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Ticketmaster & Live Nation add almost 30% service fee PNC Arts center

A friend asked me about tickets for this weeks Brooks and Dunn concert at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel NJ, here is what the found on ticketmaster 2 nice tickets to the show at $71.00 each with all the added fees the total was $182.00 to print the tickets at your home, thats a whopping 30% service charge

Bruce Springsteen to Release New E Street Band Album in Fall

Bruce Springsteen to Release New E Street Band Album in Fall
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

By Roger Friedman


Bruce Springsteen | Michael Jackson | Kelly Clarkson | Odds 'n' Ends

Bruce Springsteen to Release New E Street Band Album in Fall

The general disarray at Sony Music's Columbia Records may have a savior: Bruce Springsteen.

The Boss, as we still call him, is apparently planning a new album for release in late fall. Some sources insist that this will be an E Street Band album, and not another side project like the "Seeger Sessions" or a solo collection of introspective songs.

An E Street Band album means a big rock 'n' roll sound with Springsteen's featured players like Steve van Zandt, Max Weinberg and Clarence Clemons.

Sources tell me that tracks have been recorded with the group, and that the hope among Bruce insiders is that he will choose their project over several others he may have cooking.

"You never know," one observer said, "but it's looking better and better."

Sony insiders definitely confirmed in the last few days that Springsteen is scheduled to release new music before the end of the year. He would have to be, since last year, former Sony Music CEO Andy Lack helped the rock legend land a contract worth $100 million over several years.

Another and very important player would be Springsteen's wife: rocker Patti Scialfa. The timing would be perfect since Scialfa — one of my favorite female rockers — already has an album set for release in early September.

"Play It As It Lays" is Scialfa's first new set of songs since "23rd Street Lullaby," which was released three years ago. Patti is already booked on "Letterman" and the "Today" show as well as "The View," where she may have to co-host if Barbara Walters doesn't find replacements for her departed panelists.

For Bruce, a new album would be the first E Street Band release since "The Rising," his magnificent recording about 9/11. That album sold better than any previous Springsteen albums and picked up a number of Grammy nominations. Springsteen lost the award for best album to Norah Jones' debut, if you recall.

If you never tried it, pick up "The Rising" or download some of its amazing tracks like "Empty Sky" or "You're Missing."

The latter song, which had a serious message, could also be the theme song at Sony these days. Quite a few people are missing — and they're not coming back. I'm told that layoffs are continuing, with several departments in publicity and marketing gutted.

When I mentioned this to a Sony higher-up the other day, the person replied: "You are the last one writing about the record business. Don't you realize it's over?"

Maybe, but if so, what do I do with my 1,200 45s and thousands of CDs? Not everything fits in a computer. And when the Springsteen album comes out, I don't want to listen to it on earbuds, but through my Rogue tube amplifier and Sequerra Met 7 speakers. Loud, baby, loud.

Beatles Songs 'Safe for Now'

I have been telling you for some time now that on May 31, 2008, Michael Jackson will lose the Beatles catalog. Sony has the right to buy it all out from him, thanks to a 2006 refinancing deal.

But sources tell me that Sony isn't so eager to pony up the $300 to $600 million this purchase would entail. For now, at least, my sources say, "the company is happy with its passive partner. Michael isn't bothering us and we're not bothering him."

Recently, Sony/ATV Music Publishing has made some excellent strategic purchases, thanks to new president and financial partner Martin Bandier. They picked up the Famous Music catalog and will continue to expand in the next year.

So Jackson is safe, but this also means he can't raise cash against the catalog anymore. He would have to go back to work to do that.

And stories about Jackson on the Maryland shore last week were amusing. But Jackson was also buzzing around Virginia, as this column reported. For the first few days, he was in northern Virginia's 540 area code checking out shopping malls. There's nothing like a good food court when your career is tanking.

Kelly Clarkson 60 Percent Off

Kelly Clarkson's "My December" dropped off around 60 percent in sales for its second week, bringing the pop star's self-penned collection to a decent 416,000 copies. Next week is the one to watch, especially if "Sober" doesn't appeal to kids as a summer hit.

I'm glad I'm not a kid now. In 1975, the big summer hit was "Get Down Tonight."

Odds 'n' Ends

Russell Simmons was looking thin and trim as he entertained friends at the Waverly Inn for dinner. He skipped the meal himself. He's a vegan. ...

If you love music and film — in particular rock music and great films — you don't want to miss the Mods and Rockers Festival starting this weekend in Hollywood. Check it out at modsandrockers.com.

