Off Topic
Post-Game Concert to Follow
September 22, 2042: Yellow Springs – An off-day in Mikki Manning’s world tour schedule turns out to be Yellow Springs fans’ lucky day. With the Chicago Black Sox in town for a three-game series that probably means nothing to anyone but the Sox, Manning has agreed to sing the national anthem to start the game, and then hang around after her All-Star husband is done playing to sing a free concert afterward.
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She is expected to play a forty-five-minute set focused on her gritty, multiple award winning album It Can’t Be Right as Rain, which includes a collection of intimate songs as complex and as simple as the album’s title, all focused on life across the globe. At the time of its release, the collection represented a different side of her persona and made waves throughout the music industry for its stripped-down sound, its commentary on the joys and trials of life and love, and its sometimes brutal confrontation of social dysfunction through those in power.
“I wanted it to be real,” she said in an interview at the release party. “Everything about it, really. I wanted people to be able to see something of themselves somewhere in there.”
“She’s suddenly turned into the Dylan of her time,” said a Rolling Stone review in the iconic issue of which her guitar was on the cover, making the twenty-second time the artist was given such an honor. "This flirty British star who's always been oh-so comfortable throwing her darts in the form of bubbly pop has revealed an underside that's going to take some time to get acquainted with, but when you do, oh my God."
RESELLERS RAISE PRICES
Given that Manning rarely performs these songs any more, the announcement that she was going to perform has created a feeding frenzy of activity among ticket resellers, some rumored to be going for as much as $800. The people staffing Utopia Field are expecting a standing room only crowd, and the team released a statement saying they had partnered with the YSPD and several private firms to ensure security was properly increased.
“It’s going to be a fun night,” said the YS9 press release. "We want everyone to feel safe as they enjoy one of the world’s truly global stars singing what is perhaps the most iconic music of our times. We thank Mikki Manning for her presence.”
Appearance Follows Skirmish with Sox Leadership
The timing of the decision to play this concert on the very day that the Chicago club comes into town is interesting in itself. Earlier this year, while attempting to deflect charges of using an underground escort service as a way to manipulate opposing players, disagreeable Sox owner Vinnie Vitale made press with accusations that Manning was nothing without her auto-tune. Manning sloughed those off by suggesting Vitale was probably a little out of his time, if not actually saying he was out of his mind.
Vitale has since gone relatively quiet as Benny Vitale has taken a higher profile with the team. Since then, the Sox have actually stumbled into playoff contention, finding themselves clinging to a post season slot by a single game over Nashville and three over Hawaii.
Anonymous word from Manning’s camp says that rather than respond further with regard to Vitale at the time, she had circled this game on her calendar and quietly adjusted her tour dates to ensure she could appear. “It’ll be nice to let the Chicago boys know what it’s like to play to a dinky little 60,000 seat venue,” she was reported to have said.
No word as to whether Manning might play a date if the club were to face California in the post-season.
