Do these things exist?

[liv]

One: is it possible to buy someone vouchers that they can use to buy tickets for any concert? Things got a bit muddled and I didn't manage to buy my student a wedding present. I want to get something appropriate (given that she is, in fact, my student), but that she will enjoy, and I know she's a big rock fan, but I have no idea what her tastes are specifically. So I'd like to be able to give her a certain value of concert tickets, but let her choose which gig to go to. Sort of like iTunes vouchers, but for live music? Ideally it would be physical vouchers I could send her in a nice envelope, not just a code to type into a website, cos that would make it more like a wedding present.

Two: is there a gazetteer or something similar that tells announcers and news reporters how to pronounce place-names? Even small obscure villages? Was travelling home the slow way across country today, and I noticed that there are an awful lot of names that even a fluent native speaker has no hope of guessing how to pronounce, especially if they're in a different region from where that person is familiar with.

(As you can probably deduce from this, I'm home. Work starts tomorrow, but I do feel I've had a good break, two weekends and an intervening week really helps even when it's hectic.)

Comments

[askygoneonfire]

Ticketmaster do gift vouchers. The only drawback is they can only be redeemed over the phone rather than on the website.

[redbird]

I know that the AP newswire at least used to include pronunciation notes on any name that the AP staff thought might be unfamiliar to a radio/television announcer. I suspect that their source was a combination of dictionaries, possibly atlases or gazetteers, and a reporter having talked to the person or visited the town in question.

[tig_b]

I know the BBC has/had a list of names but can't find a direct link.
This may help?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/pronunciation_unit/

[tig_b]

and this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A19773499