Take a look at these interestingly illegal license plates.
“QITBTCHN” because you can’t put whatever the heck you want on your license plate—since more than 200 terms, most having to do with sexual orientation (i.e. GAYPRIDE, QUEER and others), have just been taken off the nearly 10,000-term list of disallowed personalized plates. Clearly, rude, weird or random language is still not for the NC streets as it would turn out—from potty language—like, actually—such as P00PCAR, P00PSHIP and LUV2FART to terms like GSPOT, B!TE ME and NUTWAG0N (come on, @NCDOT it’s at least a little funny). So whether or not your ride is trunk heavy, there’s no if, ands or BUTT(s) about it. … But, hey, at least we are allowed some creative liberties—you’ll find about 300,000 vanity plates zooming around the state, but it’ll cost ya a little extra to ride in signature style (aka a $30 upfront cost and annual renewal fee). … Well, DAYUMM.
Getting a ticket has never been harder—here’s how to arm yourself for the battle.
“Ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m the problem, it’s me.’” This is just one of the many Taylor Swift song references U.S. senators made during the three-hour congressional hearing held late last year following the nightmarish experience fans (aka Swifties) endured trying to score tickets to her Eras Tour. … If you were one of the many people who waited in sometimes seven-hour-plus queues to score tix—only to have Ticketmaster cancel sales to the general public after extremely high demand—you know the incident all too well.
The T. Swift ticketing fiasco not only “broke live music,” but shined a spotlight on Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation Entertainment’s monopoly over concert ticketing.
“When you’re Live Nation and you have Ticketmaster as one of your companies, you own the relationship with the artist; you very often own the venue the artist is going to; and you own the ticketing,” says a local industry expert (who, along with their industry peers, asked to remain anonymous because the issue is so volatile). “Artists feel they cannot back out of this because if they don’t work with Live Nation, they’re not going to get the tours they want. And the building that’s owned by Live Nation has zero incentive to have anyone other than Ticketmaster do their ticketing because of the fees, so they’re allowed to play around with the prices. It’s the definition of a monopoly—and it’s the definition of unfair.”
Now, Queen Bey—aka now the most decorated artist in Grammy history (!)—is going on tour, and fans are yet again poised to flood ticketing sites in search of tickets to what might be the most highly anticipated concert of the year (Swifties, don’t @ us)—and will put Ticketmaster’s new verified fan system (fans will receive a code to join a lottery to get tickets) to the test. And though T. Swift fans brought Ticketmaster to court, “if you do the BeyHive dirty, all hell will break loose,” joked Entertainment Tonight co-host Kevin Frazier.
With Ticketmaster under fire and concert tickets about as hard to come by as cheap eggs (the next thing Swifties should tackle, according to Trevor Noah)—not to mention as expensive as your monthly rent payment—we took a deep dive into alternate ticketing websites and rounded up some helpful tips and tricks from local industry experts.
How to get tickets before they sell out?
Get on the email list of your local venues and fave artists. Many artists—as well as some major credit card companies—often offer presale access.
How to avoid buying resale tickets when first-sells are still available?
Either go through the venue’s website or the artist’s website—those will lead you to those primary ticket sources. Pay attention to the filters on your seat search and sort. Oftentimes, ‘best available’ is the automatic selection, but the best available might be resale tickets. And if a ticket price seems too high, that could be a sign of something fishy.
How to avoid getting scammed?
Beware of websites or individuals selling Verified Fan registrations, presale codes or lottery access; and persons who will not do a secure transaction. Know what kind of ticket applies to the venue, and make sure that’s what you’re getting. Additionally, always pay with a credit card (as opposed to debit card).
How to know if it’s a legit ticket site?
If you’re using Google, the first three or four links are often sponsored ads from third-party sellers. Also look out for ‘speculative ticketing,’ when third-party websites show tickets for sale before any presale or on-sale has occurred.
Why are there so many fees?!
In most contracts with artists, the maximum amount of money a venue can make is about 15% of the gross of the concert—so 85% goes to the artist—and if the show underperforms, the venue takes the hit. Many venues tack on fees as the extra couple dollars they make on those tickets are vital to their operation. The artist gets a percentage of the ticket revenue, but they don’t get a percentage of the fee revenue.
What’s the deal with third-party sites?
Some of these third-party sites came from the idea of ticket buyer freedom, fan freedom. It’s profitable. But a lot of them don’t even go out and buy the ticket ahead of time; they wait for some unsuspecting person to buy a ticket on their site, and they run over to the venue website and buy the ticket and then resell it. The third-party seller helps nobody but the third-party seller. It skews demand, perception and the value of what the ticket should be.
Lizzo, Live Nation
While Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are the leading ladies in the ticketing game, they’re (unfortunately) not coming to Raleigh. So, we chose the next hottest show, Lizzo, and selected a seat in the same section at PNC Arena using different ticketing links to compare and break down the prices.
