Some times simple solutions are best

Last Friday night, I went to The Arena box office to pick-up my photographer’s pass for the Winger concert. What the lady at the box office came back with was a bit unique to say the least.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

I received a 3”x5” index card with “Photo Pass Winger” written on it with a blue Sharpie. There was a hole punched in the middle and a lanyard attached to it that I could wear around my neck.

The employee apologized for the simplicity of the photo pass, but they had been busy with more pressing issues throughout the day and didn’t have time to do something fancier.

I loved it! Seriously.

It was 10 times better than the photo pass that I got for the first concert I covered at The Arena, which was opening night for the facility when Montgomery Gentry played.

Chris Parsons was working for us at the time, and had been running point for us on coverage of events at The Arena on that opening night. Knowing the hassle that one can get trying to take pictures at a concert, I had been onto Chris for probably two months to make sure we had media passes to get pictures at that first concert. I asked him several times about it, and I was assured he had it covered.

I’m sure that you can probably figure out where this story is going.

I got to The Arena on that snowy, opening night an hour before the opening act was slated to take the stage figuring it would take a little while on opening night to get the passes.

Then I waited and waited and waited for the press passes. After standing out there for 55 minutes, Chris and I were finally told that there weren’t any, but to go in anyway with our cameras.

I probably got stopped by security at least three times with them telling me each time that “professional cameras” weren’t allowed without a media pass. Each time I calmly explained that the front office didn’t have any despite waiting nearly an hour for one, but by all means to call the front office and verify that.

Boy was covering that first concert a hassle, but Chris and I managed to get the pictures we needed any way. (To Chris’s credit, he probably did what he was supposed to in regards to us getting passes.)

While I have covered a few events at The Arena since opening night, Friday night’s concert was only the second concert that I have covered there. The initial one made quite the first impression, and not in a good way.

I am thrilled that Arena Manager Kristina Balla’s staff has the good sense to come up with practical solutions to a problem, such as not having time to do fancy media passes or how to deal with a situation when the media passes didn’t arrive.

Suffice it to say that not everyone does.

As for Friday’s concert, I really enjoyed myself. Winger is definitely my kind of music. Winger was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, about the time that I graduated high school and started college.

They put on a nice rock and roll show.

I spent part of Sunday afternoon processing and sorting Winger pictures while listening to some Winger on You Tube.

Who knows, I might even go cover another concert at The Arena again without waiting another decade or so.

Now to touch on one other subject before I conclude this column.

COVID-19 is on the downswing. Kentucky recently reported its ninth straight week of decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases.

The News Journal will continue providing a weekly update in the newspaper each Wednesday along with posting that update on our website each Wednesday.

However, after this Friday’s update, the News Journal will no longer be posting Monday-Friday COVID-19 updates on our website.

While the pandemic certainly isn’t defeated and people should continue wearing masks, we are not seeing new cases at the level that would warrant the continued time and effort it takes to make these daily posts, which take more time to assemble than you might think.