Attending An Elton John Private Performance
A little over 2 years ago I attended a private charity fundraiser event which included a private performance by Elton John. This past weekend I got word that this event was being held again so I decided to go. Based off the PHENOMENAL performance and "fun-ness" of the event last year, I didn't want to pass this chance up!
Last time I went, I actually had to duck out during the first part of dinner because there were absolutely NO seats left. However this time I was lucky enough to get a seat at one of the tables they kept for last minute invites. They brought in a 5-star (or diamond) chef to cook the nights meal, so naturally every course was delicious.
Another cool thing about this time around was I got to sit RIGHT next to the stage for the whole performance. As I was holding my camera up to record some clips of the performance, it dawned on me that I was watching a private show by Sir Elton John, sitting right against the stage whilst sitting right next to Lance Armstrong and a bunch of rich & famous in Austin. Just a fun feeling :-)
The Fundraising Power of Elton:
These events always have auctions, and this one was no exception. Each of the 8 items auctioned off raised several tens of thousands of dollars apiece, but that wasn't enough. Elton John took the mic and auctioned off a private dinner with him for you and your friends in any of his homes in France, London, Atlanta, Paris....and the list goes on (He listed like EIGHT different places he lives).
They started this item at $10,000, and it quickly escalated $5,000 higher with each bid...quickly shooting up past $50,000, then $70,000, then over $100,000! It soon became apparent that three different parties were set on winning this private dinner with Elton John, so they all went to the stage to collaborate. A few seconds later, each of the three parties agreed to get their own Elton John private dinner for $150,000 a piece! That's $450,000 for the Andy Roddick Foundation in less than 3 minutes!
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VIDEO UPDATE: 11-12-2007
Here's a 1min 45sec video of Elton playing Tiny Dancer I took from the stage where I was sitting. I forgot to upload it when originally writing this post. I don't know if the sound and picture quality captures it very well, but Elton John delivered a mind-blowing performance!
I'm fortunate enough right now to have people that know about these events and even help me get in. This event was pretty easy to crash since I was helped out and given the needed wristband for entrance. However, the end goal here is to one day be in a position where I can afford to donate $12,000 for a table at these kind of events. Obviously right now I can't drop that kind of cash on a single event, but meeting people at these places might definitely help get me there one day.
And by one day I mean within the next two years.
Last time I went, I actually had to duck out during the first part of dinner because there were absolutely NO seats left. However this time I was lucky enough to get a seat at one of the tables they kept for last minute invites. They brought in a 5-star (or diamond) chef to cook the nights meal, so naturally every course was delicious.
Another cool thing about this time around was I got to sit RIGHT next to the stage for the whole performance. As I was holding my camera up to record some clips of the performance, it dawned on me that I was watching a private show by Sir Elton John, sitting right against the stage whilst sitting right next to Lance Armstrong and a bunch of rich & famous in Austin. Just a fun feeling :-)
The Fundraising Power of Elton:
These events always have auctions, and this one was no exception. Each of the 8 items auctioned off raised several tens of thousands of dollars apiece, but that wasn't enough. Elton John took the mic and auctioned off a private dinner with him for you and your friends in any of his homes in France, London, Atlanta, Paris....and the list goes on (He listed like EIGHT different places he lives).
They started this item at $10,000, and it quickly escalated $5,000 higher with each bid...quickly shooting up past $50,000, then $70,000, then over $100,000! It soon became apparent that three different parties were set on winning this private dinner with Elton John, so they all went to the stage to collaborate. A few seconds later, each of the three parties agreed to get their own Elton John private dinner for $150,000 a piece! That's $450,000 for the Andy Roddick Foundation in less than 3 minutes!
----------------
VIDEO UPDATE: 11-12-2007
Here's a 1min 45sec video of Elton playing Tiny Dancer I took from the stage where I was sitting. I forgot to upload it when originally writing this post. I don't know if the sound and picture quality captures it very well, but Elton John delivered a mind-blowing performance!
I'm fortunate enough right now to have people that know about these events and even help me get in. This event was pretty easy to crash since I was helped out and given the needed wristband for entrance. However, the end goal here is to one day be in a position where I can afford to donate $12,000 for a table at these kind of events. Obviously right now I can't drop that kind of cash on a single event, but meeting people at these places might definitely help get me there one day.
