Freshman Alex Moerlien took a five minute break from his job washing dishes in Hodgdon Dining Hall last night to race upstairs at 9:58 p.m. He returned with a tentative smile, crossed fingers, and a chance at receiving tickets to see Billy Joel perform at Tufts.
Moerlien was one among thousands of Jumbos vying for the 470 student tickets that went on sale last night for Joel's Nov. 13 concert in Cohen Auditorium. Tickets were made available promptly at 10 p.m. on TuftsLife.com, and were sold on a first-come-first-served basis. The competition was intense - students clicking on the link at 10:03 p.m. were greeted with a message stating that the show was already sold out.
Even those who did get through, like Moerlien, were forced to wait longer - processed ticket requests were met with promises of a late-night e-mail that would hold their fate.
"It'd be better if they could just tell us right there," Moerlin said.
Others were denied even the thrill of suspense - Sophomore Christie Langenberg's request was not processed due to heavy Internet traffic. "It took me a long time to get to the homepage, and when I clicked on the link, it took like three minutes to load." After closing the window and trying again, Langenberg heard from a friend that the show had sold out.
But she is not bitter about her Internet woes. "I think it's really the only fair way they could have done it. They don't want people camping out and missing classes."
Senior Lori Kessler, one of the few hundred who anxiously awaited an email, is less understanding. Slow connection times thwarted her careful plans for the 10 p.m. click-a-thon. Kessler defragged her hard drive yesterday, and made sure to reboot so as to obtain the quickest connection possible. Despite her efforts, however, she said the connection was "really, really slow."
Kessler finally connected to TuftsLife.com after several unsuccessful attempts, but remains unsatisfied with the site as a means for distributing tickets.
"It's not really fair," she said. "They should think of a better way to do it next time,"
"Billy Joel - An Evening of Questions, Answers, and a Little Music" will take place at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 13. A valid, current Tufts identification is required for all student attendees.
