I normally don’t post in the morning on work days, but I’ll be in meetings over lunch and I wanted to show the strike was over. Here are a few items to start your day:
- Discount Opera. Now, I’m not an opera going person, but I do like cheap tickets to live entertainment. As of next season, the LA Opera is starting a dynamic pricing model, just like the Center Theatre Group and Broadway/LA. What this means is that prices change based on audience demand, with popular shows and seats commanding a premium and less popular shows seeing discounts. What caught my eye was that, as part of the model, L.A. Opera will offer lower-price tickets in every section of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with $18 tickets the new lowest price. The least expensive tickets currently are $20 for obstructed-view seats and as low as $32 for seats in the rear balcony B section. Subscription pricing will be offered at 5% off the base ticket price and remain constant throughout the season, even if a production proves to be a hit and individual prices increase. L.A. Opera also is launching a new initiative that will provide 250 seats at minimal cost, or free in certain cases, to select community members. The seats will be made available at every performance, regardless of demand. The company will also introduce family ticket packages designed to encourage children to attend performances. Sounds good.
- Did Facebook Invent Sharing? Sometimes, to hear them talk, you think they did. Facebook is rolling out 60 new apps for Timeline to allow us to share more and more. What caught my eye, however, was a statement from the CEO of Ticketfly:
“For the first time on the Internet, consumers can share with others what acts they are planning to see,” says Andrew Dreskin, CEO of Ticketfly. “For example, on Timeline, you can say you plan to see Radiohead in San Jose in April.”
I call BS on that statement! If you look at the bottom of any of my theatre reviews, I’m telling you what I’ve been planning to see. People have been doing that for years. We don’t need any particular app to do it, and it leaves it up to us what we want to share.
- Logos as Art. Perhaps I’m stretching to include this with the entertainment theme of this post, but that’s my perogative. The Atlantic has an interesting article on great and not-so-great subway logos. BART made the “great” list. LA Metro made neither.
Music: More of the Monkees (The Monkees): Sometime in the Morning
