Remember how, in the old days, you’d try to maximize your $14.99 (or $19.99 or more!) when buying a cassette or CD?
To do this, instead of blowing your cash on an album by a single artist that might only have 1-2 songs you like, you’d pick an album with a title like “Biggest Chart Toppers Ever!” or “MuchMusic Countdown 1991” with a bunch of hits by various artists.
I knew this wasn’t going to be a full-on Ringo concert going in but what I didn’t think about too much was that a Ringo Starr concert gets you the equivalent of that old Various Artists cassette tape…which is actually kind of cool.
To put it another way, I probably wouldn’t pay to see Toto or Mr. Mister but getting to see a crack band play those band’s biggest hits (plus songs by Todd Rundgren, Santana and of course, Mr. Starkey as well!) was an amazing experience, made all the better by the fabulous setting on an outdoor terrace at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
I think there was only one song I didn’t recognize and when I got back to Canada and looked it up on YouTube (where a full Ringo concert with pretty much the setlist we saw is available), I realised that’s because it was an original one of the players wrote and Ringo allowed to play on the tour…
Back from our week long holiday in the Dominican Republic and now the long sad process of unpacking and downloading all the pictures we took and catching up on neglected stuff at home begins.
We’ll likely get a fuller album up on Facebook eventually but here’s one shot of us from the week taken by the beach just a couple hours before we headed for the plane…
Recently, at my library, I delivered a program called “Trip Planning 2.0: How To Research Your Vacation Online” where I gave registrants a “guided tour” of some the most useful sites for trip planning, both well-known (Google, TripAdvisor) and lesser-known (Reddit, FourSquare).
The anticipation of planning a trip can be (almost) as exciting as the trip itself. And today, technology gives you so much more information in advance of your trip in a way that wasn’t possible even a decade or so ago which helps raise the excitement level even more!
From being able to watch YouTube videos of the beaches you’ll walk on to sites that allow you to directly ask questions to locals before your trip to all but guaranteeing you’ll get the lowest possible price for hotels and flights, we live in an amazing time.
Last night, I was surfing and remembered I hadn’t really spent a lot of time on Twitter reading up on what people were saying about the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana and our hotel. (My point about Twitter in the presentation was that it was best for timely information so there wasn’t as much point about checking on Twitter a month ago when we booked the trip.)
Had a chat with Shea about the various ways to make it happen and after some conversations with her parents and my parents (who are going on the trip with us) this morning, Shea’s folks very kindly offered to babysit the kids and then Shea, me and my folks would go to the concert which is at a nearby resort!
I went online to book tickets (I was a bit surprised there were some available last night and still today but when I went to book the tickets, I realised why this might be – they were being sold on the Dominican equivalent of Ticketmaster but with no obvious way to view the site in English. This is a bit intimidating if you’re doing an expensive financial transaction but again, with the use of modern technology – namely Google Chrome offering to auto-translate every page as I walked through the process – I managed to get the tickets ordered. At least I hope so – I’ll find out Saturday night!)
So yeah, technology has helped me have a second Once in a Lifetime experience – how cool is that (and again, technology even gives me a preview of what the show will be like – here’s a clip of a Ringo Starr All Star Band concert that happened less than 48 hours ago in South Carolina!)
Saturday Night Live is having their 40th Anniversary Special tonight. For some people, it’s Python or SCTV or Richard Pryor. But for me (and most of my friends), SNL probably played more of a role in developing our sense of humour than any other single source.
