Shopping at Home: The Wave of the Future?
Perhaps this is a trend only in the United States where most households have at least one television set and many have cable television with thirty or more channels to choose from. Our cable company offers two channels dedicated to shopping, one of which is the renown QVC. Though we seldom channel surf QVC, we do tune in when there is a Star Trek or Peanuts program featuring large Quantities of "Valuable" Collectibles to choose from. These shopping channels usually have everything from autographed items to pewter statues, all of which come with the requisite "Certificate of Authenticity". We have always wondered (we're not the only ones, are we?), who authenticates the "Certificate of Authenticity"?
As we sit through an hour or three seeing so many collectibles with credit card and membership number in hand, we find ourselves suffering from the Quickly Vanishing Cash syndrome as our fingers speed dial the 1-800 number every time we see another useless necessity.
As a special promotion, many times these shows feature personalities which home shoppers can talk to only after they have dished out their hard earned cash. Often when callers Question the Visiting Celebrities, they seem to believe the celebrity's on-screen persona has suddenly appeared. Several people calling in to talk to William Shatner said things like "I can't believe I'm talking to Captain Kirk." or "Please say hello to Mr. Spock for me."
Is home shopping here to stay? We certainly think so, it seems to be the ultimate Quandray in the Vicious Circle of our 20th century existence. Oh well, at least we can look forward to our credit card company raising our credit card limit as we give it a work out!
PETRA - April 27, 1996
Sorry folks, two days before the concert we received a letter from TicketMaster notifying us that the Petra Concert at San Diego State University's Open Air Amphitheater was cancelled and not to be rescheduled. As it turns out, Petra skipped southern California altogether and replaced the San DIego tour stop with Visalia, CA.
This certainly is a big disappointment for us. We finally ordered some decent seats (up front and center in the Pit, no less) where we would not need binoculars and it washes out. Oh well, no sour grapes for us this time though we do have to wonder how long TicketMaster knew about the cancellation and believe they should have sent a refund check to us along with the cancellation letter. On the other hand, we wish Petra the best of luck for the rest of their tour and be sure to check Petra out their Word web site.
It has been a long time since we have been to a Christian concert in which the concert performance was as enjoyable as the studio produced CD. As a regular (not avid but as often as we can) concert goer, we feel concerts should offer something above and beyond what one receives when listening over the air waves or on a walkman. This certainly does not mean that all concerts need to be mega-productions. In fact, there is much value in small, intimate solo performances. For some artists, this may even be our preferred listening mode (John Fischer, Michael Card, Scott Wesley Brown). We can even recall some of the early days of a few artists like Michelle Pillar or Lesile Phillips, in which the productions were definitely low budget and intimate. These concerts have some our fondest memories compared to many other, more recent, lavish productions of headliners such as Amy Grant and Sandi Patti.
The live video shots were supported by two cameras, one on a large moveable boom on the left side of the stage and the other with a roving cameraman on and off-stage on the right side (where we were seated). We could not help wondering if some of the fans on the left felt uneasy as the moving boom camera glided very quickly, and deftly in all directions, above their heads. Just watching the moving camera emulate an on-stage operator for close-ups on the left held our interest. By the end of the show we certainly felt sorry for the roving camera operator, as he tried to keep one step ahead of Michael. Compliments should go to him as well since his shots were steady as a rock. [Watching these "dueling" cameras, I wasn't sure whether the roving cameraman was emulating a rock-steady mechanical camera or the mechanical camera was emulating a human operator, moving in and out to capture all the right camera angles.]