And by one day I mean within the next two years.
Labels: Events
posted by Neville @ 1:03 AM
43 comments
43 Comments:
So do you plan on ever posting anything even remotely related to finance and business again or has this blog just turned into place to post personal pictures?
It is great that you would want to donate $12,000 in the next 2 years.
If you don't mind asking, what steps are you taking right now, to achieve that goal?
Cheers
RV
Why didn't you just borrow the 12K from the magic income generating change jar you have?
The biggest applause early in the evening went to Tanner Putnam, a North Richland Hills boy who turned 9 on Aug. 18. Tanner, who plays a little tennis himself, donated all his birthday presents and persuaded his friends to do the same, and on Sunday presented a check for $1,200 to Roddick for his foundation, which supports children's charities.
Nev gate-crasher, stealing from children. Why don't you write out a check to the foundation?
Wonderful.
I purposely DO NOT donate to very large foundations because most of that money goes to administrative costs, and the portion that goes to helping is used questionably and generally for self-promotional purposes.
I remember reading an article somewhere about when Katrina hit, how lots of the big organizations sluggishly came over, setup camp and marginally helped. Several smaller and less-known charities were flown in immediately and provided immensely useful services. One in particular was a small-budget charity that flew in a bunch of satellite phones for people to use for free. Since the infrastructure was gone, this service proved ENORMOUSLY useful to everyone. Not that the big charities are all bad, but some of the smaller ones give you more effectiveness for your buck.
I also like charities that "teach a man to fish." I'll give to a charity goes to African villages and helps the villagers setup health clinics, teaches them how to grow crops without destroying the earth, how to build irrigation systems and trains some of them to be teachers etc.
If you just "give" these people that stuff, they'll get dependent and never progress.
I've continuously given back to my community in my own way, so it's not like "one day" I'll just start donating money. I've donated and setup two computers for a homeless shelter, got the government off their ass and got them to issue ID's to people in the Hurricane Katrina refugees in Austin (wrote about that on the blog in Sept. '05), volunteered at countless places and even taught free classes at the local library teaching people how to use a computer (seriously, some people don't know what the mouse does).
There will definitely be more party crashes posted on this blog soon :-)
Thats a little high. Cant wait to see you do it though. Good luck!
So did you give your time to this specific event? Anything?
You just got a free meal and free concert, and a lot of satisfaction from bragging about it. Just like any other common thief.
That is pathetic. Your blog used to be fantastic frm the time I started reading it (after seeing it in the WSJ).. but now, you've "jumped the shark" and shown what kind of person you are.
You're right up there with a thief for doing this.
Neville Medhora
Today at 10:05pm
Report Message
hahaha...you're the loser that reads my blog every five minutes and anonymously comments. YOU have issues! Best of luck buddy :-)
Cant run from the truth:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2197/1627877381_65873dcfd7_o.png
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"Ripping a $12k dinner to make "contacts"... You didnt give a damn about the charity, greedy bastard. You should be ashamed."
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By:
-Steven Biars
-Shawnee State University
-Portsmouth, Ohio
I didn't even know I had you added as a friend prior to that. However shortly after you removed me, I noticed you added me back as a friend.
Listen, if you think I "stole" a $12,000 meal you don't quite understand how these events work. I won't go into the details but I didn't "steal" anything. For the record, a TABLE for 10 is $12,000...not one seat.
I will give Steven credit though, at least he had the balls to say something spiteful to me without being totally anonymous.
-Steven
And the other anon's comments are spot on. The purpose of these events is to raise money, and if you are not paying to go, then you are, in fact, stealing from the charity. Especially since you go with no intent to donate to the charity.
Perhaps these large charitable foundations would have more money to spend on their causes if scumbags like you weren't crashing the events.
I pity the person that does business with you...you have no moral compass at all.
If you were in his place and had a chance to attend this event, would you?
I know I would. Not many people are in a place to give out thousands of dollars or even hundreds of dollars.
How much charity have you guys given lately?
