John and I went to see Little Shop of Horrors at the American Musical Theater of San Jose this afternoon. First time at the venue, and the theater was really nice. Unfortunately, I used Goldstar Events to hook us up with half-price tickets and I have to say, row 15 didn’t sound very far away but holy crap did the acoustics suck. The culprit? That damn balcony overhang. I have to say, I love Goldstar for many reasons: we try new things, get out and about, see what’s happening in the city, on the peninsula, etc. But really, the quality of seats totally depends on the venue. For little cozy community theaters like Hillbarn in Foster City, Goldstar is perfect. I’d even say Goldstar would be alright for Cirque. But for larger stages like Broadway by the Bay’s San Mateo Performing Arts Center or AMTSJ, forget it: buy direct and fork over the dough for closer seats. Frankly, there is nothing worse than crap seats where the acoustics are fucked and you can’t see squat. Can you sense my annoyance? I mean, even at half off the tickets were not cheap. And then…. well whatever. Live and learn.

Fortunately, I already nailed down tickets for Cabaret at AMTSJ in March. Snatched those puppies up as soon as they became available. No games. I bagged us front row seats baby. Aww yeah. Can not wait. I just hope the production is stellar, because I wasn’t very impressed with today’s event, poor acoustics or otherwise… Maybe the story lacked gravity? I don’t know.

In other news, I put horseback riding on hold. The weather’s been nutty lately… random incidents of rain, flash flooding, thunder, lots of cold. Surely the ranch is muddy every damn weekend. This will be a nice break to reopen-up my Saturdays. Then when the weather warms, I’ll resume. Just hope I don’t lose my riding memory. Would be a pain to start from scratch.