Nero never did play the fiddle while Rome burned because there was no such instrument at the time and he was about 30 miles away. And Marie Antoinette never said, “Let them eat cake!” about the poor in French and “cake” was never referring to the burnt bread crisp that are almost always discarded.
But you kinda wonder how history will judge what’s happening right now as the President and Republicans say we need to foot the bill for a ball room that will probably cost half a billion if it ever does get completed. (Last week, I was going to post about the active shooter at the White House Correspondence Dinner but so many other people had covered it. Whether or not it was staged or real is how he and his followers have repeatedly called everything “fake” that we don’t care anymore.)
Over the previous weekend, we had The Kentucky Derby as people dressed up and romanticized the fancy mint julep crowd, a fraction of the Southern Belle antebellum era which was nothing more than a myth itself. And two days later was the Met Gala where tickets costs $100,000 a piece and people are wearing outrageous costumes and attire. Basically it’s rich people showing off how rich they are. Fantasy is one thing. The Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire musicals where they dressed nicely and dance were very popular during the Great Depression. But those places were incorporating air conditioning as well as just the wonder for people to see a big screen of moving pictures. The novelty was still there to keep people attracted.
But even going to the movies now is more expensive than it was back then. Most people just stay at home because ticket prices are high and so are concession. There’s a joke that Dollar Tree is where people buy concessions now. Also, you can purchase tickets online and I’ve gotten a senior discount last two times. The young people working aren’t checking and why should they care?
At the same time, many musicians and bands have canceled tour dates and even their entire tours citing health issues or wanting to spend time with family. Now, Dolly Parton is 80 and she can be given a pass.
However other people like Post Malone, Meghan Trainor and The Pussycat Dolls have repeated having low sales. It’s being called “Blue Dot Fever” as in people can go online and see multiple blue dots indicating there are many unsold seats or too little that the tours aren’t fiscally possible. A lot goes into putting on one concert in one venue and you have to pay a lot of people. It can be very expensive and musicians aren’t getting much from each ticket as everyone gets a percentage and then there are taxes and band expenses.
So ticket prices are increasing with those outrageous hidden fees. Factor in higher gas prices and that many concerts are just in metropolitan areas hours away from where people live, it can cost $500 for one person if they decided to get a motel/hotel room. For instance, an Earth, Wind and Fire concert for at The Cove at River Spirit Casino in Tulsa costs about $85 per person to up to over $400.
And with wage inequality increasing, that’s more than what some people take home a week. So unless it’s for a birthday, anniversary or bachelor/bachelorette party, a lot of people can only go maybe once or twice a year to a concert, if they can even get time off work. Years ago, I knew people who went to concerts almost once a month or more than that.
So some musicians and bands are seeing the trends and canceling so they don’t end up losing a lot of money. However at the same time, the Cadillac Championship at Trump’s National Blue Monster golf course in Doral, a Miami suburb, had a low turnout and no big names. While some have said it’s because the golfers like recent Masters winner Rory McIlroy are preparing for the Truist National in North Carolina this weekend, it makes you wonder if they knew to stay away from the President.
On top of that, it’s been revealed those Trump Phones people were asked to shell out $100 a piece in advance won’t ever be made nor will people be reimbursed. And they say about about 600,000 people are out $100 each. That might not be much to an individual but it totals of $60 million that his company can pocket.
It makes me wonder why people still put up with this as gas prices increase because of the Iran War and the Strait of Hormuz. There’s also the tariffs that have increased prices. Spirit Airlines had to shut down operations suddenly because the prices of jet fuel increased 70 percent. And in typical fashion the administration is blaming Joe Biden, who hasn’t been in office for 471 days as of now.
When I was working in the newspaper business, they began to push more and more special sections, which are nothing more than cash grabs to milk our advertising clients of more money. Some pushed back saying we really weren’t publishing anything new or really fascinating that is put together. And they were right. Most offices only had one person working in editorial. While an advertisement can be sold in under 10 minutes, it would take me and others hours upon to put these out in addition to the regular publications. And we weren’t getting paid any extra. So it was no surprise that many of the weekly newspapers went through many editors over a five-year period while the publisher and company executives said we need to just buckle down and focus more on these sections. But then they began to demand the ad reps sell more and more ads to meet impossible quotas. And the final two years I was there, they went through numerous ad reps at each paper as well.
How much longer can people hear they just need to buckle down a little harder to complete more work for the same pay. Trump’s approval ratings are at an all-time low and even his long-time supporters are turning against him. Brenda Wilson, a Republican, who is running for the Indiana State Senate has the backing of Trump and Turning Point USA. Only four people (three of which were family) attended a recent rally.
Some of his supporters are ride or die and would stand by him even if he pushed them off the lifeboat into the freezing deadly waters as the ship sunk. Others are having buyer’s remorse and just keeping quiet. People say America should be run as a business and we’re here are. A lot of people thought they were going to get stock options and price sharing deals. Instead they’re being squeezed until they’re no longer of value as the rich get richer.
Zane Says 