CURRENT LISTENING

I got a refund for a CD that I bought and then changed my mind about paying $6 to have...

I had asked the seller like 3 days before he shipped the item to refund the payment before he shipped the item/cancel the transaction...he did not respond; and I had emailed him several times...

After I'd figured he'd shipped the item, I asked him when he shipped it, since I hadn't gotten it yet and it'd been almost a week since I got the item.

He didn't respond.

So I got the item (in stated condition) and decided to damage his feedback.  I mean, heck, there's NO excuse for treating customers (or non-customers) like that.  If someone doesn't want an item, what grounds does a seller have to ship it to that "someone"?  I mean, yeah, I bought it, but, ya know, I bought it on Amazon, not eBay.  eBay purchases are legally binding contracts that you HAVE to follow through with.  Amazon purchases are the COMPLETE opposite.

So I left neutral feedback, and he emailed me a couple hours later telling me he hadn't got my emails and that he was sorry for the mix up or whatever and thus he would be refunding my money.  And me being a righteous dude, deleted my feedback (you can't modify feedback on Amazon, but it can be removed...).

But it turns out the CD is nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.  It's called RELAYER by Yes; came out in 1974, way before they did that stupid song "Owner of a Lonely Heart"...

I've also been listening to Trespassers William's HAVING (2006).  Track #8, "My Hands Up" is SO deep!

I got Hawthorne Height's new CD FRAGILE FUTURE in the mail on Thursday (I think...mighta been Friday...).  It's pretty darn good, although I've gotten tired of it.

Later-

SONY EC55

Had I not told you "all" (yeah, right; like anyone's reading this except my mom...) that I got that CD player I'd been drooling over for the last few months on Friday?  No, not the Friday that we most recently experienced, but the Friday before that.  I got the EC55 via UPS around noon on the 1st of August.  The sound quality could be better, but it's still an improvement over my computer sound...I'm not sure if it uses less energy than my computer, 'cause it puts out 130 watts of power.  Guess I'll have to wait & see.  I'm just glad to have it.  I get scared just using my computer for EVERYTHING.  Music, movies, reading etc... (I don't read books most of the time, I just read various online pieces; product reviews, news articles, etc....).  It seems pointless, glutenous, boring...I mean, what's in a life anyway?  Ya know?  Ok, maybe you don't...but anyway...

More cool beans; the following Tuesday I got some matching CD-Rs to make CDs I can't afford with - SONY!!!!!!  Ya hear that?  SONY!!!!!!!

Oh, and some more recenter good news is that Amazon now has the GHOSTBUSTERS 1 & 2 (non Blu-Ray; Blu-Ray's are a bit out of my price range to say the least...) boxed gift set for pre-order.  It comes out in late October.  For some dumb reason I had sold my GB2 DVD that I bought with my grampa's WalMart gift card that he gave me for Xmas (I sold it like in the spring I think...) a few months before hearing about the GB1&2 boxed gift set - oh, you're telling me there was ALREADY a GB1&2 gift set?  Oh, you don't know the half of it...THIS one has a STAY PUFT MARSHMALLOW MAN figurine PLUS some trading cards AND a bag of SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!  You hear that?  SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, I'm mixing everything together, who cares?  As I was saying, I'd heard this was coming out via protoncharging (dot coooooooooooooooooom!) a month or so ago, around the same time I started feeling remorse for having sold my GB2 DVD...Iiiiiiiiii'll just wait...juuuuuuuust waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait...it wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiill be miiiiiiiiiiiine...it WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILL BE MINE!!!  THE SOW IS MINE!!!

Ok, I guess I'm hyper 'cause I haven't taken my pills yet...

XX

got my ROCKS

well, I already got ROCKS by Aerosmith in the mail; that was fast, I swear; took 2 days! Here's hoping my INVISIBLE TOUCH by Genesis can hold a candle to that ideal transit time(!). I was thinking I might sell it (ROCKS, not IT), but, even though it's a got a very old and dusty sound, there's still something very fascinating about the CD. Just not sure its worth letting go of (again...!!!).

tpw returns!?

I used to say (sometimes) that Trespassers William is my favorite band...for the last six months or more that notion has taken a back seat since they only have 2 CDs (plus an EP and a CD they made way back when that they practically condemn...) and I was listening to them CONSTANTLY. Basically, I got tired of them. But I'm listening to trk #11 on DIFFERENT STARS (2004), and it just brings back those feelings of...2004, except I didn't even know who TPW was until after their 2nd CD HAVING (2006) came out...wait, I guess that woulda been a good time to explain what "feelings of 2004" means...

