Stop! Stop! You're making me thirsty!

I sometimes think people should demand that their ticket and their travel expenses be refunded in these situations. Even trying to claim that extra $1.25 for gasoline would raise their overall administrative costs and decrease their profits. The trick is, don't get angry; other people usually sympathize with calm (or hurt) people over angry people.

As to American commercialism creeping into Canada, yes, it happens. An even worse thing I know of that Canada, and perhaps Australia, exported was the idea of huge newspaper chains. Almost all of Canada's newspapers are now controled by only two chains. Incredible. I'm so happy to see Conrad Black in trouble.

And as to whether performers have control over their venues, there was an interesting article on that subject in Harpers. I'm going to re-read it and post a thread about it.