overspending on the arts

I feel like I've been overspending on arts and culture events recently.

A few weeks ago I went with some friends to see the SF Ballet's Program 3. We've been going every year for the past few years, so I guess this particular expenditure wasn't unusual. The program began with Yuri Possokhov's "Classical Symphony", which we realized we'd already seen last year, but it was still quite enjoyable. The second part was "Nanna's Lied", which was an extremely dramatic piece set in early 20th century Germany. I was happy that we got to see Yuan Yuan Tan as Nanna, as she is a family friend, but I'm not sure that I liked the overall theme; it was a bit too tragic for my taste. The program finished with the very modern "Artifact Suite", which had some interesting ensemble work and cool lighting effects, but I thought it went on a bit too long.

A few weeks later D and I went with some other friends to see Rock of Ages, which is an 80's rock musical. I joked to D that it was probably the first time that he (and not I) had been the one to propose going to see a musical. He's a sucker for 80's music, despite having missed most of it the first time around. Anyway, it was pretty cheesy but consciously so, and still a fun time.

While we were there, I saw an advertisement in the program for a one-man show by Hugh Jackman. Tickets went on sale on April 1st, and I promptly grabbed two of them (for myself and a friend; I'm not going to make D watch Wolverine sing) for mid-May.

Finally, last week D discovered that Journey would be in town in October (with Foreigner and Night Ranger), and started researching tickets. Only VIP seats were available at the time, but general sales started on April 2nd. That morning, I was up and at the computer by 9:55am, and was able to get some okay seats in the second tier for $107 apiece. I decided that I'm too old for lawn seats at the Shoreline.

Anyway, I feel like I should call a moratorium on buying tickets, but the other day my mom was asking about going to see the SF Opera's rendition of Don Giovanni...