chearing

"Why do the best things always disappear?" indeed.

That was a terrific show in a really cool theater. I'd never been to the Lincoln before (really had never heard of it before). The whole setting was great. With the exception of the cleaning crew noise which was absurd, that was by far the quietest/most respectful crowd I've been to in many, manyyears. I found myself whispering to my seatmate *between* songs during the Autumn Defense set so as to not make too much noise!

Don't worry, you can buy tickets from scalpers at twice the price! I fucking hate ticketmaster.

I'm certainly no fan of TM but I don't see how a fast sell out is their fault...more like demand far in excess of supply.

Got in right at 10am and got 4 at the back of first balcony....That went very quickly.

In right at 10 am.

 

I got Orchestra Row S 12 & 13 for Wolftrap in Vienna, VA.

 

Not great -- not bad either. Wolftrap is such a great venue that anywhere in the Orchestra is a pretty good seat.

 

Thought the system was much more responsive than the old presale system.

Hey now, I'm in Row T 12 & 13. for Wolf Trap. I was in right at 10am too. I'll be the one who is kicking your seat before the show and my wife will be the one who spills a beer on you....

The existing labor and pension contracts are a big part of the problem though, why do you want to keep them in tact? The fact is, people will suffer and you cant avoid it. Trying to avoid it makes political sense but not economic sense.

I wasn't saying keep them intact at all. I agree that the pensions and labor agreements are a huge part of the problem and need to be scaled way back or eliminated which would be possible in bankruptcy. I was trying to say (not very clearly) that the Feds should be prepared to provide some level of safety net for the folks displaced in the inevitable upheaval that the bankruptcies will create. That safety net already exists in unemployment benefits, etc which can and probably should be extended in this situation.

Should the Feds give the big 3 an injection of cash in the form of loans? No, that's just throwing good money after bad and postponing the inevitable restructuring needed. Should the Feds allow the Big 3 to cease to exist? No, the implications across the entire economy would be far ranging and pretty nasty in any economic climate; in today's economic climate it could be devastating. Should the Feds put stringent conditions on the automakers to force them to change course? No, the odds are low that some federal oversight board can accomplish what lots of pretty smart executives have been unable to accomplish.

What the Feds should do is provide the DIP financing necessary to keep these 3 going once they've filed for Chapter 11. A likely problem right now is that if any one of the 3 filed Chapter 11 the chance that any bank would step in to finance ongoing operations during the restructuring has to be very low given the credit markets. The Feds can step in to provide that ongoing financing, be first in line to be repaid and let someone else come in to restructure the companies or buy them out without the incredible burden of the existing labor and pension contracts. That will almost necessarily lead to hardship for many of the past and present workers which is a terrible thing and the gov't. should be planning to help those people out but doing nothing is only going to lead to the situation getting worse not better.

The Big 3 automakers lose between $500 and $1500 on every car sold....Honda, Toyota and Nissan make between $1000 and $1500 on every car sold. It's been like this for years and doing anything to prolong the pain simply doesn't make sense.

wow...I was hitting update repeatedly and thought I got thru as soon as it opened up. I guess not

I recently had a dream that the band was in my house with Iggy Pop. We were all kinda standing around my piano having a discussion about the various Wilco songs that had real meaning to me and I turned to Iggy to include him in the conversation but couldn't think of a single song from his catalog to remark upon. It was quite embarassing...