When the ’80s band Til Tuesday announced last October that it was reforming — for the first time in 35 years — to play at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena May 17, I reached for my credit card.
Then in December, I purchased my season ticket for the Golden State Valkyries. When the league set this as opening weekend, I crossed my fingers. May 16 at Los Angeles would’ve been dreaming come true, but May 16 hosting the Sparks meant racing away from Chase Center to catch a plane.
I was OK with the plan to hurry from Chase to SFO, until Cruel World released its event schedule a week ago. Til Tuesday will play for 45 minutes mid-day, and no matter how attractive the other acts (Nick Cave, New Order, The Go-Go’s, Garbage, Devo, many more) on the bill, I don’t want to invest $2300 plus two travel days in a 45-minute set.
The Valkyries gave me a reason to miss the plane Friday night by inviting me to the post-game press conference. If I manage to sell my festival pass for $700 (and receiving credit for hotel and air?), I’m still eating $1000 in bonus crap (still in an unopened envelope on my bed).
I’m reminded of August 7, 2007, the night Barry Bonds hit HR no. 756 to beat Aaron’s record. I had a ticket, but Pacific arranged my interview with Coach Roberts for that night. Coach said: “You should’ve gone to the game”, but who knew Bonds would break Aaron’s record that night. Besides, we were working on the preseason booster publication, and how cool is that?!