Andrea Bocelli: Bringing Classic-Pop to the States in 2013

Three weeks. Andrea Bocelli Tickets will be available in the United States for a total of three weeks in 2013. The man whose signature timbre has served him well over the course of two decades and has made huge fans of world leaders like Queen Elizabeth and Hollywood celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, is sparingly back on the road in support of the album Passione.

Now, he may just accrue as many appearances on reality television programs as he has live shows (12). Bocellli seems to make appearances on an American Idol, The Voice, or a televised talent show in just about every nation. This is a testament to his popularity and the increasing popularity of the classical-pop genre in the United States.

This fusion of contemporary and classical has been a mainstay in Europe since Bocelli began his career back in the early 1990s. It has been lurking in the United States on the adult contemporary and world charts since that same time. But, it is only now that Bocelli and singers like him are getting their due respect.

Yes, the very programs mentioned above, such as American Idol, are the reason he is a chart and commercial success. For instance, My Christmas, went double-platinum and that year he made television appearances on this side of the pond acting as a mentor or coach.

Passione, the new album, has yet to go gold in the United States, but it will get their as it has Jennifer Lopez and Nelly Furtado are featured on the album and he has plenty of opportunity to coach a new talent for the televised audiences in 2013. Perhaps that aspiring star he aids will join him on the road filling in for Lopez and Furtado to bring the album’s duets to life.

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The End of the NHL Season: Holding on for the Postseason

The end of the NHL season is nearly here and a few teams are on the cusp of losing their playoff spot. These clubs include a couple of New York-based teams (Islanders and Rangers) in the Eastern Conference and the St. Louis Blues and the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Western Conference.

The Islanders are going to have to protect their slight point lead and their sixth seed over the course of four road games. Luckily, the Islanders have thrived on the road (and conversely struggled at home). So, winning two out of four against the Winnipeg Jets, Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, and the Buffalo Sabres should not be too difficult.

The Rangers were not supposed to have nearly as difficult a season in 2013. They were supposed to be fighting for one of the top spots in the Atlantic Division. They were certainly not supposed to be hoping to hold on to the eighth seed. They cannot even blame this on injuries or a struggling netminder. Instead, the addition of Rick Nash has not made the offense any more potent (they may be even less!). Still, four of the final five games should be easy wins.

The Blues seem to be pretty set in the seventh spot. They only have a three point lead over the first team out of the postseason, but they have five games remaining when most other clubs have four. Also, with three games left against Western Conference bottom feeders (two against the Avalanche and one against the Flames) St. Louis should have little issue getting into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Blue Jackets have overtaken the Red Wings for the eighth seed, but they play one less game than a now very desperate and talented Detroit hockey team. Unlike the other teams mentioned, Columbus has a difficult schedule ahead. They have to play Anaheim and Los Angeles, two strong playoff teams, and Dallas, a club with a winning record and an outside shot of taking the B. Jackets playoff spot.

Of course, plenty of other teams are working hard to improve their seeding, so NHL tickets should be very popular throughout the United States and Canada.

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The Denver Nuggets are Not Just on a Roll, They are for Real

Make no mistake about it, the Denver Nuggets 13-game winning streak is not an aberration. This is a team that has won 36 of the last 46 games. The Nuggets are a dangerous basketball team.

Yet, there is not a single identifiable star on roster and the defense is far from “lock-down” status. But, the team has managed to win by coming together as a team and putting on such an impressive offensive display that it is difficult to image the Nuggets being stopped in the postseason.

The Nuggets are currently third in the NBA in scoring as a team, pouring in 106.1 points per game, and has the fifth seed in the Western Conference. Denver has been able to put up those kinds of numbers in years past and has been an even better seed in the past, but that was when Carmelo Anthony was the focal point and the offense was little more than isolation play after isolation play. Come playoff time all the opposing defense had to do was amp up the half-court defense and clamp down on Melo to force a first round exit.

This team is different. Denver scores in two ways. The first is quite predictable for a team with so many young athletes, pushing the basketball. Come the postseason the competition is going to slow the game down. Luckily, George Karl’s rotation is equally capable of scoring in the half court.

The players without the ball make great cuts to the basket and the players with the ball are unselfish enough to find those players dashing to the rim. Add a couple solid three point shooters and this is a difficult crew to stop. As a result, the stat sheet shows six players averaging more than 10 points a game and three players averaging more than 5 assists a game.

This group has been able to beat the Thunder, a team with most of the offense taken care of by two players, twice this month with this offensive formula. The Nuggets also have big wins against the Grizzlies (a methodical half court team) and the Clippers (one of the best teams in the NBA) during this streak. With wins like these it is simply becoming more and more difficult to imagine Denver Nuggets tickets not being available available up through at least the second round of the 2013 playoffs.

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