As you know, dear readers, I'm on the internet a lot. I use it all day for work, and I often participate in numerous extracurricular online activities. As someone who has a personal blog, a Twitter account, a Tumblr blog, a Facebook profile, a YouTube channel, a Spotify account, a Flickr photostream and a Flavors.me account, this is obvious. But I finally reaped some actual physical benefits to obsessively hitting that refresh button everyday: I won concert tickets AND free movies for a year. Back to back.
Free Concert Tickets
So, recently I learned that one of my favorite bands in the whole wide world – Weezer – was going on tour with The Flaming Lips. But this was no ordinary tour. It was only two shows – one in NJ, one in NY – and one was not opening for the other; rather, they would play together and switch off during the course of the show.
As a Weezer superfan, I wanted to go. But as a responsible adult in a new apartment (oh yeah y'all, I moved; more on that later), I knew I should save my money. Plus, it was at the PNC Bank Arts Center, which really only has two ticket options: expensive seats, or moderately expensive lawn seats, which aren't really seats at all. It's a blanket (provided by you!) on either dirt or mud, weather permitting.
But then I saw that the blog Brooklyn Vegan was hosting daily contests on their Facebook page where they would give away a pair of tickets a day to either show! So, I did what I needed to do until finally, on day 13 (I think), I got a Facebook message: I had won a pair of tickets to the NJ show! WOOHOO.
I took my friend Nikki, who is a huge Flaming Lips fan. Upon picking up the tickets at the box office I found out they were lawn seats. Whatever man, a free show is a free show. But once we got inside, there were two girls offering actual seat upgrades for only $10! So you better believe we were all up on that. The seats ended up being immediately behind and to the left of the soundboard; essentially, right in the middle of the venue. Not too shabby.
The show was good. The Flaming Lips played the one song of theirs I knew ("Do You Realize?!") and Weezer played a solid greatest hits selection (including the b-sides "You Gave Your Love To Me Softly" and "Susanne," aaaaah!). Rivers and Wayne both walked in the space balls, and the two bands joined together to play "Undone (The Sweater Song)" for the encore.
Of course I took photos. Even though I only brought my Canon Powershot, and we were pretty far away from the stage, I think they capture the fun of the show.
Free Movies For a Year
I learned I won free Weezer tickets on a Monday. Then, the very next day, the official AMC Theaters Twitter account notified me that I was one of four winners of their first ever "Free Movies For a Year" contest!
How did I win? The Twitter contest ran for the four days of San Diego Comic Con, with one winner per day. All contestants had to do was tweet their favorite movie memory, and use a specific hash tag. Here's what I tweeted, and here was the tweet from AMC announcing me as the first winner! Pretty neat, huh?
I can go to any movie, at any time on any day at an AMC theater. I can also go to 3D and IMAX movies for free. It's pretty awesome. There's an AMC at the mall near my apartment so I literally can walk there after dinner to take in a free show. So far I've taken Joe to see 30 Minutes or Less and I saw Final Destination 5 in 3D on my own. Now, it's a race against time for me to see as many movies as I can before my passes expire.
Maybe I should play the lottery?