Well, I don't know when indie music started rising up, but if it weren't for Hot Topic coming to Cape Girardeau during my senior year of high school (2001), I probably would have felt just fine sticking to commercial radio. They had CDs that you could listen to for free (and buy them if you wanted to...), CDs mainly falling within the EMO category (as much as I love/d it, I still didn't know what that term meant until a few+ years later...) and the pop-punk category. I remember hearing Saves The Day's STAY WHAT YOU ARE and thinking "wow, this is independently distributed; and it's better than most of what I've been hearing lately!". And then around 2003 the local "college radio" station started broadcasting with more power, enabling more people to listen in...and in 2004 I moved out of my mom's house and started walking to the Kent (college) library, feeling semi-a part of the college community and feeling independent finally...

I felt a warm chill, so to speak, going through my body at those times, from about 2004-2006. Then I was no longer even ABLE to go to the college library and sometime after the kick off of the year 2006, RAGE 103.7 (the local "college radio" station...) decided to mainly stick to Godsmack/Limp Bizkit-esque type music and play more of the same songs more often...now I don't even listen to the radio PERIOD (except for online radio...) unless my computer's off and I happen to be out of CDs or tapes that I'm not sick and tired of...(sometimes the radio can be good background noise that you end up singing along to - so to speak...).


Of course, now DIFFERENT STARS is long gone...well, not literally; I mean, the "CD" (I'm listening to it for free on Rhapsody, you got a problem with that?) ended about 15+ minutes ago, while I was writing this...I think I'm gonna listen to their follow up, HAVING.


BTW, a couple points to mention if you wanna check out TPW yourself; SONYSTYLE.COM has both TPW CDs for $12.99 each (free S&H, I think...) and if you join BIGCRUMBS.COM (just follow the link on the side and I'll get a few cents from you signing up and using me as a referral...) you can save 3.15% off the already low price of those CDs. I know, $12.99 isn't that low of a price for a CD(s), but Amazon, for the most part, has the lowest prices on pretty much everything and TPWs CDs go for about $15+ each on Amazon. I've looked at other websites as well, it's about the same...


Until next time...

I just bought Aerosmith's ROCKS and Genesis' INVISIBLE TOUCH today, via my sister's Amazon account (well, technically, she bought them for me with my money...). I think those "compact disc digital audio" logos that they used to put on CDs in the early days were cool. Hopefully, the seller doesn't mail the 1993 remaster instead of the edition he was supposed to be selling...I think cover art for CDs is kind of important, b/c it gives the CDs on one's shelf or whatever a sense of identity. I'm also a very visual person, so it's kind of like the CD is the heart/soul and the album cover(s) is like the body...looook into my eyes!

dark

I saw THE DARK KNIGHT Monday. On Thursday I got an email from Kmart telling me that if I bought 3 bags of Reese's candy by the 19th (the end of;) that I would be eligible for a free movie ticket for THE DARK KNIGHT. So on Saturday I did that, bought the candy and redeemed the code online, and brought the certificate to the movie theater. I didn't want to go on Saturday, 'cause the theaters are usually quite crowded then. It's bad enough in a small theater, 'cause you still never know whose gonna start talking to the screen like a dang maniac or whose gonna depend on the person sitting next to them to explain the movie to them while they're watching it. And before the film starts, IF you look at the screen then, you'll see SEVERAL warnings like "silence your cell phones", "silence during the film" etc. etc.,; but does anybody actually pay any attention? It wasn't too bad on Monday, prolly 'cause everyone there felt the same as I do about that kind of stuff, which may explain why they chose Monday to see it. It as eleven 0'clock in the morning too, although it was like 1:30 or after when I got out, 'cause the film was 157 minutes long plus the trailers.

But alas, I was not too terribly pleased with the film. It just seemed like a big mess of scenes put together without any cohesive narrative style. The trailers for the movie made it seem like it was going to be GREAT, 'cause they a) took parts of the movie out of context and b) took the few would-have-been good scenes (such as the scene where The Joker's stolen semi-truck was turned upside down) and made them look better than they were.

This wouldn't be such a big disappointment, but the last time I went to the theater prior to THE DARK KNIGHT was to see BATMAN BEGINS and that was over 3 years ago. I had all my money riding on this thing and it fell flat. At least I got the ticket for free...well, sorta; it'd also been awhile since I'd bought candy bars in bags...

wildfires

I just saw the one sentence description of a news story: Bush set to survey Northern California wildfires. I don't know why he even bothers. 75% of the population hates his guts for some reason(s) or another, and the man obviously would rather be dictator than president...just sickens me seeing him trying to act like a decent person...what good is this gonna do for him or anyone else?

arg

PROLOGUE: Technology Is Evil

Ok, what the Hell is an "output"??? an INput, as far as I sorta-might-know, is a hole in an electronics device that a cable goes in to connect two pieces of electronics...is that not the right definition? IF it isn't, then fuck you, 'cause that's what I think it is...if that's not the right definition, tell me the word that fits it or go to Hell, 'k?