Look into your own souls before criticizing someone elses
would i sneak into an elton john concert? No
would i brag about sneaking into an elton john concert? No
So its 12,000 per table? so you only stole 1,200. that makes it ok.
I have donated $0, nev stole $1,200.
After reading his post about stealing thousand dollar software, this post really didn't surprise me.
And Nev for some reason you seem to think there is 1 anonymous person here who hates you and posts negative comments. There's probably 10+ anons here that comment, we're not the same person.
He never stole $1200.
He was given a wrist band which allowed him to enter the charity. It is not mandatory to give to that organization.
He used the title about crashing an Elton John Performance as a marketing technique, but you anons are not educated enough to realize that. Its called linkbait.
Also, just to let you people know, everyone downloads adobe and microsoft programs for free or at a cheaper rate.
Paying $1000 for a single program is ridiculous especially when you can download it for free.
At my university all of my professor's would provide us sites where we could download these programs for free because it wasn't feasible to pay for these programs.
If you make good money its not a problem for you, but that isn't the case for 90% of the US population.
or because "hey I just ripped off a charity for a $1,200 meal!" doesn't sound as good?
"If you make good money its not a problem for you, but that isn't the case for 90% of the US population."
Nev claims to have around $40,000+ in the bank, and claims to make thousands per month. I'm pretty sure he could afford to pay for the software.
If he can afford to rent out two apartments for no reason, i'm pretty sure he could've paid for some adobe software.
And the rationalization about stealing software is mind-bogling. Can't wait until Nev develops his own software (LOL) and tries to sell it and then posts a whiny post that he can't make any money because everyone is stealing it.
Actually crashing events like Nev appears to have done at this one last year is unethically questionable, but it does require some effort and finesse. The ethical conflict can be made moot by bringing something that the event needs, whether it's attitude, atmosphere, a gift for the host or hostess, etc.
Getting comps to this kind of event is really not that unusual depending on one's circle of acquaintances. Nev would have been an idiot to turn down the offer of entry to this event.
Great article, and it was good to read how you defended yourself against the "haters."
Quick question though, I usually stop by here to check what out your new ideas and read about the advice you have given, any thought on making your main page into a RSS feed. I use netvibes to read the different articles everyday, and yours is one that is missing out!
found the link for your articles feed. sorry about that!
You people are amazing. Once again how do you relate downloading programs from a torrent or from limewire with stealing. If you are going to be mad at someone be mad at these companies that provide us the software.
You don't think these companies like MS or Adobe can stop these types of free downloads? They easily can but they don't because it is in their best interest not to. Microsoft offers free downloads on all their programs if you go to the right place.
Why?
For every (x) number of people who have an adobe or microsoft product enough buzz is circulated to make anons like you guys go out and buy the programs for $1000.
Especially for new programs. Microsoft came out with a new software called Expression over the summer. They gave it out for free for the first three months.
Why?
Competition. When someone asks me what developer program I use, and I say "Microsoft Expression," most likely this person will go out to the store and purchase this program.
I feel like I am giving a Corporate Marketing lecture.
I don't have time right now to get into the charity issue, but for now this will do.
Why have the account if you're not going to donate it?
I'm not Nev, and I don't know him, but I do frequent his blog.
Also, stop with the anonymous names. Put your first name up there so we know who is talking and if we are having a conversation or not.
"Is the $50-$100 that Momma A, the Malaysian honey and celebutard citing paid bloggers make justify the potential of ruining people's lives with misinformation? Insurance comissioners and regulators in state departments of consumer affairs should clamp down on these writers as well as those that hire them, like Andrew Cravenho and Structuredsettlement-quotes.com, the company that cannot deliver what the company name implies."
http://structuredsettlements.typepad.com/structured_settlements_4r/2007/07/pawn-broker-naz.html
Andrew Cravenho has stooped to a new low by permitting his affiliated marketing company, Candid Quips to pull the image of Britney Spears into the morass of structured settlement "mistaken identity" to which he contributes for profit. Cravenho is the owner of Structured Settlement-Quotes.com, THE COMPANY THAT CANNOT GIVE YOU STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT QUOTES!