The choices are varied and fantastic, including a first-ever showing of a documentary about the late and very great Harry Nilsson and a free rock concert featuring Spencer Davis ("Gimme Some Lovin'"), Stephen Bishop ("On and On") and — this is really a must-see — the Records, the cult British New Wave group from the late '70s whose "Starry Nights" is a classic on every level. ...

Also this weekend in La La Land: Hollywood Roadshow is auctioning off over 750 movie props from "Dreamgirls," "Transformers," "1408," "Disturbia," "Blades of Glory" and other films. There's also lots of film memorabilia, and you can bid on it online as well at hollywoodroadshow.com.

Van Halen tour is back on !! fall 2007

According to www.tixx.com , VAN HALEN is preparing to hit the road in the U.S. beginning in September. The group's lineup for the trek is expected to include David Lee Roth (vocals), Eddie Van Halen (guitar), Alex Van Halen (drums) and Eddie's 16-year-old son Wolfgang Van Halen (bass).

Wolfgang Van Halen, the projected replacement for VH bassist Michael Anthony, told People magazine in April 2007 that he wasn't disappointed there wasn’t' going to be a VAN HALEN tour this summer following his father's decision to check himself into rehab. "My dad's taking care of himself," he said. "I also think I'm too young for the experience, because I know there are a lot of bad things out there."

Eddie Van Halen issued a statement addressed to fans in early March announcing that he was seeking treatment because "at the moment I do not feel that I can give you my best.

"That's why I have decided to enter a rehabilitation facility to work on myself, so that in the future I can deliver the 110 percent that I feel I owe you and want to give you," the statement said.

Back in January, Eddie Van Halen told Rolling Stone magazine about Wolfgang, "Wait until you hear this kid play. I pick him up from school every day and we jam. We've got a shredding bass player now that's laying down the law for Alex [Van Halen, drums], so I get to weave in

Jersey Boys on Broadway news

Life at the top's a little turbulent for 'Jersey Boys' star, but who's complaining?
Sunday, April 15, 2007

By VIRGINIA ROHAN
STAFF WRITER


When a show called “Jersey Boys” becomes an overnight sensation, what happens to the life of its actual Jersey-boy star?

“It’s taken it over,” says John Lloyd Young, who has won raves and a Tony for his breakout role as Frankie Valli in the Broadway musical about the Four Seasons. “It’s far more than I expected it would be. … It was only by accident that I realized, ‘Oh, I also have to be an ambassador for this entire production and for Broadway.”

It’s a Wednesday evening, two hours before the opening curtain of another “Jersey Boys,” which started previews in October 2005 — the same month Young moved to Jersey City.

“I’ve been a Jersey boy ever since we opened,” he says, in his dressing room at the August Wilson Theatre.



Posing for photos under its marquee a little earlier, he was an impressive ambassador, cordial to fans passing by — even to the startlingly loud guy who shouted, “John Lloyd, you are a handsome man.”

He is. But what’s really striking is his candor about the turmoil that accompanied his triumphs of the past year and a half.

“It was exhilarating, but it was also emotionally painful,” Young says. “Someone told me ‘the wind blows strongest at the top of the flagpole,’ and I was like, yeah, I guess this means I’m doing something that people are noticing.”






JOHN LLOYD YOUNG



Lives: Jersey City

Portrays: Newark’s Frankie Valli in Broadway’s “Jersey Boys”

Age: 31

Born: Sacramento, Calif.

Awards/honors: 2006 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards for “Jersey Boys”; his own caricature at Sardi’s.





“Jersey Boys” is the story of how four teens from Belleville, Bergenfield and Newark became the Four Seasons. It’s told, “Rashomon”-style, from the perspective of each original group member — Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi, Bob Gaudio (the group’s prolific songwriter) and lead singer Frankie Valli (born Castelluccio).

“The four of us talk directly to you. We need you to believe our point of view,” says Young, who says the format helps keep the actors “fully engaged” every night.

To prepare for the role, Young watched Valli perform in Las Vegas, but he also talked with Gaudio, who, as a Bergenfield teen musical prodigy was introduced to the others by their pal Joe Pesci (yes, the future Oscar winner). Gaudio has been Valli’s musical partner for 43 years on handshake (or “Jersey contract,” as they call it), and he produced the Broadway show’s Grammy-winning cast album.

‘Key to the character’

“If you talk to someone’s best friend, you’ll get a better version of them than you’ll get from them themselves, because, especially when you’re famous, you’re concerned with legacy, and image, and all that,” says Young, who was particularly interested in Gaudio’s very first impression of Valli.

“He said that he was a little man with a big heart. I thought, ‘That’s gonna be the key to the character for me.’ ”

By Young’s count, Valli has seen him in the role eight times, and he takes it as a “high compliment” that the singing legend has often said Young’s performance spooks him a bit. “It means I’m getting too close for comfort, and that’s my goal as an actor. … I think it’s more interesting to an audience to look inside somebody and see their vulnerabilities.”

