Hey! You! Get Offa My List! UPDATED!

In reference to my post below about Rolling Stones ticket prices. They're bad. The average is still probably around $624, as reported by a couple sources cited in the original post.(See below)

But a reader pointed out that the best prices for concert tickets can be found on StubHub! I looked and sure enough, prices for the Minneapolis concert appear to range between $134 and ...... $10,757! If you don't believe it, look!

However, many tickets exist in the $150- $250 range. Not great, but not the worst in the stadium.  AND, most importantly, StubHub! promises that the price you see is what you'll pay - no surprises with taxes and fees. 

Theoretically at least, PK and I could see the Stones for between $300 and $400.

The Events Ticket Center, where I originally searched (and also called and talked to a real person two days ago) now has tickets ranging from $124 to $4,450. A couple days ago, the lowest ticket listed was for $250 and the highest was $3,400. How could the prices change so dramatically in a few days?

The guy I talked with—his name was Shawn—told me that those two tickets, the cheapest available, with taxes and fees, would end up costing $677.

Hence I ditched my long-held desire to go to a Stones concert. And also got huffy.

About the June 3 Stones concert in Minneapolis? Reconsidering. 

As a another reader pointed out, YOLO. For any Luddites out there, that means you only live once. 

If I start talking myself into buying concert tix (which will also mean adjusting PK's attitude) I would add LIS - Life is short.


Original post
Hey! You! Get Offa My List!

I love this caricature of the Rolling Stones. I hope the copyright police don't come after me for posting it on my non monetized (what a word!) blog with 10 readers and sue me for copyright violation. Because then I could really never afford a Rolling Stones concert. 

I've never composed a bucket list, but I believe that certain as-yet-unseen-by-me people, places  and things will jump up and grab me if I stumble into range.

Such a stumble/grab occurred a few days ago when I realized that PK and I would be in Minneapolis on June 3 for a Rolling Stones concert. Wow! Big damn grab! Right by the throat. Made my tongue stick out like on that famous album cover.

I'm a rock n' roller from way back, and for years, the Stones was my favorite band. That was before a great flood of easy-to-access music, and younger friends,  pumped up my music life. I still love the Stones, and never tire of songs like Jumpin Jack Flash and Sympathy for the Devil, but the band has settled somewhere on the far edge of music that compels me to dance, sing, sniffle, or otherwise enter an elevated state.

When the Stones was my top band,  I was dying to see them in concert. I thought I would have given anything! Not any more.

Not since yesterday when I discovered that Rolling Stones concert ticket prices start at $250 and go up to, are you ready? $3,400!!! For one freaking ticket!

According to one source, the Stones are far and away the most expensive in-concert artists. Here's a list from 2013 and a more recent source with similar information. The first source also details how many millions per year some of the artists amass. Amounts listed are the average ticket price.

10. Paul McCartney, $241
 9. Pink, $270
 8. Fleetwood Mac, $282
 7. Beyonce, $294
 6. Roger Waters, $314
 5. Justin Timberlake, $339
 4. Eagles, $354
 3. Maroon5, $364
 2. One Direction, $460
 1. Rolling Stones, $624

Ok. Where have I been hiding that I didn't realize that Big Names command small fortunes for their stadium extravaganzas?

I've been hiding in the sticks. And in the decades that have passed since I first loved the Stones in the 60s. I've been hiding in the garden and on the rivers and in the mountains where pop culture and media don't necessarily rule. I've become a person far enough removed from mainstream culture that I cannot fathom the audacity of billionaire celebrities asking fans to pay hundreds/thousands to see them. And I don't get it about celebrity worship that involves spending more on a single concert ticket than many people pay for a month's rent.

I don't feel deprived (well, maybe a little) of great live music. We live on the I-5 corridor midway between San Francisco and Portland/Seattle, and because of that geography, we snag fabulous talent into our little venues for mid-week concerts. Big names, not the Stones or U2 or Fleetwood Mac, but artists that are Grammy winners or nominees or should be. The local concerts usually run between $25 and $55, but we did pay $99 to see Richard Thompson last year. (At the historic Rogue Theater.)

I won't even get started on the fantastic concerts we've seen at various New Orleans venues, none of which exceeded $100 per ticket. More like $30.

