“Hey you!
“Yeah, you in the Pig Trail T-shirt.
“Sit down!”
This — with the addition of some well chosen adjectives — is what I wanted to shout last weekend at the guy who blocked my view at the Huey Lewis and The News concert at Downstream Casino. In deference to the friends I was with, I did not holler at the guy. But I should have.
When did it get to be acceptable to stand up at a concert and block other people who also bought a ticket?
Here’s another question for you: when did this trend start of paying a boatload of money for seats at a concert only to stand up most of the time?
I mean, really?
If you want to stand up, buy standing room, it’s cheaper.
I spend some hard-earned bucks on these tickets and I don’t want to stand up the entire time.
Here are the times it is OK to stand up:
• When whoever comes on stage.
• When whoever performs something incredible.
• When whoever welcomes a special guest.
• When whoever performs a song everyone gets up to dance to.
• When whoever concludes a set and everyone wants an encore, that you know whoever is going to do anyway.
• When whoever concludes the concert.
I’m willing to give serious consideration to standing up during the encore set, but only if it consists of a couple of songs. Jimmy Buffett does long encore sets, so sitting down is a necessity — or should be — especially for some of his fans who have been imbibing for hours.
My friends went to stand on the berm behind the seats to see Huey. I don’t believe they saw much more than I did. I refused to move. Before my bionic knees were installed, I resigned myself to sitting while the rest of the crowd was standing. I admit looking at rear ends gets tiresome, but I reiterate, I paid good money for that seat and I will be darned if some oaf is going to deny me the pleasure of it.
I have been to the occasional concert where security has made people sit. I think that should be the rule rather than the exception.
So the next time you are at a concert, please give the person behind you some consideration.
You could start a trend.
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I do not care what the liberals in New York think about Arkansas politics. I also do not care what the conservatives in Kansas think.
What I think is that they need to butt out of the Arkansas senate race.
I was looking forward to a few months without politics, but no. The local politicos had to start announcing for office, like anyone really cares.
Then there are those annoying TV ads opposing Mark Pryor. At this point, it really matters not who runs again him, I will vote for Pryor just because I want those jokers buying those ads to have wasted their money.
I don’t much like Pryor, just like I don’t much like anyone in Congress. However, he tends to be a centrist and has worked for compromise, and that gives him points in my book. Most of the rest of them are too bound to party policies to seriously consider what their constituents want and need.
There should be serious limits put on political advertising like the kind pelting Pryor. Sure, they admit they are some kind of political action committee, but who stops to find out who is behind the PAC. Next to no one. They count on that.
And if it was up to me, no one could announce candidacy for any position before January of the year of the actual vote. These months and months of campaigning are expensive, and I think most of us tune it out.
Perhaps if the campaign was shorter, people would reject party rhetoric and vote for the best person instead of the one with the “R” or “D” after his name.
I totally support nonpartisan elections at all levels of government. It works at the city level and in judicial campaigns. I don’t see why it shouldn’t work across the board.
Maybe I will form a PAC and start a campaign.
•••
LEEANNA WALKER IS LOCAL EDITOR OF THE ROGERS MORNING NEWS AND THE SPRINGDALE MORNING NEWS. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER AT WWW.TWITTER.COM/NWALEEANNA