Reactionary

I feel like I’ve just stabbed him through the back, just sneaked up on him in broad daylight and sunk a huge knife in all the way to the hilt. I hope I don’t sound like a victim or anything in that essay I wrote and aimlessly called “The Great Ticket Scandal ’05″. But I spent a lot of time thinking about it and trying to separate the way I felt from what I thought was really at issue here. I have never supported the victim card and I hope I’ve never played it and I pray I’m not playing it now. But I still feel something’s been missed or done wrong here, no matter where I stand to look at it.

I’ve read it and reread it and I hope I won’t regret it. After overproofreading for the 20th time, though, I concluded that this is the way I’d feel even if I’d gotten front row tickets and everything had gone smoothly (actually even if it had gone better than expected). I think I’m right and that something else is amiss in the U2 camp. I didn’t know what else to do with it so I stuck the essay on the front page of U2Literary.com. I don’t care if the world sees it or what they think of it. I’m prepared to defend my position.

But I don’t want to feel this way and I wish I could turn back time and somehow undo what I feel has been misdone. I’ve always defended him/ them in the past and in my own defense, I will not now nor will I ever support fan elitism. I said so clearly in the essay. In my own defense, I never ranted on about U2.com as if it were the end of the world that the website was an eyesore. Strange that some people who DID are now posting overly cheerful greetings on a mailing list, because they managed to get the tickets they want so NOW the world’s perfect because they’re happy. In my own defense, I think if I had been successful, I wouldn’t have behaved that way and that my opinions in the aforementioned essay would remain the same regardless. I believe the Ticketmaster system is wrong, criminal, and reprehensible, beyond just an annoyance. And I believe he and his band are wrong in denying or belittling their identity and importance and refusing to reach for the higher ground and act against them.

But I still love you, baby.

January 27th, 2005 | Category: Life, Tunes |  Print |  Send it | Subscribe to comments | Both comments and pings are currently closed