Mainstream Economics

Okay, so for me to go to the SWELL SEASON show in November it will cost me $50. If I buy a ticket for a friend, that’s $100. Goodness. It just doesn’t seem like the kind of concert that would set me back $100.

Tickets to see Maroon 5 at the MCI Center are $50. To see Springsteen? $70. Those aren’t so surprising. But Swell Season seems like it would be a lower profile show.

And I am head over heels now for Glen Hansard, and all the while walking around Grafton Street I was like, he’s here, I’m going to see him busking (I didn’t of course—‘cause that was a movie and this is real life, and in real life he's not a street performer/vacuum repairman) but I have grown content with the fact that the shows I want to see will rarely cost more than $30. So there you have it. I don’t like paying mainstream prices for my not entirely mainstream tastes.

Speaking of bargains: Sunday’s Post had a great feature about Catalyst’s $10 ticket policy. The guys look and sound great. Here’s hoping this will be another publicity boost for the season.

In other news, I have taken to reading the corresponding Cliffs Notes' chapter with each chapter I read in Ulysses. The notes can be annoying—they get way too much into the symbolism of every nook and cranny of language in a way that I think completely distracts from the actual story-telling—but nonetheless, they are helping to keep me on track.