The son of an “East Coast WASP” dad (who was in the military) and an Italian-American mom, the actor describes his background as “a nice meeting of the stiff upper lip and the simmering, uncontrolled emotions of a hot-blooded Sicilian underneath.”

Voice training

Born in Sacramento, Calif., in the mid-1970s — “by the time I knew what music was, the Four Seasons songs were already Muzak” — Young grew up all over the country, but mostly in Plattsburgh, N.Y.

He studied political science, then drama, at Brown University, but always wanted to act. Before “Jersey Boys,” he’d done mostly plays (including a few at Millburn’s Paper Mill Playhouse. Though his professional singing experience consisted of “a few songs in small musicals in New York,” Young always knew he was “a very strong singer.”

After learning that the actor who originated the Valli role in La Jolla, Calif. — a production Young had unsuccessfully tried out for — was not coming with the show to Broadway, Young guessed that this juicy role was “vocally a killer.”

And so, in the four months from when he was cast to when rehearsals started, Young trained every day with voice teacher Katie Agresta, who’d worked with performers like Jon Bon Jovi. At first, he got hoarse after a few of Valli’s trademark falsetto songs, but he could sing the whole score by rehearsals.

Though he looked at photos of the Stephen Crane projects in Newark, where Valli grew up, he already had a “personal context” for playing the role: His maternal grandfather, whom he thanks in his Playbill bio, was a first-generation Italian-American from Brooklyn and then Queens.

Young’s mom died of cystic fibrosis when he was 2, but as a kid he spent every summer with his Italian-American relatives in Whitestone. “Those summers were very important to me,” he says. “My father remarried, and I had a happy childhood, but it was detached from my [Italian-American] roots. This show allows me to connect to what I always yearned for — my own history.”

Six shows a week

After winning the Tony last June, Young went back to that old neighborhood to see the house his Italian immigrant great-grandparents built.

“This is the hokiest thing that I’ll probably ever say in this interview, but they’re still there, because they’re here, inside,” he says, patting his chest. “And that history really infused me with the right kind of heart to play this part.”

Young now does six shows a week — a more manageable schedule, thanks to a renegotiation after his Tony win. On the day of this interview, Young’s first contract extension was about to expire, but his agents were working on another one. At deadline, word was that he’ll remain with the show for quite a while.

Young also has a one-year talent-holding deal with ABC but says, “I am only interested in leaving the role of a lifetime for something that I’ve either always wanted to do or for the elusive other role of a lifetime, which would render the saying ‘role of a lifetime’ null and void.”


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Van Halen reunion tour hits New Jersey in July 2007

Van Halen tour dates for NJ are July 7,8,9 venues to be announced this week. The Van Halen 44 city tour schedule will be posted at www.tixx.com get the ice skates hell has frozen over 2007 van+halen
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VAN HALEN Tour With DAVID LEE ROTH To Launch In Las Vegas? - Jan. 25, 2007

VAN HALEN Tour With DAVID LEE ROTH To Launch In Las Vegas? - Jan. 25, 2007

According to Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, it's "looking good" that the VAN HALEN reunion tour, with David Lee Roth back in the fold after 22 years, will launch in Las Vegas. A late April date at the Palms' new venue, The Pearl, is "99 percent" likely, a source told Clarke. It would be the latest coup for Palms owner George Maloof, who will open the 2,500-seat venue with a lineup that includes TOOL, EVANESCENCE, GWEN STEFANI along with VAN HALEN, all in the first month. Many critics consider VAN HALEN the greatest party-metal rock band of all time.

Billboard.com reported yesterday (Wednesday, January 24) that a deal was to be signed for a VAN HALEN summer tour that would include 40 amphitheatre shows.

Meanwhile, guitarist Eddie Van Halen told Rolling Stone, "Everything is up in the air. We don't want to say anything prematurely." He added that Roth is not a deal-breaker for the band's summer tour plans, saying, "There's not just one person on this planet that can sing. We're not waiting on nothing." Drummer Alex Van Halen added, "Whoever the singer is, they'll be surrounded by Van Halens."

The band now includes Eddie's son Wolfgang on bass, and Eddie said, "Wait until you hear this kid play. I pick him up from school every day and we jam. We've got a shredding bass player now that's laying down the law for Alex, so I get to weave in and out."

Former bassist Michael Anthony once told Launch that there have been several failed attempts at getting David Lee Roth back in VAN HALEN. "We tried the reunion thing with Roth, I think, three, four — I don't know how many times, you know? — on any kind of level. At the end it was almost like, 'Let's just see if we can go out and play some shows and not even go in the studio,'and we couldn't even work that out with Roth."

