Hot Hot Heat

August has wrapped up a hot, sticky mess. I'm definitely
ready for some cooler fall-like weather, unfortunately
September and October are some of the hottest times of
the year here in SD.

Something that is good is that LT and myself are planning
a little get-away fir October and my birthday. Some possibilities
are as far away as Boston, or as close as Santa Barbara.
We are still in the planning stages, but I do know that we
will have a blast!!!

Work has been really good. Busy and creatively.
Some freelance has also been trickling in and I'm
getting ready to start some gaming (again). It's been
since 2005 that I last ran anything but have had the
itch the last couple of months. Jimmy has been helping
me and I expect to be ready by October.

All in a days work... and then some.

Midnight Vultures

So, what has Dave Grohl been up to this summer, you may ask.
Well... He's been busy with the new "Super Group" he is part of.

Them Crooked Vultures (great name, right???!)

They played their first show at an after-party show in Chicago
during Lollapalooza. Reading the write-up, it sounds like they
rocked the house!!!

[ Review here ]

Their set-list:
Elephants
New Fang
Scumbag Blues
Dead End Friends
Bandoliers
Mind Eraser
Gunman
Daffodils
Interlude w/ Ludes
Caligulove
Warsaw (Joy Division cover? Nice touch)
Nobodys Loves Me

[ Facebook ]

[ Website ]

Healther Skelter

Death Panels, really?? Can the Right be that ignorant?
This Daily Show clip was awesome!!!!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Healther Skelter - Obama Death Panel Debate
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Back in Black

The “B” word is back at Chargers Park, and I don't mean Bolts.

Blackouts.

Five years ago they were as much a part of Chargers home games as the
cannon, but then the team got good and people bought tickets and life
was good for everyone (if you forget the part about the team not
getting to the Super Bowl).

That all figures to change this year.

Blame the economy or high ticket prices or fans frustrated by that
whole Super Bowl thing, but the Chargers have “thousands of tickets”
remaining for every home game this season, according to Jim Steeg,
the club's chief operating officer.

Steeg called it “unlikely” that either of the home exhibition games,
a week from Saturday against Seattle or Sept. 4 against San Francisco,
would be televised live in Southern California. Somewhere between
6,000 and 8,000 tickets must be sold to lift the blackout for the
Seahawks game; the number is “a little bit” higher for the 49ers game.

So forget those two (exhibitions are better off forgotten anyway).
What really matters are the games that count, beginning Sept. 20
against Baltimore and Sept. 27 against Miami. Steeg wouldn't get
specific about how many tickets are left for any of the regular-
season games, but I'd bet it isn't that many fewer than for the
exhibitions. Sure, there are requests from Chargers players and
the visiting team that count toward lifting the blackout, but
we're still talking thousands, not hundreds.

And, with nearly all those tickets carrying single-game prices
of $74, $79 and $98 (season tickets are $8-$11 less per game in
those price ranges), it's not exactly like taking the family to
a movie.

“We're working hard and we are trying to pull out a lot of efforts
to try to get there, but they're moving slowly,” Steeg said.
“More than anything we want people to be aware that tickets are
available and blackouts are certainly a possibility.”

This hardly comes as a surprise, even though the last blackout
occurred in the summer of 2006 and the last time a game that mattered
wasn't shown was in 2004. Three times last season a network or
local station needed to step up at the last minute and buy enough
tickets to get the game on TV.

The economy hasn't really improved since then and the job market
has only gotten worse, so a reduction in sales was predictable,
even with ticket prices remaining the same. Steeg said season-ticket
sales are “not down significantly,” although he declined to reveal
an exact percentage.

“We're still selling now and we're still going to keep selling,”
he said. “The economy's affecting everybody.”

The last two years the club capped season-ticket sales at about
61,000 or 62,000 per game, Steeg said. That includes club seats
and suites, which do not count against the minimum of 56,500 needed
to lift the blackout each week.

Steeg also cautioned against expecting sponsors or TV entities to
purchase tickets the way they did last year.

“I don't know if that option's out there in this economy,” he said.

As for possibly lowering prices (stop laughing) to boost sales,
Steeg said league rules prohibit a change at this late date.

“In the NFL,” he said, “once you set the price, it's the price.”

The biggest price, of course, will be paid by fans who for myriad
reasons can't attend games. I've always thought the blackout rule
was unfair; it seems even more so in times like this.

The question is whether the NFL will do the right thing and change
its archaic and idiotic rule. But I think we all know the answer to that.

- By Jay Posner
Union-Tribune Staff Writer