I think I need to declare this...I love vidalia onions.

I'm taking my Dad to the Yankee game on Saturday, which led to this exchange:

Him: "Are we sitting next to the Steinbrenners?"
Me: "No. I think we're sitting next to the David Brenners."

But the main thing today is I'm calling bullshit on the cancellation of this evening's Alicia Keys concert at the Bart. How do I know this? A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine expressed interest in going to see this show. Of course, my interest level was not that high and I think it was actually zero. Mainly, because I thought the concert had been announced for a while and the seat selection would be awful. Several days later, on a whim, I thought I'd check. To my amazement, you could get 5th row on the floor ($97) and tickets in the first sections from the stage in the lower level (I think these were in the $57-$67 range). So, you can see, she wasn't selling ANY tickets. Don't know if it's price, opening acts, her statements that "Gangsta rap was a government invention" or what. Jordin Sparks was one of the openers, but had to bail on illness, as well.

Imagine my non-surprise then, when I saw in the morning paper, Keys had cancelled her show in Pittsburgh last night and in Cleveland tonight. However, her people claimed she had "swollen vocal cords". That is quite the excuse for someone who just started their tour on Saturday! Of course, you can't say, well there was no interest. But the proof that she didn't sell many tickets was in a statement from her own website which read "Ticket holders in both cities may contact the respective venues for instructions and fans with tickets for the Cleveland concert will be able to have them honored at the upcoming show in Columbus, OH".

I have never seen that in the history of attending shows locally. If there is trouble selling tickets, they usually look for a smaller venue. It's rare, but it does happen. Second of all, she's admitting they haven't sold that many tickets in Columbus, because they can also accommodate the crowd from Cleveland or they sold virtually no tickets in Cleveland and can easily squeeze those folks into Columbus. Now, I must say, that's a pretty long drive on short notice to get nowhere near the seat you had locally, so I'd probably opt for the refund and watch the NFL Draft or something.

I don't know why that irked me, because I wasn't going. Hell, I'm watching the Cavs tonight anyway, but that reeked of bullshit so bad, I had to say something.

Meal of Links

If Sam's Club is rationing rice purchases, is it time to panic? Uh, no. But wouldn't that be about a 52-pound size there or at Costco anyhow? I don't buy a lot of it, but I guess rice prices are going through the roof.

Matt Taibbi visits an "Encounter Weekend" sponsored by John Hagee's church. You get some behind-the-scenes info and one funny made up story.

I don't watch "Idol" and even I was shocked. Aw, two guys in the final anyway.

Have you heard about Hard Rock Park? Get Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon and start writing a song. OK, when I opened up the Entertainment Schedule, I was secretly hoping Eddie Money was on it, you know, for grins. He's not scheduled. Yet. But George Clinton is!

It's Coachella this weekend and you get video via the AT&T Blue Room. The Raconteurs get a late Friday night viewing.

Laurie Anderson finally got married. To Lou Reed.

A long, but fascinating read about elevators. Sometimes, a rather mundane topic intrigues.

Exercise Yard

A profile on Manny Ramirez. I still love Manny and he remains the best hitter I've seen.

Visitor

31 Across: Claudius' grandnephew (4 letters) Answer: Nero