VAN HALEN will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March. The citation lists Roth and Sammy Hagar, but there's been no word if either or both will sing with the group that night.

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Previews Begin for Las Vegas PRODUCERS on January 31

Previews Begin for Las Vegas PRODUCERS on January 31
Back to the Article
by BWW News Desk


The most honored show in Broadway history, the Mel Brooks musical comedy THE PRODUCERS, at Paris Las Vegas announces today that during previews, locals can purchase tickets for $60 (including taxes and service charges) with valid Nevada ID. Previews begin January 31, 2007 and run for one week.

“Previews are essential for fine tuning the show prior to the grand opening,” said Michael Weaver, vice-president of marketing for the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino.

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How eBay Makes Regulations Disappear

How eBay Makes Regulations Disappear
By KATIE HAFNER
IN quick succession one morning last month, Louisiana state legislators plowed through a long list of bills, including one to relocate the motor vehicle commission, another to regulate potentially abusive lending practices, and yet another that was the handiwork of eBay, the digital shopping mall that bills itself as "the world's online marketplace."

EBay had worked overtime to ensure the passage of Senate Bill 642, which sought to exempt some Internet transactions — like those that occur on its Web site — from Louisiana licensing requirements for businesses conducting auctions. As the State Senate's Commerce Committee convened to consider the bill, Duane Cowart, an eBay lobbyist, testified that forcing eBay "trading assistants" to fork over $300 for a license was unduly burdensome.

"What they do on the Internet is not an auction, and they are not auctioneers," Mr. Cowart told the committee. Trading assistants take items on consignment from other owners and put them up for bid on eBay, but Mr. Cowart said their activities were more akin to placing classified ads. Louisiana's senators seemed to agree with him wholeheartedly. "I think eBay is great," said one, while another regaled the room about his adventures shopping for a Plymouth Prowler on eBay. State Senator Noble E. Ellington, a Democrat who sponsored the bill at Mr. Cowart's behest, beamed as his colleagues gave the legislation their unanimous support.

EBay's lobbying activities are not confined to Louisiana. As the company has spread its innovative and influential wings across the Internet, it has also woven together a muscular and wily lobbying apparatus that spans 25 states. "It is a fast-moving train, and if you get in front of it you'll get flattened," said Sherrie Wilks, an official with Louisiana's licensing agency, who is concerned that eBay flouts regulatory oversight by persuading state legislators to take the company's side.

Regulators in other states also say that when they try to erect guidelines around eBay's activities, they quickly encounter the realities of the company's political power, raising anew the perennial questions about the proper balance among public policy, consumer protection and business interests. EBay's lobbying tactics, meanwhile, illustrate the spoils to be won when a savvy, resourceful company combines local political persuasion and grass-roots rallying to get lucrative regulatory exemptions that allow it to safeguard its profits.

EBay's efforts have been remarkably successful, and the company, which has worked tirelessly to cultivate its image as a friendly neighborhood bazaar even as it engages in hard-nosed lobbying, is not shy about boasting of its victories. Last year, Ohio passed a law that would have regulated eBay sellers, but the company moved quickly — with the help of seasoned lobbyists — to have a pre-emptive and more favorable bill passed.

"We realized what was there, and we worked with local lobbyists and were able to get the law reversed," said Tod Cohen, eBay's vice president for government relations. He oversees the company's efforts to convince state lawmakers of a core eBay belief: that state regulation can impede the flow of e-commerce.

The Federal Trade Commission, which has loosened regulations across a broad range of industries, appears to agree. Late last week, responding to a request from Mr. Ellington for an analysis of the Louisiana bill, the agency advised that the bill promoted competition and increased consumer choice.

Unlike many other Internet companies, eBay has to be especially fleet-footed when it comes to stopping what it perceives as hostile regulation, whether it involves the growing number of eBay drop-off stores — places like UPS stores and small shops where people take their goods to be sold on eBay — or the more general category of trading assistants. Anyone engaged in selling on the site depends on a relatively friction-free environment in order to make a profit. So does eBay, because its overall corporate goal is to keep sales volumes high.

At any given moment, 89 million items are for sale on eBay, and the mother ship — eBay itself — gets a fee for each successful transaction. It also charges its 193 million registered users listing fees for any products they display on the site. EBay's gross transaction fees for the first quarter of 2006 alone were more than $500 million, a 30 percent increase over the same quarter in 2005. Keeping regulators at bay, particularly those whose efforts might slow down sales traffic, is a particularly high priority for the company.

