An Idea Is Bulletproof

Hey look, it's another really long post. I'll cut the concert stuff when I get there :)

So yesterday was the second day of Slean concerts AND the day when Andrea and I put together the card for the Passioneer Holiday Project. Which means that Andrea spends a day being very arts and crafty and I spend a day helping when I can and not getting in the way the rest of the time ;) We ended up having 30 people participating this year. I was thrilled as it looked like we weren't going ot break 10 for a while there which was freaking me out. But it ended up better than well and the card looked amazing when it was finished :)

All was done on time and we made it to the venue in excellent time to meet up with lots of people before the show.

And on to the lengthy concert stuff:

( Tim Baker (opening act) )

( Sarah Slean )

Last night was the first of Sarah's annual Harbourfront shows. I have no love for the venue but I do adore seeing Sarah play live and last night was a fantastic show!

All of yesterday was good. I only had a 1/2 day at work. Then I made my way up to the CNIB to visit Mel and Todd and to get my camera and DVDs which I'd forgotten at their house.

Then Andrea made her way to my place and we did a Christmas gift exchange and OMG she got me such an awesome gift. A graphic novel of Haunted Mansion stories from Disney World. Two of the authors are Roman Dirge and Serena Valentino so you know it's good :) I read through it this morning and love it!

On our way to the concert we met up with Leanne (who we lost after the show but if you come by this review, hi Leanne) who we'd actually met at the first of these concerts 2 years ago and had given her a ticket to move up a few rows in the orchestra becase we had an extra. Usher who hated me didn't like that game as I remember it. Apparently good deeds weren't cool by her. But how fun is it that we met the same person again!?

Heads up, Warner is handing out fun little cards promoting the new album and that you can download Get Home on Sarah's webpage. I noticed that there were extras on the merch table so if you miss out getting one in the lobby then head for the table :) I was surprised at the degree that Warner is actually promoting Sarah this time around. I've never seen this much effort from them before. Which reminds me, for those of you on Facebook someone from Warner asked me to let people know that Sarah now has an official Facebook group. Type in "Sarah Slean" in the search bar and her official one is the first one that pops up. I'm a co-moderator on the second one that shows up, Passioneers (totally unoffical) join that too :)

The opening act was Tim Baker from the band Hey Rosetta, He was quite good, I'd be interested in seeing his whole band perform to see what the total sound is like. However solo he held up really well despite the fact that Hfront has possibly the worst mics ever. The main one kept shorting out unless the wire was in a certain position. Touch the mic and it died. Not the most fun game ever.

Then we had intermission and then the highlight of the night, the fabulous Sarah Slean!

( Review and setlist are under the cut )

1. It's the last day to get your info in to slean_holiday@yahoo.ca for the Passioneer Holiday card to Sarah Slean if you want to be included in the draw for prizes. You can still submit your info 'til the end of the day on Wednesday and be included on the card though.

2. My stomach is hurting a bit less today which is good since that means that probably it was just stress and not appendicitis or anything dramatic like that.

3. I am wearing my new R. Tam session tshirt today, hidden under a sweater so I'm work appropriate. I just couldn't wait 'til Friday to wear it. I think that everyone is designing shirts which are better and better, some of them are starting to look really professional and great. The Doctor Who ones from last weekend have convinced me even more that I need to watch the new Doctor Who series.

4. I am almost done my Christmas shopping *yay* I have a bit more to do but it's not that really. Some stocking stuffers and a couple of gift cards really :)

Hi Slean fans!

I know you're out there ;) There is just under a week left to particpate in this year's Passioneer Holiday Project :) So far there are just 10 people who are taking part and I want to see a lot more names on the card.

All you have to do is go out into your community and do something good, and really this is an easy time of year to do that. Once you're done you can email myself and Andrea at slean_holiday@yahoo.ca and your info will be on the card which will be given to Sarah Slean next week AND if you get back to me on or before the 17th you will be in the draw for our prizes :)

You can read the full details here: Passioneer Holiday Project

As I posted earlier today my brother took me to the Royal Wood concert tonight. *sigh* that man (Royal) is amazing. I don't think I've met a single person who does not find him handsome, even my straight male friends had to agree on that one. So already it was going to be a great night. Then I'm chatting away with my brother and randomly see Kevin Fox walk by (not so randomly actually as he played in the show... and as he's generally at at least half of the shows I go to in TO lol) but I made a note of it because both Kat and Andrea would be amused to know it :)

Then I was back to chatting away and I hear a familiar voice, turn around and it's Sarah Slean :) This is extra odd because I was having a dream last night just before I woke up that I was at a concert of hers and was chatting with her about something. So *yay* surprise Sarah :) I said a quick hello and introduced my brother and apparently we look alike.. I still don't see it lol.

The concert itself was fabulous. I really must buy his albums. Not only was it just fabulous in general but I had a special highlight. Royal Wood had the audience harmonize to one of his songs... I'm not sure what it's called.... "there's no place like home" (does anyone see where this is going?) So we're harmonizing away and he sung a verse from Somewhere Over the Rainbow! So for me, who requests Sarah sing that song ALL OF THE TIME, I got about as close to that request as I think I ever will, and way closer than I ever expected to get since I was sitting about a row over form her singing along to the song. It was a happy fangirl moment :)

Anyways now I'm high on music. Royal Wood put on a show you could just soar to, fantastic! And I have to manage to get some decent amount of sleep today so I can survive work tomorrow. Goodnight all!

