees “had a successful arthroscopic repair of his shoulder capsule and repair of a partial rotator cuff tear.” If ESPN's initial report is accurate, the Chargers will probably release him regardless. I also think there is some positioning. I think the Chargers want to keep Brees but they want a longer-value type deal. If Brees truly wants to stay in San Diego he and his agent will probably try and negotiate a deal prior to free agency starting. But with so many teams needing a quarterback it would be tough to pass up on the opportunity to make some big money while the potential is there. If Brees falters this season or gets reinjured, regardless of the team he is with, will greatly lower his value if a longer termed deal isn't reached this year.

The bright side for us Charger fans have is that we have a first round QB that has been in the league for 2 years learning the system and doing spot duty as needed. Phillip Rivers will start as a quarterback for a team eventually, the Chargers know this so it might be the right time to at least give him a shot... Rivers signed through the 2008 season so the Chargers have 2 years to decide whether or not he will be the man. The downside is that Rivers has yet to really play and his true NFL talent has yet to be showcased. He did play the majority of the last 2 games of the 2004 and '05 seasons under 2 different situations. In '04 the Chargers had clinched a first round home game playoff berth whereas in '05, all but eliminated from the playoffs, Brees suffered his shoulder injury and the Chargers suffered a beat down by the Broncos.

I'm all for giving Rivers a shot, but my gut tells me that if Brees and his agent want to really gain some 'fan cred' amongst Charger fans they would try to work a deal with the Chargers. But knowing the Charger front office frugality (word?) and knowing that outside of San Diego (and maybe even within San Diego) 'fan cred' really isn't all that...

People Bother Me...

I work at a venue that hosts a variety of events - concerts, trade shows, ice shows, touring broadway shows, sporting events - football, basketball, rodeo, motor sport events (indoor dirt and snow racing), etc... This facility was the first one of it's size in this region with the next closest venue of this size (or larger) more than 300 miles away. For the first 10 years this facility was the only place around that could host the events I listed above. Within the past 4 years several other similiar venues have popped up around the region, no longer giving us a monopoly on events that wanted to get exposure in the upper midwest.

The venue I work at is like most in America. It was funded by the taxpayers. The difference between the venue I work at and a vast majority of other venues is that our venue has never finished a year in the red, over 12 years now. Most publicly owned venues are more than likely losing money on the events they host but the public often does not care because the economic impact a venue has is considerable. So using this as a lead-in, here's why I begin with that preface.

Part of my job responbilities is to receive and reply to most general questions that are sent to our facility via email. Without any question probably the #1 'complaint' that is sent to us is that we are not getting Paul McCartney, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Pearl Jam or whomever you would like to insert there. 80% of those emails are easily dismissed as the act is not touring, so how would you expect our venue to be able to book an act such as they want when the act themselves isn't even performing - just pointing out some of the masterminds behind these emails. Then you have the ones that will comment that U2 is playing in Chicago, why aren't they playing here? Easy again, huge acts (and you could actually substitute the word huge with greedy) will not even consider going to a secondary market - which is what we are considered. Just because U2 is selling out 5 shows in Chicago and Minneapolis doesn't mean they are going to stop in nowhere North Dakota to make 10% of the money they could doing just one show in a large city. And finally we have the emails that come from people that think that some obscure or upcoming act would sell out our venue because it is their favorite band and not only would they come to the show, but so would everyone they know...yet these acts would have a tough time selling out club or sub-5,000 seat venue even in the larger cities.

What frustrates me the most is trying to tactifully tell these people that they are stupid. First and foremost for a venue to land an event the event itself has got to want to perform there. Yes, we would love to have some guaranteed 'ringers' perform at our venue but why would they? Again, landing an act that sells out everywhere (which are fewer than ever) why would they choose to come to nowhere, ND to make less money than if they stayed on the east and west coasts and even the larger metro areas in between? It would make no sense for them other than to broaden their fan base, but if they are selling out shows everywhere they go, odds are they have a very broad fan base already and their fans are willing to travel to see them.

What has really devalued the concert industry is the casinos. At one time we could attract the 'mid-level' entertainers. Acts that are established and have good fan support, but may no longer be putting out albums or have had member changes within the band or just no longer at the top, but still a popular act. Casinos will gladly hand over a respectable amount of cash for these acts to come out and play 2 shows a night at about an hour, hour and a half in length. These casino acts could have continued to play venues at a cheap ticket price and make a fair amount of money - but with no guarantees...the casino gig is a guarantee. So now you've essentially eliminated every act from the 80's. The casino's in this region have had Cheap Trick, Styx, Firehouse, REO Speedwagon, 38 Special, Eddie Money, etc... all acts that sure, would probably not sell out even the venue I work at, but now have essentially devalued themselves. These acts will also play at fairs and festivals but why pay that $30 or $40 ticket at a fair when you can get a comp ticket to see them at a casino?

To top things off, you factor in the fact that there just isn't that many big name acts anymore. I think it is sad when Paul McCartney, Simon And Garfunkel and The Rolling Stones are among the top grossing concerts any year they tour. Especially when you look at some of their ticket prices! How long can the Stones continue to charge over $100 to see them and who are the morons that continue to pay that? Current, popular acts just don't have the widespread appeal that AC/DC of the 80's had. Music has gotten so fragmented and diversified that you could probably look through 10 different people's cd library and the likelihood of all 10 people having the same cd that is currently popular is probably unlikely. Just because you like 50 Cent doesn't mean I even know who he is. But 15 years ago, even the acts that I didn't care for I usually have at least heard of and probably some of their music.

And, as I started this whole article out with, this venue hasn't lost money in it's entire history but one way to do so is to start offering an exborant guarantee to acts to perform at a venue and then not being able to recoup those funds when the event is held, which is typical of many venues. I guess in summary, what really bothers me is that people will often fire off an angry email to us as to why our venue is unable to get the concerts they would like to see without even knowing the basic logistics of the business itself, yet in my community the 'bottomline' of this venue is often the main concern for many rather than the type of events we host, so we have yet another factor that comes into play for our particular venue. So either we could begin to host every concert that even came close to this region and make 1/2 the people of this region happy but then the other 1/2 would begin to complain that their hard earned tax-paying dollars are being wasted to fund a concert that wouldn't fill up a large bar...we just can't win and people bother me....

Movie Science Spoilers and More

Just perusing the web and found some interesting sites:

- The Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics site will explain why certain elements in movie just couldn't occur as they do...from cigarettes igniting gasoline, breaking windows, exploding cars and more.

- How To Tell A Relationship Is Over is a quick short film...pretty funny.

- Play Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character. You pick a dictator or sitcom star and the computer will ask you questions and try to guess who it is. Pretty good.

All the time I have for today...

Enjoy.

Winter Winding Down

It was yesterday that everyone in the region began to notice that it is daylight when you go to and from work. One of the first signs that winter is on it's last legs. Sure, we could still get hit with a blizzard or dumped on with a ton of snow or for it to get unseasonably cold but now that March is here even if any winter type weather hits us more than likely some nicer weather will be along shortly.

Still have plenty of snow on the ground and the temperatures are in the mid-20's...so not quite spring yet, but feeling like 'pre-spring' if you will...