Regulations are threatening to eBay for another reason as well. They set precedents. Once a law regulating eBay sellers takes hold in one state, other states are more likely to follow suit. And not only do licenses and other regulatory requisites increase the cost of selling items on eBay, but regulations may deter entrepreneurs who are thinking of introducing eBay-based businesses. Although regulations can help rein in con artists and other fraudsters masquerading as legitimate vendors on eBay — which is why most regulators say they favor strict licensing requirements — eBay sees its online community as self-regulating.

Analysts say the company has little room to maneuver when it comes to opposing outside oversight.

"EBay doesn't have a choice," said Ina Steiner, editor of Auctionbytes.com, an online newsletter. "This is such a tight-margin, price-sensitive business that if there are excessive regulations on sellers, it will affect eBay dramatically."

Accordingly, eBay fights regulators who try to categorize it as an auction house — despite the fact that for years eBay has used the word "auction" when describing what takes place on its site. In securities filings from 1998, the year eBay went public, it said that it "pioneered online person-to-person trading by developing a Web-based community in which buyers and sellers are brought together in an efficient and entertaining auction format." In the annual report last year, eBay said it provided the "infrastructure to enable online commerce in a variety of formats, including the traditional auction platform."

Yet eBay contends that such references are informal and says that auction laws — many of them written long before the Internet and eBay even existed — should not apply to its sellers.

Chris Donlay, an eBay spokesman, said the timed auctions on eBay were fundamentally different from "someone who holds a live auction in front of an audience until he has achieved the highest price possible for the client." Instead, as the company says on its Web site, eBay merely "offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day."

THE headquarters of the Louisiana Auctioneers Licensing Board is a modest, three-room office in Baton Rouge with two employees and a dial-up Internet connection. The agency says its mission is to protect the public from "unqualified, irresponsible or unscrupulous individuals."

Late last year, the agency's seven-member board, concerned about possible abuses, decided that eBay trading assistants doing business in Louisiana needed licenses. Last summer, Jim Steele, a retired police officer who is the agency's investigator, started paying visits to eBay sellers around Louisiana who were registered as trading assistants.

Among those visited by Mr. Steele was Cheryl Brown, who runs a small eBay business out of her modest one-story home in Hammond, about an hour's drive east of Baton Rouge. Ms. Brown keeps an eclectic mix of wares — including shoes, belts and Black & Decker laser levels — piled around a bed in a spare back bedroom. Mr. Steele arrived at Ms. Brown's door last February and told her that she needed to get an auction-business license or face a cease-and-desist order.

Ms. Brown said she was "blown away" to find herself singled out. After all, she said, her sales averaged little more than $2,000 a month. Even so, she paid $300 for the license and an additional $250 for a surety bond the licensing board required.

Ms. Brown has yet to make a single sale as a trading assistant ("I don't want to sell people's old clothing," she said) and says she would rather not have to have a license. But, she said, she also enjoys the extra credential that a license gives her. Further, she said, she believes that her transactions on eBay are, in fact, auctions. "My opinion is that eBay is the one doing the auctioning," she said. "They're in control."

Ms. Brown's opinion is shared by Brian Leleux, an eBay seller at the opposite side of the state and the opposite end of the eBay sales revenue stream. Mr. Leleux employs nearly a dozen people and sells some $120,000 each month in recliners, inflatable air beds and other goods on eBay, making him an eBay "Platinum PowerSeller." He pays eBay about $12,000 every month in listing and transaction fees and an additional $2,100 to PayPal, eBay's automated payment subsidiary.

Mr. Leleux operates his business, MassageKing.com, in a large warehouse near Lafayette, and Mr. Steele visited him there earlier this year. Mr. Leleux had signed up with eBay as a trading assistant but done very few consignment sales. Still, he paid the state's fee and applied for the license. Like Ms. Brown, Mr. Leleux said that he did not want a license but that it did give him "one more bit of legitimacy," a notion that appealed to him. And he, too, says he believes that eBay is an auction house.

Still, not every eBay trading assistant was so compliant when Mr. Steele came calling. Barry Simpson has a computer equipment store in Morgan City and sells items on eBay as a sideline. Earlier this year, Mr. Simpson said, Mr. Steele visited him and insisted that he be licensed, even after Mr. Simpson said he would prefer to stop being a trading assistant. Mr. Simpson refused to get a license and complained to eBay, after which the company stepped up its legislative push in Louisiana.

"At that point, we decided we needed to act," said Mr. Donlay, the eBay spokesman.

Mr. Simpson says he believes that complying with certain regulations just does not add up. "If someone comes in and tells me I need a license and I'm selling something for someone else, and I don't do enough of that business, I'll quit," he said.

