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concertizing
Apr. 5th, 2011 08:16 pmI wasn't expecting to find an annual meme that would save me money.
But my accountant informed me that since concert-reviewing is my main professional occupation these days, I could claim travel expenses for the distances I drive to the concert venues. This required me to tote up all the concerts I reviewed last year, itemize the venues, and calculate the distance to each.
Some people might consider this boring, but to me it's a meme. So: 20 concerts, 13 venues, the farthest of them Davies and Herbst in the City (44 miles). Total distance driven, 986 miles, which ought to be appalling, but leaving aside wear and tear on the car it's not much more than $100 in gasoline, which, if I've figured this out right, actually comes to just about the same amount that these expenses should save me on my taxes. So, not bad.
The furthest-away venues I've gone on assignment are Zellerbach and Hertz in Berkeley (50 miles), actually a bit farther from here than Watsonville in the other direction, even though that seems farther. Of course I've gone to concerts on trips, even in London and Rome, and I even jiggled the dates of one UK trip so I could attend the big Steeleye Span anniversary reunion concert, but the furthest I've ever traveled specifically for a concert was to the Santa Rosa Symphony, far enough away (100 miles) that I stayed over rather than trying to drive back late at night. Although, come to think of it, I did once surprise my friends the Celtic folk-rock band Annwn by unexpectedly showing up at a gig of theirs near Sacramento (150 miles), on a day that I'd gone up to UC Davis for some library research, a trip I'd scheduled for the same day for that reason. I think I did drive home right after that, but the world was much younger then, and so was I.
But my accountant informed me that since concert-reviewing is my main professional occupation these days, I could claim travel expenses for the distances I drive to the concert venues. This required me to tote up all the concerts I reviewed last year, itemize the venues, and calculate the distance to each.
Some people might consider this boring, but to me it's a meme. So: 20 concerts, 13 venues, the farthest of them Davies and Herbst in the City (44 miles). Total distance driven, 986 miles, which ought to be appalling, but leaving aside wear and tear on the car it's not much more than $100 in gasoline, which, if I've figured this out right, actually comes to just about the same amount that these expenses should save me on my taxes. So, not bad.
The furthest-away venues I've gone on assignment are Zellerbach and Hertz in Berkeley (50 miles), actually a bit farther from here than Watsonville in the other direction, even though that seems farther. Of course I've gone to concerts on trips, even in London and Rome, and I even jiggled the dates of one UK trip so I could attend the big Steeleye Span anniversary reunion concert, but the furthest I've ever traveled specifically for a concert was to the Santa Rosa Symphony, far enough away (100 miles) that I stayed over rather than trying to drive back late at night. Although, come to think of it, I did once surprise my friends the Celtic folk-rock band Annwn by unexpectedly showing up at a gig of theirs near Sacramento (150 miles), on a day that I'd gone up to UC Davis for some library research, a trip I'd scheduled for the same day for that reason. I think I did drive home right after that, but the world was much younger then, and so was I.
