by William Skink
I’ve gotten in the habit of taking walks around downtown Missoula and it’s a ghost town. That’s why last month saw the launch of a campaign to revive Missoula’s bars and restaurants.
In the reporting of that particular effort by local businesses to survive restrictions that don’t seem to be having the desired effect on the Covid plague, the owner of Clyde Coffee went on the record as being AGAINST the relaxing of restrictions.
More recently, Missoula’s Sultan of Sound, Nick Checota (a music promoter, venue owner and restauranteur) declared the total collapse of his business model and a hundred million dollar financial apocalypse as being imminent without immediate Congressional assistance. From the first link:
Undoubtedly you missed going to a concert, or two, with friends this year. But Missoula’s leading promoter worries without a financial lifeline, the country’s entire live music industry will crumble in a matter of weeks.
And Nick Checota said it’s more than just local promoters and venues that could vanish, but the entire supporting structure.
“The industry as a whole is in almost catastrophic state right now and without some support, coming within the next 6-to-8 weeks. You’re going to see venues collapse all over the United States,” said Checota
I’m not contesting the situation is a dire one for promoters like Nick Checota, but the pain is strategic, especially for an industry like live music.
The first clue about what’s in store for humans who want to do human things together, like enjoying a musical performance together, is what Ticketmaster announced last month it was preparing to rollout:
Monday’s news that pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s early results on a new COVID-19 vaccine showed a 90% efficacy rate on an initial clinical trial have given concert professionals hope that the business can start mounting a return in 2021. As part of that preparation, Ticketmaster has been working on a framework for post-pandemic fan safety that uses smart phones to verify fans’ vaccination status or whether they’ve tested negative for the coronavirus within a 24 to 72 hour window.
Many details of the plan, which is still in development phase, will rely on three separate components — the Ticketmaster digital ticket app, third party health information companies like CLEAR Health Pass or IBM’s Digital Health Pass and testing and vaccine distribution providers like Labcorp and the CVS Minute Clinic.
I have already accepted concerts as one of the many things I probably won’t be allowed to do without consenting to a Pfizer poke, and I’m certainly not inclined to dine in one of these contraptions:
Being able to go to concerts is really important to lots of people, and will be an effective way to coerce their consent to taking a vaccine and all the enhanced tracking and surveillance that comes with it, so GREAT idea GREAT resetters!
When I was buying a CD last week at Earcandy, the hope expressed by the store owner that the vaccine would get things back to normal was discouraging. But like so many, he’s just desperate to not be snuffed out in this grand experiment our betters have chosen for us.