CHAPTER 0: VCR gives, VCR takes away...

Ok, well, I hooked up the VCR that my aunt gave me, and it appeared to be working...the only problem was the cord situation, totally messed up, had to re-arrange the electro-furniture...

Basically, the VCR and the TV were/are too damn far apart from another for the cords to connect properly, 'cause the cords are too damn short. I HAVE an entertainment CENTER for a reason so I didn't want to just put the VCR any ol' place...so I tried switching the cords that were with the DVD player, but for some stupid reason the DVD player cords are designed with two RCA-ish-cables + a yellow S-Video cord. My VCR doesn't even HAVE an S-Video jack (is THAT the right word? Or are they both correct to use in this instance?), so the white cord is all that would fit in the VCR, but I thought since the invention of these cords is/was the most retarded thing in the world, maybe the red cord would/could substitute for the yellow cord. Now that I remember doing that, I guess maybe that's why the VCR doesn't work...I woulda just waited, but I don't have any freakin' money to buy another set of cords!!! And whose idea was it to make an S-Video/RCA-cable combination??? S-Video doesn't even perform as well as RCA-cables,...

Well, hopefully time will give it something it doesn't have enough of now to make it work later...or maybe it's just permanently dead...

But I guess it's no big deal. I have a couple VHS tapes, but I don't think too highly of sitting back and watching movies all day when the world is killing its feet trying to bend over for its Money-Gods...movies are a waste of time unless you find one that you REALLY REALLY love, one that gives you high doses of stimulation and satisfaction. Neither of the VHS tapes I have provide that for me...in fact, I've been considering selling my DVD collection for the same reason...but nostalgia's a weird thing, at least to me...sometimes it's there and others, it's like it never happened...I don't know about most people, but my memory doesn't keep feelings/emotions like it does actual things that HAPPEN...

oh, no!; the animals have escaped!!

I think it's interesting how the indie labels have risen in esteem since the music industry started crying about its low sales. Yet instead of find way(s) to work WITH the consumers, they try to eliminate the competition. Kind of like Jim Carry's line in LIAR LIAR: "I object!/This tape is devastating to my case...".
Face it Hoffa: you can't control the minds of the people any more. They know what they've been missing and they're sick of worshiping the idols that you try to put in front of their faces. The old days where you get filthy stinkin' rich by repackaging the same old crap is over, and it's probably going to get worse.
The ONLY thing you can do about it is to SHOCK people; and there's nothing more shocking than a deeply emotional experience, b/c people have never HAD one. Sure, there's an occasional teary eyed moment on the radio, a few songs here and there that appeal to the "indie rockers" that have that label, but you gotta DIG, high and low, across the mountains and oceans every rock in between; you gotta GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY CRAVE, which is SUBSTANCE. The items on your shelves aren't moving. REPLACE them!

this is just rediculous...

On Amazon.com, there's the opportunity to sell your items or buy from people who choose to do so. When you list your item for sale on Amazon.com, they ask you a) what condition is your item in? and then b) comments. You don't HAVE to have any comments, but people put some of the dumbest comments on their listings. Some sellers say "great CD" or "great price" as if any potential buyers can't figure that out by either LOOKING AT the price and deciding that on their own terms, or reading the avg customer rating of the item on the PRODUCT PAGE. Some sellers waste a lot of time typing out the track listing which again is found on PRODUCT PAGE.
If any of you people are reading this: listen carefully;
there are THREE parts of a compact disc (CD) unless you personally remove one or more of them or buy from someone who did that; a) the disc b) the cover art (front booklet/sleeve/insert & back tray) and c) the jewel case.
That's all there is to it. People can ALTER those parts any number of ways; they can let their 5 year old spill orange juice on the item or any part(s) there-of, they can write their friggin' initials on the item (or any part(s) there-of), they can eat messy food then leaf through the booklet/sleeve/insert (I don't know why anyone would leaf through a one page insert, but this isn't a dictatorship; if someone wants to do something totally pointless, that's up to them...), they can get in a fight with a family or friend and start pulling at one end of the item to the point of ripping it; they can very ROUGHLY leaf through the front cover art, and bend it or part of it...
LIKE NEW SHOULD mean EXACTLY as it was bought at the store. a lot of people say "like new" when there's fingerprints on the item, although honestly, how could there not be? I'll forgive that bit of technicality, but for pity's sake; I've actually looked at sellers' feedback where someone COMPLAINS about stuff like this and there's no reply from the seller with an explanation or apology or both! Obviously, there's at least a few sellers on Amazon who are like eBay sellers that simply DON'T CARE about customer service. I don't know how Amazon lets sellers like that continue selling except perhaps people are just too "rational" to care enough about that kind of thing and thus don't complain to Amazon to let them know and keep future buyers' from buying from bad sellers.