We Gotta Get Outta This Place

You can tell that we have all been feeling a little bit of claustrophobia and cabin fever after Covid. Humans are social creatures, after all, and when we’re told we can’t do something, especially something like seeing other people, we tend to get a little intense. 

As social creatures, we need one another, and while the virtual space is great, the ability to see someone laugh in person, to touch their hand, to feel their arms around you, and to be able to just share the company of one another is important. 

That we had to go to the extremes that we did as a nation, as a world, in the face of our need for one another, tells you how dangerous Covid is, if nothing else will. We were forcing people to deny their natures to keep one another safe. 

Naturally, many of us refused, their focus on themselves and freedoms they don’t fully understand or appreciate. It wasn’t that they couldn’t live without one another as much as they wouldn’t be told what to do, like so many willful children refusing to play nice. 

Our manners are very poor as a nation, and our ability to grasp things is dodgy at best. 

Freedom, we decide, means that we get to do whatever we want, whenever we want, at whatever the cost. 

That’s not really what it means, but, well, that whole inability to grasp stuff comes into play here. 

Now that the world is open though we’re realizing both how desperate we were for one another (dating sites must being going NUTS right now, swipe, swipe, swipe), and how eager the entertainment industry was to bilk us for all we’re worth. 

Everybody hurts, as the song goes, and that was definitely true during Covid. 

Industry and workers both were hit hard by the pandemic and both suffered deeply. 

The thing is though that industry is trying to make up two years’ worth of losses by raising the price of EVERYTHING exponentially. I am sure there are legitimate reasons why prices are soaring – labor costs, transportation, materials, and talent, and all that – but it’s ASTOUNDING to see HOW EXPENSIVE things are. 

From movies, to concerts, to trips, to amusement parks prices are skyrocketing. 

And it’s not just Covid. 

They’ll tell you it is but concert prices have been getting out of hand for years now. 

I cannot IMAGINE paying a hundred dollars for a general admission ticket to a concert, let alone HUNDREDS of dollars. 

That’s outrageous. 

Who can afford that?

TRULY, who can afford that?

And how much is going to the artist?

Again, sure, Covid has made things more expensive, but THIS expensive?

With labor, people don’t want to work for low wages anymore. Not if they are risking their health. I know the narrative is ‘people don’t want to work’ but welfare doesn’t last forever so that doesn’t jibe. AND we lost a lot of people during the pandemic, which is awful to think, but that’s a lot of positions that are open. It’s that the industries don’t want to hire though, and don’t want to pay people the wages they need or the benefits they want. They seem to prefer several part time people instead of a full time. 

Does it hit the entertainment industry?

To a degree, because it hires TONS of workers, some of whom are union. Unions will always work to get their people more money and benefits, sure, but I don’t recall any big entertainment strikes. 

Transportation costs rose, so there is that. 

Factoring in things, I think it’s fair to say that tickets would go up a little, sure, but, again, we’re talking about this happening for YEARS now. 

It’s supply and demand, which means that the entertainment companies KNOW people want to get out, and want to see the performers they love (the top tier ones with the expensive shows especially) and they are going to charger for that. 

So sure, the top talent will demand more money, so they’re part of this too. 

There are a lot of hands out for our dollars. 

But what happened to shame?

What happened to performers caring that their audience is made up of fans and not people who just want to be somewhere that everyone else is for that Cool Kid Cred?

What happened to wanting to have your FANS there, not just the fans that have the money, but the people that truly connect to your music?

Sure, it’s cost of living for the whole darned world but it’s also greed. 

Why are amusement parks charging more and more and more?

Because they can. 

They say as much. 

They want to keep some manner of standard for their parks but they are also taking in vast amounts of money and are still cutting workforce, which affects their parks and the experiences people have. 

Sure, they may open a new ride here or a new whatever there but if you are spending most of your day waiting in long lines, after paying high prices to get in there, then is it really that valuable?

If you have to spend thousands of dollars just to BE in a place where you can scarcely enjoy it, is it worth it?

Is it?

We’re all anxious to get into the world.
To get out and remind ourselves what it’s like to be alive and why living is so precious and joyful. 

There has to come a point though where we put our feet down and say ‘no’. 

Where we stop chasing everything no matter the cost. 

Where we accept that we can’t do everything we want, can’t go everywhere we want, and can’t have everything we want. 

What it means is that we need to start remembering how much amazing stuff is around us that is low cost and free. 

We need to stop chasing the next big thing, the next big show, and the next big thrill and to change our focus to making memories. 

I love live shows but maybe instead of the huge acts we are desperate to see we support the lower tier acts that aren’t trying to gouge us and need the money more. 

The shows may not be as bombastic but they may also be more intimate and ‘real’ and less staged. 

I enjoy big shows but the ones I have loved most were the smaller ones, where it felt like the band was fully invested and fully into it and not just checking dates off a calendar so they can get back to the beach when the tour’s over. 

It’s so easy to want to go away, away, away because we feel like we need some space from where we live but the thing is that there are SO many things nearby that need us. That deserve us. Local concerts. Local attractions. Local conventions. Local eateries. 

We need to take a moment to remember why we live where we live and how much great stuff is nearby and take advantage of it. 

Sure, once in a while you’ll want to splurge and go to a big show, or see a big movie, or go to a more expensive attraction but that gets so much easier and less stressful if we don’t pin so much on it. 

If we treat it like it is, an escape. 

If it’s THE escape then it’s just another trap, another expense, and with as hard as these past years have been, we need less stress and expense, and more fun, fun fun. 

Just don’t let someone blackmail you into paying an outrageous amount because they convince you that they’re worth it. Baby, they may not be and you’re gonna be the one who pays the freight, so you decide, not them. 

…c…