Sound Off: I Just Want MY Cop Show

The other night, I walked by a TV that was turned to one of the many CHICAGO shows. I sat for a few minutes watching Chicago P.D. and was completely bored. I was looking for something to draw me in but none of the partner-centric banter or action drew me in. This is when something dawned on me: there is no one size fits all procedural drama.

If you're not interested in the characters from the get-go, you will be asleep faster than the first Law and Order victim is dead. These shows have to be character driven. I love the playful banter of McGarrett and Danno on Hawaii 5-0 and the love between Booth and Bones makes every investigation more enticing.

Don't Get Your Tickets Here

Jason Aldean from the last row
at MetLife Stadium (c) PipPepPop

     Back in March, I lamented on the blog about how hard it is to get good concert tickets these days. Don't worry, getting tickets has not gotten any easier. You still probably don't have your pick of seats during pre-sales, let along the actual ticket on-sale. But, due to the recent Curt Schlesinger et al. v. Ticketmaster settlement, they may be a little cheaper to loyal concertgoers. Essentially, Ticketmaster was sued for their outrageous and "excessive" fees (finally). I cannot justify paying $75.00 for tickets in the very last row of MetLife stadium, but I paid it last summer to see Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney.  Tickets on the floor were at least $300.00 and standing room only. Where is the benefit in that? But I digress...

     Ticket "processing" fees (which average from $15-$20 dollars on top of the seat price) were the brunt of the spoils in this case. There is also a second reward/class for the ridiculously  high fees for USPS delivery. As a whole, Ticketmaster has charged as high as $8.00 to ship regularly ordered tickets (not overnight or a week before the show kind of deals) via US mail, a service which used to be available for free. This led to the ride of free PDF print-at-home tickets, which are their own fun pain in the butt. I have also been to a concert where my friend left the tickets at home and we had to download an app for our phones to get into the concert, and keep the tickets up on our phones every time we left the area to get drinks or go to the bathroom. As much as the technology was supposed to make out lives better they're not making concerts easier, yet. Maybe in the future, we can get retinal scan tickets!

     Tickets purchased from October 1999 through February 2013 make you eligible to be part of the lawsuit's class and should guarantee you something back. On bright side in this whole deal,  Ticketmaster has done all of the work for us. I logged into my account the other day to check out my cut of the $45+ million dollar settlement. I have 11 pairs of general admission ticket vouchers (good through June 2020) and 11 sets of $2.25 credits to use toward ticket purchases. Before you plan to take 20 of your closest friends to the lawn seats, keep in mind there are restrictions, as suggested by Yahoo! News earlier this week. General admission vouchers are only allowed to be used for events at Live Nation venues. The tickets are redeemable for floor general admission or lawn GA tickets to these events, and up to two vouchers at a time (totaling 4 tickets). USPS shipping codes ($5.00 each, I had none of these because I wasn't  going to pay to ship tickets) can be used two at a time for USPS shipping, and these deals cannot be used with other tickets.

Live Nation site screenshot, 6/23 (c) PipPepPop

     The ticket site for Live Nation began posting events early Wednesday and as of Thursday night, all available vouchers through November are sold out (at venues across the country). I am curious to see how the next few months go, when the novelty wears off and people forget about the ticket vouchers they have sitting in their account. Maybe I can get some tickets then! In the meantime, I'm going to see how we can convince them to put pre-sale e-mailed codes directly into out accounts too. I have scrambling at the last minute to find phrases like SUNSHINE or DEEJAY and plugging them in to try to get tickets. I also hate clicking on the images of Trucks or waterfalls to prove I'm not a robot. Hmm.. maybe ticketing robots is the way to solve all of this frustration....
 For more information, visit the settlement website: http://www.ticketfeelitigation.com/

Ally Mcbeal's Most Amusing Episode

     In season 1 of Ally McBeal, Ally  (Calista Flockhart) was a bit of a fuddy-duddy, but a fairly harmless woman. Some of my favorite Ally moments were more embarrassing than shocking.

• She dated a Rabbi
• She is asked to eulogize a professor she had an affair with
• She assaulted a woman in the supermarket of a can of Pringles
• She got caught stealing spermicidal jelly from a grocery store (just in case)
• She gives mouth to moth to a client and he tries to call off his wedding
• She was let go from her job for objecting to a senior partner grabbing her butt
• She and her roommate Renee (Lisa Nicole Carson) have a dirty joke contest
• She was brought in on multiple cases to sway the judge with her view of true love, and ...
• She was secretly in love with Billy (her married boyfriend from college)

     Later on in season 1's The Blame Game,  Ally really lets loose.  In the previous episode, Ally has a one-night stand with a male model, played by OLTL and Port Charles soap star, Micheal Easton. Ally runs into him again and finds he hasn't left town, which means there is a good reason to use that jelly. Then the model outright ignores her and tells Ally she's too old, and the entire bar sings sports arena favorite Na Na Na Hey Hey directly to her. Even the dancing baby  (see video below) can't cheer up Ally enough. So, she and Renee embark on a revnge plot for the model called "The Penguin." This isn't your traditional Barney Stinson's Bro Code play, although it does sound like one.

     The penguin involves Renee going out with the model and luring him to an outdoor location (in this case a pond). Renee begins kissing him and gets him to take off his pants, then she makes him chase her out to the street, where he is caught waddling with his bare freezing legs (and other parts). Ally and Georgia (Billy's wife) drive by and laugh and cheer, humiliating him. God thing this was before camera phones. Cheers Ally, you win this one.

A Note About the D-List

I am wholeheartedly enjoying the season premiere of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List. I now know its officially summer and I'll have something to keep me entertained all summer.

Tonight Kathy is filming a guest appearance on Law and Order. Kathy has received diva lessons from Liza Minnelli, awoken at the "ass crack of dawn", met with Ice-T (A nice man and a cool drink)and Mariska Hargitay, and tried to kiss Chris Meloni aggressively.

I was about to burst into tears of laughter when Kathy said, "I started to cry and I had to tell Mariska I was breaking up with my boyfriend." And then she asked if they could get Cynthia Nixon to take over her part. Classic Kathy.

Now Kathy is reading to Mariska from her book about a trust gone bad in an acting class. Mariska has agreed to fall again and let Kathy catch her.

The more I watch this show, the more I wish I could be friends with Kathy. From her big star on the not-Holllywood Walk of fame, to befriending Paris and Paula Deen, I loved Kathy last summer.

I can't wait to see what will happen in the upcoming "An Uncomfortable Lunch with Ryan Seacrest" episode.