My nephew Michael Johnson lives in Minneapolis and was considering the Stones concert with us until informed about ticket prices. He wrote:

Playground for the rich.  I mean, back in the sixties, who would have thought it would come to this?  But I guess the "bad boys of rock" never were really part of that altruistic hippie crap anyway. Don't get me wrong, but the Stones were definitely more sex and drugs than they were peace and love.

I responded:

I imagine that the really huge names in rock, hip hop, rap, country, pop, can command these prices. But I’m trying to think of a “peace and love” group from the sixties or seventies that is still as popular as the Stones. 

Michael: 

A peace and love group that is still around?  Well, I think they are on PBS getting rolled out for the pledge drives. Then the six-figure salaried CEOs of said non-profits get to go see the Stones! This is the top-heavy celebrity worshipping "culture" of our times. 

Well, whatever. PK and I will be in Minneapolis June 3. We will not be paying $677 (cheapest 2 tickets + fees and taxes) to occupy nosebleed stadium seats at a Rolling Stones concert.  But I, for one, will offer a reluctant toast to a great Stones song, You can't always get what you want. 

Ok, OK! I Take It Back About the Rolling Stones

Minnesota rock fan, and former high school classmate Skip
Ristvedt, paved the way for PK and me to attend the concert.

I didn't have high expectations for my first Rolling Stones concert Wednesday in Minneapolis. (I know! I swore I wouldn't go in an earlier post, which you can revisit below, if you like.) I had to eat my words, but they didn't taste so bad.

We had cheap (by Stones standards) stadium tickets, $115 each., thanks to my friend, Skip and his friend, Chad.  Rain was predicted, and en route to the concert, the skies delivered a serious deluge. It was pouring sheets. So weather was a factor. But mostly, I have a short list of beloved Stones songs and don't care all that much for the rest, and I'm even kinda sick of the ones I do like, and damn, after all these years of playing the same songs, aren't the Stones getting sick of them, too?

Apparently not. The Stones rocked all those old numbers, absolutely killed it. I loved every minute. And, in an amazing sign of cooperation and beneficence from the weather gods, the rain that had been falling for hours stopped at 8 p.m. when the concert opened with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and by 9 p.m. when the Stones surged on stage with their rock n' roll dominance, patches of blue even appeared. Party time!

Jumpin Jack Flash - A video link grabbed from YouTube that gives a good idea of the concert's razzle dazzle and energy level.  I was unable to download my own short video because I forgot my password! Grrrr.

PK and me happy to be at TCF stadium in Minneapolis.

Since the Stones have stuck together and have been playing for 50-some years, and the main guys, including Mick Jagger, are in their sixties and seventies, age always comes up. Aren't these senior citizens in danger of croaking on stage? Don't they already look half dead?

I think the Stones, especially Jagger, make age a non issue. They prove that people in their sixties and seventies can blast away like much younger rockers. They prove to older folks like me, that is people who work at remaining physical and involved in what they love, that life in their seventies, and maybe their eighties, doesn't have to be the downward spiral we know is eventually inevitable. We can still have a great time and do whatever it is that creates joy and vitality. I can't sing or perform, but I can still dance, and dammit, I will until I drop.

Mick Jagger dyes his hair, works with a personal trainer and amps up his training in the months before touring, and whatever he does, works. From my far away stadium seat, the guy looked and moved like he's 20-something. There was no hint of fatigue despite his endless strutting and pouting and whipping his various garments around and changing his shirt multiple times and running up and down his ramp and singing the old songs like it was the first damn time he ever belted them out.

I swear. I never thought I could get caught up in one of the most ancient songs, Can't Get No Satisfaction, but they closed the concert with it and like most of the 50,000 people in the stadium, I was gyrating and contributing to the general roar.

If you've never gone, try to catch a Stones concert. It'll make you feel young again! Just like it does for the Stones.

Here is my earlier post about the money-grubbing Rolling Stones in which I railed against outrageous and fluctuating ticket prices and refused to attend the Minneapolis concert even though I've always wanted to see them and we were going to be in Minneapolis anyway. 

Vacation weight gain? Zucchini etc to the rescue

Today's take from our two zucchini plants, which have suddenly roared into high production. I grated most of a medium zucchini then nuked the "noodles" for a minute and a half.

