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Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

Got tickets to Hamilton. Again.

The beloved musical sensation Hamilton is returning to San Francisco in 2019. Having the pleasure of seeing it when the tour first made its way to our neck of the woods back in 2017, I can only say its very well worth the hype. So much so that the group I went will be seeing the musical again next year. As a person who doesn’t like to do things a second time once I’ve already experience it (unless it’s traveling to Asia), spending proper money to see Hamilton once more is rare occasion indeed.

Tickets for the 2019 tour went on sale to the general public yesterday. Instead of allowing tens of thousands of customers crash its ticketing website at once, the fine folks at SHN implements a virtual waiting room. You are quarantined as soon as you visit the website, and once the clock strikes time for business, you get assigned a wait number like a grocery store counter; when your number is front of queue you’ll be then taken to the actual ticketing site for purchasing. It’s a brilliant system, far superior to the ‘website crash then click refresh a million times and pray you’ll get in’ format that I’m sadly accustomed to.

My friends and I of course went the route of divide and conquer: we each logged-on to SHN, and whoever was furthest ahead in the line was tasked to the do the buying. Each of us could also have respectively used multiple devices to try for a better number amongst ourselves - I was home at the time so I personally had four opportunities, but that strategy seemed a bit on the wrong side of ethical. We were lucky too that we got done within an hour and a half after tickets went on sale at 10am. Others I saw waited nearly six hours before they were let into the system.

Nevertheless I ended up with the third highest wait number within our group of four, so unfortunately I was unable to earn points on my credit card.

Obviously, maximizing credit points is, uh, not the point; we are locked in for a second viewing of Hamilton next May, and this time we got better seats as well - no longer up on the balcony with the peasants. I guess in the span of two years our respective financial situations have all improved to such that we can easily spend over two hundred dollars on a musical we’ve already seen. A prime example of being a coastal elite that’s been so maligned in the media.

There’s lot going on between now and next May so it’s nothing to be excited about yet, but it’s something splendid to look forward to.

I’m decidedly not fond of waiting in lines, even virtual ones.

I’m decidedly not fond of waiting in lines, even virtual ones.

Hamilton Musical

It’s been over two years since me and a bunch of closest friends discussed the cultural phenomenon of the Hamilton musical, and how if it ever does a tour here in San Francisco, we would just about do anything within legal parameters to attend. 

Hamilton started it’s four months stay at the Orpheum Theatre in March.

It’s last show day was yesterday.

We were there at the penultimate show, fulfilling a dream. 

For sure we were heading in with just insane amounts of anticipation and expectation due to the overwhelming success of the Broadway show and how we’ve suffered through four months of people on our social media feeds bragging about the wonderful performance. To say the least, we were not disappointed, but rather utterly amazed, and deeply hypnotized. Hamilton is a masterpiece of performing art, and to see it live is an absolute privilege and joy. 

Akin to listening to my favorite hip hop songs, I was glued to the bars and wordplay putting history lesson into mesmeric prose, accompanied by a live orchestra to tingle the spine. This is one musical you cannot go see a recording of in a movie theatre as substitute; I’d dare say that would be an insult to the art-form. Hamilton is so incredibly moving, and so alive.  

Lin-Manuel you crazy genius.