***ETA*** I found the song that Somewhere Over The Rainbow was worked into. ( lyrics behind the cut )

1. Sarah Slean concert tonight in Hamilton. I totally had "night-before-christmas" syndrome last night and had trouble falling asleep and then kept waking up. I gave up on sleep at 6am and got up early for a shower and to pack stuff for the day. I'm going to be ridiculously tired at this show... and more wiped for work tomorrow. It's still worth it :)

2. It looks like winter outside. Snow covered house tops and all. It's mostly icy snow though so everyone please cross your fingers that the trips to and from Hamilton tonight will be safe ones. Also for anyone driving in the snow be careful please :)

3. And now for some random TV thoughts from last night ( Private Practice and Criminal Minds )

News from sarahslean.com there is going to be a show in Hamilton on Nov. 22nd :) I was sort of worried I just wasn't as excited about seeing Sarah perform anymore after the whole Hfront issue but when I got the email about this show I was so excited! Totally worth travelling for!

Not only is it great to have a new Slean show but I love the venue already. Andrea called to get ticket information from them since there is nothing available online and the box office agent didn't know the answers to her questions so they went and found someone who did know right away. Imagine that! A small effort makes for a huge difference in customer service. Hfront should go take note of how other venues do buisness.

In Hfront news I was told I "tentatively" could keep my tickets for the show on the 20th. When tickets for the 20th officially went on sale I didn't hear anything but Yen (who bought the other seats for that show) was called by them and told he was being allowed to keep his seats and he forwarded that info on to me. I guess since I had a legitimate complaint about their service they're avoiding me now, they certainly avoided the issue in their email to me. For them the issue was that the tickets had gone on sale early, I get that because shows can fold completely when tickets are sold before the contract is signed. However, the fact that their staff behaved in a completely unacceptable manner seems to be something they'd rather not address. That's fine, they won't have my buisness after the December Slean shows. I'd rather travel out of the city and see shows at venues who actually behave like they want my buisness.

I'm a little more calm and happy thanks to spending last night out with some Browncoats. I'm still extremely upset as to how I was treated at Harbourfront but I have more of a plan of action for it now.

( The story of what happened is under the cut )

And look, just when I start to believe the best of Harbourfront I sign on to the Sarah Slean message board and read this:

"hey guys! so, harbourfront can kiss my a**. i just went online to check the phone number to call, and the tickets are ALREADY ON SALE. it's friday night (well morning at 1am) and i got horrible seats! i used to sitting in the 5th or 6th row and i got like 20 rows back. i'm so mad. did this happen to anyone else??? how could it sell that quickly when it wasn't even supposed to be on sale yet!"

I am beyond pissed off, for the number of tickets I'm ordering (5) the best I can get is the last row of the orchestra if I order online. I'm hoping in person I can do better but even then that's not fair for everyone else who has ordered/will order online.

I don't even get how this place still runs if they consistantly make this many mistakes. They've had their online ticket ordering system for a while, I believe since last Feb/March or so. So that's quite a while to get things running well with it and to get ticket sales organized. I could see the timing being off like this if this was the first maybe month of them organizing their online ticket selling to match their physical box office but they've had more than enough time to get simple things like putting tickets on sale at the same time down. Even if it was close to the same time, like if someone had to set it up 10 minutes early online so they could go to work then at the box office, fine, whatever, but this is just sloppy.

It's just bad buisness, people who actually are going to be concerened about what tickets they get and so are ordering as soon as they can are going to get stuck with bad seats... I'm not even sure if I have a shot at getting a decent seat anymore. I managed to not panic and just order the seats I drew online, I'm waiting 'til I can deal with a person instead of the computer (at least then I can maybe take 5 single seats that are scattered and do better) but I am not happy about it.

Harbourfront update, a good one this time!

I called them on Tuesday after work since I'd still not heard back from them. I got a hold of the Director of Marketing and Media relations as that's who was my contact last year and really he's the first really great person I've dealt with at that venue. He said that he tried to call but I guess he had my number wrong (I double checked my email that I sent to him and I had it right in there so he must have written it wrong) and he'd deleted my email and he was going through the Slean message board trying to figure out if the "elizalavelle" on there was me. Since the last thing I have up on there is about Hfront knowing nothing about their upcoming concerts I'd say that's a pretty good bet ;) Also he said that my name had just come up an hour before at his work LMAO! I tell you that does nothing to talk me out of my idea that when they type my name into their computer system they now have a flashing red warning light and some message about me being nuts ;)

Anyways they have a tentative sale date for the show on the 21st. I can't confirm it 'til Friday but any Sarah Slean fans who want tickets for the show on the 21st they're probably on sale very soon, I'll update the messageboard at www.sarahslean.com on Friday late afternoon/early evening after I've confirmed the date. There is no sale date for the show on the 20th but as we spoke about that concert date as well I'm guessing that no matter how much the game is to pretend there is no concert on that date the contract already has two shows on it.