PK and I returned last week from a month away. We biked. We hiked. We danced to the Rolling Stones. We ate too much, or at least I ate too much. We sat on our butts for nearly 5,000 miles of travel to the Midwest and back, via Canada. Great trip. But. Butt. 

I gained five pounds. PK doesn't seem any fatter. Still a skinny SOB. But me? The enlarged rolls around the middle are insidious, hideous, entirely ridicuilious. (re-dick-u-ill- e-us). And also bilious.

I've developed a self-defeating habit for one who is privileged to travel. I relax my low-carbish diet on vacations as I relax everything else. Sometimes that's OK,  such as when we're dependent upon others for sustenance or when the sustenance supplied is not commensurate with what my overfed body expects. Hence when we returned from Africa in 2013, I had lost a few pounds.

But on this trip we were self-medicated with food and well treated by all the hosts who went out of their way to please us. Great stuff! Sandwiches every day, potato salad, pasta salad, desserts! And now ..... overstuffed, as witness the pants that won't zip. 

After this morning's weigh-in and a scary look at my belly during down dog at yoga, I determined to rev up a carb-correction plan that includes substituting zucchini, cauliflower, green beans and other veggies for rice, pasta, potatoes, bread and other delicious items that make a person gain weight not just because they're caloric, but also because refined carbs produce blood sugar spikes that lead to appetite spikes that lead to driving spikes into the heart. (Spikes in heart—for desperate cases only.)

Zucchini is going bonkers in the garden and so.....

ZUCCHINI NOODLES

Two servings. Select a fresh medium or medium-large zucchini, preferably one in which seeds have not yet formed. Seeds make for weak noodles.

Grate into longish strands using a box grater or a food processor. 

Microwave in a covered glass bowl on high for a minute. Check after a minute to see if the noodles need another 30 seconds or so. They should be hot and limp, but not slimy or falling apart. You want them to hold together for whatever sauce you'll douse them with. They're great with a bit of crunch left.

The short story here: it is easy to make zucchini "noodles" using a box grater, or a food processor or a mandolin.

Microwaved zucchini noodles should be well drained before dressing with sauces. 

My virtuous lunch comprising reheated marinara meat sauce topped with zuke noodles, shredded Parmesan, and fresh basil.

How'd that work out? Leaving the garden from late May to late June?

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Weeds flourish alongside beets that are protected from birds with wire screen. Damn the birds. Find your own food! (But not our blueberries, please.)

We just got home after a month away. We had a great time traveling to an early-June family reunion in Minnesota, with lots of side trips, then home through Canada's national parks. Fabulous!

However, it wasn't that much fun to see the garden upon our return. If you're used to seeing garden lushness on this blog, you may notice and enjoy the contrast with earlier posts.

We'd planted what we believe to be a modest patch in late April/early May and enlisted a gardener friend to keep it alive in our absence. She stopped by every other day or so whilst juggling her three other jobs and managing a complicated personal life. PK had set up "automatic watering" for much, but not all, of the smallest—but still too ambitious—garden we've had in years.

While we were traipsing about, southern Oregon temps soared into the 90s for days on end. Our automatic watering system turned out to be uneven. Let's just say that we have a lot of work to do!

Is it a good idea to leave your garden as plants are just getting started in late spring and early summer? No. It is not a good idea. It is really stupid. If we want to continue gardening and also traveling, we'll need to figure out a schedule kinder to our garden or just give it up for awhile.

Leeks survived sparse watering, onions did OK, and the rest of the garden limped along in absence of the daily attention required in early season. It will all come around with TLC.

The mostly-perennial bed got adequate water and managed to beat out the weeds. 

Two butternut squash plants will likely fill this space once they get enough water. They're sad now.

Oh the poor basil! These guys should be bush-sized. Tomorrow the plants will be weeded, deeply watered, fertilized and maybe even chanted over. Groooooommmmm. I am craving Caprese salad!

Let's just say this is a super lush patch of pig weed where we'd planted poppies, or so we thought. I'll be yanking those suckers out tomorrow and hunting for something colorful to fill the space.

Our blueberries are in full production and our wonderful garden keeper picked and froze many bags for us. I harvested some tonight for tomorrow's breakfast. Birds ruin about half the crop every year, including this one. We still get a lot of berries. We still like birds.

