First of all, everyone has been asking about our annual Tour Date of the Year Award, the much sought after prize that is highly coveted by the concert industry. Although all the ballots have yet to be counted, we can tell you that July 22nd is still the industry’s first choice, followed by November 12, May 4 and August 28. However, we should mention that the ever-popular April 15 date is running a strong fourth, and could very well overtake the lead dates as we continue tabulating. In other words, there’s still time to place your bets.

Speaking of time, we would like to announce that Pollstar.com will take a Christmas holiday. In the past we’ve been able to staff this Web site throughout the Christmas season, but this year we thought we’d let our employees take a break from updating schedules for acts like Tantric and Jimmy Buffett, and enjoy Christmas with their families. Therefore, we will be closed on Christmas Day between 10:25 a.m. and 10:37 a.m., Pacific Standard Time. Please let us know if this works for you.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to address the rumors of a video making the rounds on the Net purporting to be a tape of our half human / half Vulcan chief of IT, Ivan, involved in a sex romp with celeb du jour Paris Hilton. While we will admit that it is Ivan in the video, we would like to state that he was under the influence of a controlled substance and clearly did not know what was going on at the time. In all honesty he merely thought he was getting an inside scoop on the itineraries for Sarah Brightman and The Saw Doctors. Besides, Pon Farr was last year.

Finally, we would like to remind everyone that there are only 12 shopping days left until Christmas, and when you consider UPS shipping schedules, it’s probably best to ship your Christmas gifts by the end of today to ensure delivery before the big holiday. We’d also like to remind you that we wear a medium. Better yet, we’ll make it easier for you. Just send cash or a gift certificate. We regret, due to the amount of gifts we receive each year, as well as the time spent updating the listings for Ani DiFranco and Fiery Furnaces, that we cannot acknowledge each and every present. Therefore, consider this our “thank you,” message in advance.

Well, that’s about it for the announcements. Oh, one last thing. Although we’ll be available during the weekend, we should mention that we’ll also be splitting our time between posting schedules for Hot Water Music and Amy Grant, and hanging out with Phil Spector watching Robert Blake movies on Saturday, while riding our quads with the Osbourne family on Sunday. In other words, if you can’t reach us during the weekend, we’ll get back to you on Monday.

We hope.