Unlike most entrepreneurs, Mr. Simpson has a well-heeled and influential corporation — as vigilant about its own interests as it is about his — ready to take on regulators. And eBay appears to be prepared to contest regulators in almost any state where it feels that its prerogatives are threatened.

In California last year, a bill that would have subjected eBay drop-off stores to restrictions now placed on pawnbrokers died quickly after eBay executives — including Meg Whitman, the chief executive — met with leaders of the Republican caucus of the Legislature. "The Republican votes we thought we had withered away," said Leland Y. Yee, the Democratic California assemblyman who sponsored the bill.

Last year, after eBay waged a protracted lobbying effort in Illinois, the state revised its laws to allow Internet auction sites to compete with licensed ticket brokers and sell tickets for more than their face value. New York and Florida have passed similar amendments after eBay lobbied for changes.

Auctioneering laws like those in Louisiana are another focus for eBay. In Maine and Tennessee, after eBay intervened, laws were changed to exempt Internet auctions from licensing requirements.

All of this is just a matter of common sense, according to some people involved in the debate. Ms. Steiner, the newsletter editor, says that many eBay sellers do their trading part time or in addition to another job. "If they are overregulated by licensing fees," she said, "they will abandon their eBay business." For its part, eBay is leaving little to chance.

Over the last eight years, eBay has built a stable of local lobbyists in 25 states. Those lobbyists — who work on retainers that can reach $10,000 a month, according to state lobbying registration documents — have also made contributions to individual politicians who sponsor bills favorable to eBay. For example, Mr. Cowart's political action committee in Louisiana contributed $2,000 to Mr. Ellington in 2005. And eBay lobbyists in Illinois have contributed thousands of dollars to politicians who supported the ticket-scalping bill.

EBay combines its politics-as-usual approach with more creative grass-roots tactics. It keeps its membership informed about regulatory issues as soon as they crop up, using mass e-mail messages and a year-old Web-based initiative called "eBay Main Street," which sends out "legislative alerts" and provides letters that users can send to government officials. Bowing to the traditions of ward politicos adept at turning out the vote, eBay routinely summons its sellers and sends them on personal visits to statehouses around the country to meet with legislators.

"What better way to get a response than to get to the grass roots, which is eBay's members," said Kathy Greer, an eBay seller in New Hampshire, where there has been continuing debate about regulating eBay sellers. "Let them go out and fight your battle."

WHEN eBay sent e-mail messages in April to its Louisiana members to tell them their livelihoods could be threatened by the state's intention to require licenses — and urged them to take action — Ms. Wilks, the licensing agency's sole administrator, was besieged with phone calls and e-mail messages from angry eBay sellers. After she explained that the board intended to require that only about 460 registered eBay trading assistants be licensed, the hubbub died down.

But some sellers who joined in the campaign say they felt that eBay had misled them by making it appear that the proposed regulations were more sweeping. "They approached it in a very underhanded way," said Stephen Dille, a Baton Rouge accountant who sells items intermittently on eBay but received the alert and sent an e-mail message to Ms. Wilks. "I always thought of them as a good company, but now I'm questioning their culture, and their ethics."

Anna Dow, a lawyer for the Louisiana licensing board, put it more forcefully. "They're being deliberately misrepresentational of what's going on," she said.

For their part, eBay officials say that the licensing board has repeatedly refused to give the company a clear answer on whom it plans to regulate, so it has sent e-mail messages to a wide variety of recipients. EBay's anti-regulatory stance extends to storefront drop-off centers, which have been proliferating rapidly around the country. Vendors welcome the company's help.

Debbie Gordon, the owner of Snappy Auctions, a nationwide chain of eBay drop-off stores that is based in Nashville, says she believes that all eBay consignment stores should follow certain practices to make sure that customers are protected. But she was outraged two years ago when Tennessee regulators told her that she would have to get an auctioneer's license and attend a week of auctioneering school.

Ms. Gordon paid $700 for a license and other fees and spent what she called "five days I'll never get back" at a training course for auctioneers. "Ninety-nine percent of the course had nothing to do with our business," she recalled. "It was about traditional auctioneering, cattle and land and firearms."

Soon after a local newspaper publicized Ms. Gordon's experience, eBay stepped in. It convinced lawmakers that not only did outfits like Ms. Gordon's have no relationship to hog calling, but also that because of the timed nature of an eBay auction, the transactions were altogether different and thus not subject to auctioneering laws.

"We fundamentally believe that auctioneering laws are not applicable, are detrimental and are being used to harm competition," said Mr. Cohen of eBay in an interview. "They protect entrenched incumbents rather than enhancing competition, consumer choice and entrepreneurial spirit."