I can't complain about early summer zucchini, sweet yellow peppers,  a Walla Walla onion, and a few cherry and Early Girl tomatoes, some of which we ate for our welcome-home dinner. I'm sure the garden is glad we're back, but not the deer that had taken up residence under a huge holly bush convenient to our landscaping, which it has apparently been enjoying. Ok, garden, abundant water, fertilizer and TLC coming your way tomorrow!

Posts, so far, about our recent travels.

Cutting back on gardening to travel. Really?

Road tripping in the Four Wheel Camper'

Biking 100 miles in two days makes for a sore rear end.

Yellowstone Park, and getting along on the road.

Rolling Stones concert in Minneapolis, June 3, 2015

Changing Times in North Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt National Park

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We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune." Theodore Roosevelt

A lone buffalo forages before the snows begin in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, South Unit, October 2008. On our recent visit, the grass was lush and the buffs were shedding their winter coats. Bison herds had been decimated by the time Roosevelt visited the ND Badlands in 1883. After he became President in 1901, Roosevelt used his authority to protect wildlife and public lands by creating the U.S. Forest Service and establishing 51 Federal Bird Reservations, 4 National Game Preserves, 150 National Forests, 5 National Parks, and enabling the1906 American Antiquities Act which he used to proclaim 18 National Monuments. During his presidency,Theodore Roosevelt protected approximately 230,000,000 acres of public land. (National Park Service). 

The first thing PK and I did when entering North Dakota in late May was to stop  at the western-most Visitors' Center on I-94 seeking info about the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We'd visited the South Unit eight years ago and loved it. Now we wanted to explore the rest of the park.

PK and I were surprised and delighted at TR National Park's rugged beauty in 2008. Ancient wagon tracks tell a story about the past, and we imagined Teddy Roosevelt charging around here on horseback, becoming inspired  to protect public lands and the wild creatures that inhabit them. 

Really? "The young woman at he Visitor's Center said. "I can't recommend it."
Why? we asked, even though we know that the state's extensive oil extraction is heaviest in the state's northwest corner. Surely it wasn't impacting the park?! (Duh.)

She went on to describe how constant oil industry traffic has made the road from I-94 to the North Unit the "deadliest in North Dakota" and how oil operations near the park compromise the wilderness experience for park visitors.

There is concern that drilling could even occur in the park. (5-minute video.)

When I explained that I grew up in North Dakota and was curious about what's happening up there, she said,  "It would just make you sad."

It makes her sad for sure. She spoke about farms being dissected by oil company easements that greatly enrich some, but not all, of the locals; how oil companies, working in sparsely populated areas have hired quickly and carelessly from the "outside", introducing a criminal element into previously "safe" communities. How drugs and prostitution have blighted the area and  how many North Dakotans have been corrupted by the sudden influx of big money, creating distrust and discord in some small traditional farming communities that have suddenly outgrown all their infrastructure, and where some have become millionaires while others can no longer afford rent.

"This isn't who we are," she said, shaking her head.

She, and many others warned us about driving through the northwestern part of the state on our return to Oregon. Heavy truck traffic on two-lane roads and roads in poor condition were often mentioned. We ended up NOT driving through the  heart of oil operations in North Dakota under which the Bakken Formation lies, but skirted it. Wikipedia explains that the formation underlies the Williston Basin and occupies about 200,000 square miles in parts of Montana, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Oil wells and grain storage units exist side by side along I-94
in the southwestern part of North Dakota.

Meanwhile, back at the South Unit, PK and I enjoyed a short
but lovely ride on the park's 36-mile loop drive during which
we saw buffalo herds and wild horses and hardly any people.

The Little Missouri River cuts through the park where Theodore Roosevelt
once roamed. This overview was accessed via a short trail.

Just a mile or so from the park,  I-94 cuts across the state's southern end, carrying loads of tourists going elsewhere. I suggest they stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park  and see what  first inspired the Conservation President to preserve the public parks and lands we value so much. 

Oil on the move. Everywhere.

We visited Minot, North Dakota, the northern city where I grew up and graduated from high school, during our return to Oregon, a journey we're still on, now in Saskatchewan headed for Canadian national parks. 

More about Minot and North Dakota's true wonders coming soon. 

Earlier posts about this road trip:

Road tripping in the Four Wheel Camper'

Biking 100 miles in two days makes for a sore rear end.

Yellowstone Park, and getting along on the road.

Rolling Stones concert in Minneapolis, June 3, 2015