Ticketmaster From $64.50 Service fees: $23.72 Tax: $1.03 Total: $89.25
SeatGeek From $94 Fees: $36.02 Tax: $9.43 Total: $130.45
Vivid Seats From $97 Service fees: $31.05 Tax + delivery $11.96 Total: $140.01
Ticket City From $97 Service charge: $29.10 Tax + delivery: $17.19 Total: $143.29
“We Found Love”—er, we found .gov? The morning of Valentine’s Day—and a couple days after the Super Bowl—Wake County Government nodded to Queen Ri Ri’s stellar halftime performance to announce its new wake.gov url.
While the internet is not always a hopeless place, “Any Girl in the World” can tout a .com web address. … But .gov sites are specially reserved for those who are in tight with the Department of Homeland Security.
With the new name, Wake County has ensured the community can access the website and its resources more safely, simply and quickly—and guarantees you can trust the links they send. Alexa, play “What’s My Name”? wake.gov
As anxiety and self-harm escalate, mental health concerns are top of mind.
Mental health has gone from public health crisis to epidemic—and it’s touching every age group and demographic.
According to the NCDHHS, of the 2,423 violent deaths in 2020, almost 60%—or 1,436—were suicide. Per NC Child Fatality Task Force’s most recent report, 57 youths took their own lives—with a 46% surge in self-harm ER visits among girls aged 10–14 from 2020–21. At NC State, eight student deaths have been reported this school year, with at least five reported as suicides—and per a university counseling center survey last year, 27% of students said they were so depressed they found it difficult to function. And per NCDHHS, while suicide rates are higher among males, the suicide rate peaks for females aged 45–54.
Anxiety has been named as a major contributor to the escalation of these deaths. According to UNC professor of psychology and neuroscience and Director of Clinical Psychology PhD program Jonathan Abramowitz, PhD, “Anxiety is a universal experience we all have—it’s part of the fight/flight response, which is there to protect us from harm. But sometimes anxiety can become overwhelming for some people to the extent it gets in the way of their functioning and causes a great deal of distress.”
In light of the current events, we sat down with Dr. Abramowitz to discuss contributing factors, warning signs, breaking the stigma and more.
How has anxiety evolved?Anxiety went from being a ‘normal’ human emotion we all learn to live and operate with to being something we need to control, avoid or fight—which is especially apparent over the last 10–20 years with a shift toward protecting others (our kids, students, etc.) from anxiety, rather than supporting them in how to get through anxiety. We’ve come to view anxiety as a liability, rather than as our friendly and life-saving fight/flight response.
What has been a major contributing factor? In the ’90s–’00s with the internet/social media, we started trying to prepare the road for the child rather than preparing the child for the road. On social media, we don’t see people having anxiety (only the positive aspects of their lives), so we start to think we shouldn’t be anxious. The media very much feeds into the narrative that anxiety should be avoided or controlled, and life can and should be anxiety-free—which is, of course, untrue!
At what cost? By protecting others from anxiety (especially kids), we’re missing opportunities to teach them helpful life strategies for managing inevitable stress and anxiety. Being overwhelmed with anxiety does not mean anything’s wrong with the person, only that they experience anxiety at times, or at levels, that are unhelpful.
How do we break the stigma? We need to do more to help people understand mental health and illness, rather than perpetuating the fear and misunderstanding. Strong scientific evidence shows calling mental problems ‘disorders’ and ‘diseases of the brain’ leads to fear and greater misunderstanding. When we create a better understanding of mental health experiences (anxiety, panic, OCD, etc.), we create more respect for these challenges.
How do we better educate the community? Many people think we should more strongly label mental disorders as ‘medical disorders’ like any other. But we’ve been trying this strategy for 30+ years and it isn’t working particularly well. We need to help people understand—whether it’s anxiety, panic, obsessions, substance use, hallucinations, mania, attentional difficulties, depression, body image concerns, etc.—these are part of the human experience, not a ‘brain disease.’ We all experience many of these in various forms—they’re a part of human experience. Moreover, it’s often society’s acceptance that makes all the difference.
What are some of the warning signs of anxiety bordering suicide/self-harm?If the anxiety is associated with severe depression. We can recognize this by checking in with people we know are dealing with anxiety to make sure they are still engaging in their activities and not becoming socially isolated.
Have we historically seen education change perception? Before 1973, gay people were given a psychiatric diagnosis and given treatment by trying to convert them. Now, we sneer at these practices. But we got here not by labeling gay as a brain disease, but, instead, by coming to understand homosexuality is a normal expression of sexuality. We became less fearful as a society through education. In 1973, homosexuality was removed from the list of mental disorders and conversion fell out of favor. Maybe we can educate society and change the tolerance for other types of experiences currently labeled as brain diseases.
Help is available. Need someone to talk to? Call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
Bowing in 1949, this urban oasis nestled near DTR has seen many iterations over the years—and has stood the test of time. Today, its chic surrounds, shops and eateries are a go-to—as is its brand-new Goodnights Comedy Club locale that resurrected the Village underground.
Pinkies up! Sip over 250 different types of organic loose leaf teas born from a family’s love of the beverage and desire to spread the love of the (tea) leaf. Can you brew it? @tinroofteas
Get your comedy fix in a contemporary, underground and newly opened (!) atmosphere touting both big names and upcoming local legends. Ready to laugh? @goodnightscomedy
