Google Alerts is great for two reasons. One, because it has almost eliminated the need to pay for a clipping service. Two, because it eliminates the need to spend hours doing what my friend Carmen Get-it jokingly calls "Vanity Searches." While it seems vain, press articles are an essential part of our promo/booking packages, and when I'm touring, there is barely enough time to get from one town to the next, much less pick up newspapers.
My Google alert setting preferences were only on news articles until recently. I was uninterested in reading the comments that follow articles or forums, talk groups etc., because they tended to be on the snarkier side. However, since Pearl's has been closed for a while and I had safely passed from being one of "them" (evil club owner) and back to being the gentle and endangered jazz artist, I figured I was safe.
It was right before my concert for SFJAZZ at the Great American Music Hall and there had been a lot of press, so I was receiving Alerts at a brisk clip. The day of the concert, an alert popped up that led me to Craigs List:
WANTED - 4 tkts to Kim Nalley at GAMH 6/6 - $30 My concert had sold out almost as soon as the tickets had been released, and I felt a huge flush of success when I realized that people were searching around for tickets. However, as I read the post I felt bad. It was the poster's birthday, and she really wanted tickets.
I only had one or two spots left on my guest list, and they were a party of four. I sent them an e-mail:Happy Birthday!
If you can't get tickets I might be able to pull some strings for you. Shoot me an e-mail around if you are still stuck.
Best Regards,
Kim Nalley I got a big "OMG" back, along with a bit of healthy suspicion. "Is this really Kim Nalley?"
It turns out she has come to my concerts several times before, and I guess they didn't expect that the show would be sold out. I felt really happy that I e-mailed. I told them that, worst case, I could maybe get two of them in. They didn't live in the City and had a long drive ahead, so additional "insurance" for the other two was needed. I told them to just plan on getting in and in the worst-case scenario, I would sneak them in through a side door.
Fortunately, SFJAZZ was able to make some tickets available for me to purchase, and I left their names at the door.
I was feeling quite proud of myself when the stage manager calls two hours before my load-in time and tells me that they might have to cancel my concert! A PG&E transformer had blown up under the city (right near Great American), and there was no power for blocks; the streets were full of smoke and closed off by police.
To be continued…
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