BUT Ms. Wilks of the Louisiana licensing board says that if trading assistants on eBay are not required to have licenses, people like Linda Williams will have nowhere to turn. Earlier this year, Ms. Williams, who lives near Baton Rouge, gave an antique couch to someone to sell on consignment on eBay, she said. The couch was sold, Ms. Williams said, but she did not see a penny of the proceeds.

Ms. Williams called the licensing board, which found that the seller was an auctioneer who was already facing a separate investigation. A bank seized his assets — which included a warehouse filled with items he had taken on consignment from dozens of people, including Ms. Williams — and his license was revoked, according to Ms. Wilks and Ms. Dow. "They were very helpful, and told me to call any time," said Ms. Williams of her experience with the licensing board. "If it wasn't for them, there would be nothing I could do."

EBay executives say that stories like this do not mean that more laws are required. They point out that law enforcement agencies are set up to investigate Internet fraud. "Regulators regulate — that is their job," Mr. Cohen said. "But we have an obligation as a company to protect our community."

Shortly after the first legislative hearing on Senate Bill 642 in Louisiana, eBay sent out another e-mail alert, this time to its biggest sellers in the state. The company asked sellers to attend a meeting late last month to update them on the bill and to brief them on other potential impediments to their businesses. Some 50 sellers from around the state attended the meeting at a Baton Rouge Marriott. Michelle Peacock, eBay's director of state government relations, flew in from California to join Mr. Cowart, the lobbyist. Large colorful billboards outlining "barriers to e-commerce" decorated the room.

Ms. Peacock discussed the proposed revisions to Louisiana's auctioneer statute and talked about a bill supporting the elimination of restrictions on the resale of tickets on the Internet. After the meeting, several attendees piled onto a shuttle bus that eBay provided and drove to the Capitol to talk with their state representatives about Senate Bill 642.

The next day, the Commerce Committee of the Louisiana House of Representatives took up the bill, which the State Senate had already passed. The bill received unanimous support in the committee. Mr. Ellington, the state senator, said in an interview last week that he expected to see the bill pass the full House this week — without a hitch.

Iris Smalbrugge contributed reporting for this article.

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Color Purple tickets Febuary 3rd 8pm show $30.00

www.tixx.com has The Color Purple tickets for $30.00 each the show date is Feb. 3rd 8pm show make someone happy with some nice tickets that wont cost you and arm and a leg



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Mary Poppins tickets next week just $30 each

www.season-tickets.com has tickets for Jan 19th at the low price of $30.00 each also at the same price is Tuesday Jan. 23 8pm show



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Color Purple tickets Broadway show $50 each call 1-800-688-4000

this weekend www.tixx.com has tickets for the hit show The Color Purple in New York City the 2pm matinee show tickets are just $50 each this is a must see show

Broadway Show Deuce will begin on Sunday, May 6th for tickets call 1-800-688-4000

Deuce, a winning new play by 4 time Tony Award-winner Terrence McNally, which will feature 4 time Tony Award-winner Angela Lansbury return to Broadway for the first time in 20 plus years.

Lansbury stars along side Tony Award-winner Marian Seldes in the production, which is directed by 2 time Tony Award-winner Michael Blakemore.

Deuce will begin on Sunday, May 6th for tickets call 1-800-688-4000 or go to www.tixx.com

Deuce is about 2 retired US open Tennis players meeting again for the first time after many years apart

Curtains - Musical New Broadway show for 2007

Curtains - Musical
Curtains, a new, original musical comedy featuring one of the last scores by the legendary songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, unfolds backstage at Boston’s Colonial Theatre in 1959, where a new musical could be a Broadway smash, were it not for the presence of its talent-free leading lady. When the hapless star dies on opening night during her curtain call, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi arrives on the scene to conduct an investigation. But the lure of the theatre proves irresistible and after an unexpected romance blooms for the stage-struck detective, he finds himself just as drawn toward making the show a hit, as he is in solving the murder.

Venue:
Al Hirschfeld Theatre
302 West 45th Street (Between 8th and 9th Avenues)
New York NY 10036

Running Time:
tba

Radio City Christmas Show tickets call 1-732-280-3434

Radio City Christmas Show tickets call 1-732-280-3434

Radio City show has holiday spirit


The 90-minute revue, directed and choreographed by Linda Haberman, was not radically different from previous shows. But favorites such as "The Nutcracker," "Santa's Workshop" and the Mighty Wurlitzer prelude were performed with obvious joy, and a new number, "Twelve Days of Christmas," got the full Rockette oomph, with the troupe kicking hard to the bump of techno-rock.

For your good money ($40-$250 a ticket), for tickets goto www.season-tickets.com you get song, dance, fake snow, 3-D glasses, dancing bears, a big tree and a little philosophy.