http://structuredsettlements.typepad.com/structured_settlements_4r/2007/07/andrew-cravenho.html
Mr. Cravenho, who has registered a website called StructuredSettlement-Quotes.Com, shows that he is hardly a consumer friendly advertiser. He also appears from a link on StructuredSettlement-Quotes to be a shill for JG Wentworth. Enough said. What Mr. Cravenho provides you with is not a structured settlement quote and like fellow factoring company "Structured Settlement Investments", the company name or website name implies something that the company is not. This is an unfair trade practice that hurts consumers.
http://structuredsettlements.typepad.com/structured_settlements_4r/2007/07/andrew-cravenho.html
and that, Mr. Cravenho, is why people stay anonymous ;)
Maybe you should spend less time defending Nev and more time working on those structured settlement quotes.
Live and let live. Why are we trying to hold Nev to a standard like we are all a bunch of saints.
God we can only hope.
I just want to see how much he's making now, cause I honestly think he's not making jack anymore. If he was he'd be posting numbers monthly like before.
I also noticed one of the fools that bought an ad block at the top of the blog dropped. He must have came to his senses.
i think you're posting on the wrong blog. you should post this on some business/financial blog.
this is a How-to blog about piracy
but thats ok cause this "house of rave" company and "prosper" bought ad space at the top! so thats $200 bucks a month!
hmm house of rave = owned by nev...
and the prosper ad is an affiliate link ending in the name elliveN
hmmm elliveN-Neville
Man you're making $200 bucks a month from yourself! Put that $200 in the change jar and you'll make $400 a month!
People have the right to link to and write about what ever they want to on the internet.
I don't pay bloggers and have never heard of those funny blogs you pointed too. LOL. It is quite funny, I might add.
Please, if you have a problem with something give me a call or send me an email acravenho@ (my url). I would be happy to discuss problems you see with the factoring industry or structured settlement industry and ways to clean problems up.
I believe the person who wrote the post is Mr. John Darer (I don't know for sure)
Mr. Darer is a structured settlement broker, settlement consultant and settlement planner. He is a fabulous writer who has a great passion for the structured settlement industry. I commend him on the passion he invokes when he writes on his blog listed above. That type of commitment and passion is hard to find and is rare in this world.
If he feels something is wrong with my website all he needs to do is send me an email. I believe he is fighting the wrong battle though especially with someone who closed a deal this week with a discount rate of 6.9% which is unheard of in the industry.
The individual I am referring to above would have received $68,000 less money if I hadn't provided them better offers.
This changed this person's life.
I hope in 23 years when I am the age of Mr. Darer I will have the same knowledge and passion that he has.
Nev,
I am sorry to have this discussion on your blog.
Best,
Andrew
I really dont think you totally "crashed the event" if someone asked you to come.
Anyone notice the google ad at the top of the page? What ever happened to interest.com? Were you dropped because your blog no longer focuses finance? I'm just curious as to why they split since your blog is PR5.
What happened with BodyMonkey? I remember that it started out as a great idea, but basically became a House of Rave clone. You're cannibalizing your own sales, Nev.
.1 a meal does not cost 1200 dollars. the real price of the food is much less.
.1,5 so you could acuse Nev for stealing lets say 5 dolars. (actually he didnt take the 5 from anywhere, he just didnt add more 5); - But Nev spent on cloths to go there, and gasoline, and tyres, and shoes and so on.. Ok, with this he gave $ the the tailor, gasoline station owner and shoemaker, allowing more people to be able to donate. With this he also payed TAX, therefore adding money for Social Welfare.
.2 the guy who did not go to the dinner and did not spend the 1200 will surely spend them on another charity event, if that was his intention.
.3 If more Nevs "crashed" the performance, more people willing to pay 1200 will not be able to do it, therefore another Elton J performance or other artist would be organized, allowing more money to be raised from people auctioning for "dinner with the celebrity stuff"
.4 having Nev "crashed" the event and bloged about it, he spread around the word about that specific charit, and so other people willing to help will donate more money.
.4 hey anonymous.. get yourself a girlfriend.. its much more fun, or did Nev take yours? =]
N Barros
May be Nev's motivation (at crashing Elton John's concert) was somehow misguided, but at least he stated his "ultimate goal" to donating to such charity one day! Besides, it just shows Nev's "creativity" in making things happen!
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