"Sometimes, the best gift isn't a toy at all. Then, again, sometimes it is," advises Santa, played for the 20th year by Charles Edward Hall, a most jolly fellow who knows how to rally his reindeer, sing for his supper, and, no doubt, bellow for his breakfast. Jessica Sheridan as Mrs. Claus steps up during the workshop scene, belting out "Man With a Bag" for her man and assuring us that cell phones indeed work on the North Pole.

The Rockettes, meanwhile, raised their angular legs to a variety of tempos and costumes, decked out as reindeer as their shoulders twitched like Elvis Presley; or timing a long, drowsy fall as the "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," one collapsing into another as if each were overcome by sleeping powder.

Every party must end, and, as always, the "Spectacular" wound down with the Living Nativity, a hushed and hushing conclusion for which lights dimmed, a chorus sighed "Silent Night" and an earnest voice uttered a familiar story with a few names -- Caesar Augustus, King Herod -- that for many kids may require some explanation.

Audiences in recent years have seemed a bit dazed by the Nativity and its reminder that "He was nailed on a cross between two thieves." But with a soaring call of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" as the finale, the opening night crowd responded with a warm ovation, moved, if not by the letter of the song, then by the spirit.

This weekend tickets on DISCOUNT cheaper than BO better than TKTS

The Rolling Stones tickets for Atlantic City are on sale for less than face value

The Color Purple tickets are $50.00 not many left

Barbra Streisand tickets for Florida this weekend for sale less than face value

The Drowsey Chaperone tickets are available this weekend at www.tixxx.com

BUTLEY the new Nathan Lane play tickets are on sale less than face value

World Series Tickets call 1-800-688-4000 METS TICKETS

We will have Mets tickets for all games at shea stadium www.tixx.com

World Series Tickets call 1-800-688-4000

World Series Tickets Hidden in Gmail?This weekend the Detroit Tigers will proudly take the field to play in the World Series for the first time since 1984! Since I caught myself day dreaming about actually going to a game, I decided I might as well do a few searches to see what World Series tickets are selling for. I always need to add a little twist to the way I do things. So I decided to use the ads Google furnishes to my Gmail account to find the tickets.

I went into Gmail and composed a simple message to myself last night:

My email's subject line: World Series Tickets

The only text I put in the email: I want to go to the Tigers game this Sunday.

I sent the email at 8:45 and checked it a moment later. And "kablammo" there were two ads in near the body of my email message. I use kablammo as if I was excited. I was. I will be honest here and admit that I can not think of one time where I looked at the ads embedded in my Gmail messages. Really, not once. I have been a steady Gmail user for 2 years. Never looked at the ads. They never bothered me, and I never bothered them. I just happen to like the free email service Google offers. So far there has never been any added benefit to having the ads Google places there for me, until this time.

I will let you know in advance that I was pretty disappointed with what I was given. Here's why:

There were two ads there. One was from a well known online ticket seller. Another from a t-shirt vendor. The ad from the ticket vendor took me directly to a page for Mets playoff tickets. What? The Mets? They aren't even in the World Series. They may not even make it to the World Series. At this point they are fighting with the Cardinals to see who gets the honor of playing my beloved Tigers in the World Series. Although, I must give a bit of credit to the ad because at least it was related to baseball tickets.

The second ad just took me to the homepage of a site that sells nothing more than sophomoric team spirit t-shirts. Most of the shirts had a Philadelphia or Boston theme. Only a couple of the shirts had anything to do with baseball, and to me those were a stretch. If you don't know the Boston or Philadelphia athletes, these shirts may not mean anything to you. For instance one of the shirts simply had the words "Johnny Sucks" on it. My guess is they mean Johnny Damon sucks for leaving the Red Sox for the Yankees. Anyway, I wanted to see ads for World Series tickets, or at least something to do with the Detroit Tigers.

You may think the goal of this blog post is to slam Google for putting untargeted ads in my Gmail emails. Google may be partially to blame for something slightly off in its relevancy algorithm, but my beef isn't with Google. It is more important to me to place the blame on the owners of the two sites that showed the ads within my email message. They need to do a better job of determining if their ads are showing at the right time to the right audience. Google didn't twist their arms and force them into my Gmail. They may want to opt out of this content match advertising option, or at least make sure it is more targeted to current events before continuing.

For the record I did a couple of searches at Google.com for World Series Tickets and Detroit Tigers Tickets. The well known online ticket seller that I saw in my email ads nailed these searches with well placed Google AdWords ads. The AdWords ads put me a click or two away from buying a ticket for Sunday's game. The only thing is that I don't have the $8,500 for the ticket. Well, maybe a "Johnny Sucks" t-shirt for $19.95 was what I needed after all.

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