penniless so soon? So?

My money's all gone...but I got a month of {up to} 7 MILLION songs to listen to...the whole world is at my fingertips...yep.  I spent about 15 minutes looking around in BestBuy, thinking I could get that AND a CD.  Turns out all i got was the Napster prepaid card...couldn't be happier!

I've noticed I get bored listening to albums...I always put one on, but lately I've been wondering "Why?  Why don't you just listen to LastFM or...something?"  Napster gives me the ability to listen to ANY song, ANY time, in ANY WAY I wish!!!

Then the thought comes that someday Napster won't be here.  When that day comes, I hope THE PEOPLE have enough guts to wage war...I mean, they could raise the price by thee or four times the monthly rate and that'd be worlds better than them going away...and they've been offering the $5/mo rate for over 2 years now, and the service itself has been around for almost a decade (I'm excluding the now-illegal/defunct service of the same name...) so if it ever does get shut down, either the economy will have changed in some way that makes it impossible for the service to operate, or the gov't will shut them down...things change. I'm fine w/ that (so far...).  But the gov't "cracking down" on too-good-to-be-true-ness is just unjustifiable.  The gov't already tried that with the internet radio companies and so far hasn't succeeded, and so it's a lot easier to bank on that sort of horror than the unforseeable (at least to a guy with my low-mid intellect) events that the tides of time may or may not bring...

I swear, this country could so easily turn into a war zone.  I, for one, don't have enough money to pay for every single song BEFORE I hear it.  There's too much crud I don't like, too much crud that shouldn't exist in the first place, and a MAMMOTH amount of mediocrity.  I'm not sure how much of a minority that makes me, but I guess it doesn't really matter.  Just about everyone was against the Vietname Conflict, but only a tiny handful of citizens stood up and tried to do something about it.

...and to "top" it off...

I gotta tell you off the bat - I'm gross.  Most of the time I smell like I came out of the sewer.  Fortunately it's only been four days since I last took a shower, since it's summer (I've been known to go almost a month in the winter...), but today I've been passing gas uncontrollably.  And I was out at a grocery store, acquiring a couple donuts for myself, and while my shorts were down in the bathroom a couple hours after arriving back to my abode, I noticed a sparkly black substance on my leg.  The donuts were sprinkled-covered-chocolate covered, I might add.  This is the only evidence I have to suggest the problem didn't get waaaaay out of hand, aside from the fact that I can usually make it to the bathroom before it makes it's escape from the toilet...However, I can only imagine the horror of anyone in the grocery store who may have noticed the smell I was unleashing and happened to look down at my leg before passing me by completely...and if their eyesight was dead on enough for them to SEE the red substance in the midst of the topping, they'd very well possibly vomit...and don't even ask them what that green stuff is.  They can only take so much!  And besides, what kind of sick frunk do you think they are?  You think they're gonna put up with the horror of ape-man AND dig through his feces?  Man, you musbeouchamine!
  In closing, I leave you with the wisdom of Mr. Hop himself: "EVERYTHING'S BETTER WITH TOPPINGS!"

maybe I'm stupid?

i guess I don't understand Blu-Ray technology that well...I was looking at the blu-ray ad on ghostbusters dot com and wow the picture quality is even better than DVD - I guess a lot of people have said that, but I was viewing the ad on a SD computer screen, so I'd imagine even at 720p, my television would probably pick up an even better picture than what I saw on the ad at Sony's GB site.  plus I'd forgotten the packaging for the GHOSTBUSTERS Blu-ray is way better than any of the DVD pressings, and...well...I guess I might as well buy a Blu-Ray player when I get my Circuit Breaker check early next year.  I'll probably get $300++, so a Blu-Ray player will be a piece of cake...

Wow.  Never before have I been so happy to be penniless.  I now have in my posession L.I.E. (Uncut).  All you folks in Cape Girardeau (if any are reading this aside from my mom who I know has no desire to see this film...) who decided NOT to rent this movie since Sept '09 will never have another chance.  For Hastings has deemed the lack of rentals of this movie reason enough to practically GIVE it to me - for $4.22 apprx (it actually should have been $4.35, but I just rented A CLOCKWORK ORANGE a few minutes prior which ate $0.13 of the needed $4.35.  The cashier said "don't worry about it", but if he hadn't, I'm sure my mother would have come to my aide...right?).
  True, there are less expensive movies, some of you may be thinking.  But they suck.  At least compared to this film - they suck.  I remember just last night aching to be with this movie, thinking "we belong together...", and thinking it a tragic sequence of non events that the world had divided us so widely.  But I was foolish, for I could've merely dialed Hastings' number and asked them what I thought until now would be a pointless question - "do you sell movies that are available for rent to those who wish to pay an extra price?".  Surely, I thought, a laugh or two would ensue.  But the cashier took me seriously and said "YES!", twice, with glee, but it was I who felt the true glee, still glowing.  So tonight that I might see...and I think...nobody's reading this...?

Video drowned the cinema...

Blu-Ray SOUNDS like a great idea.  And in some cases it probably does do a great service.  But the fact of the matter is that A LOT of AMAZING films, landmarks of cinema, do not benefit from a Blu-Ray transfer.  If anything, Blu-Ray diverts attention to what the director(s) and writer(s) want(ed) you to see, the sights and sounds that make the film as profound as it is...GHOSTBUSTERS, for instance, looks GREAT on DVD, but carried over to Blu-ray you NOTICE the non-HDness of the video quality it was shot with.  Granted, this may be more accurate in the mechanical sense, but what good does it do to see obscuring lines and white/grey patches on your television?
  Personally, I hate most of what comes out in theaters these days.  Sometimes they're cute and enjoyable - like marshmallows - but they lack longevity.  You forget them 1 year later and ten years later you revisit the film and wonder why you liked it to begin with.  Perhaps that's why people are so apt to re-watch films so often - there's so little substance, yet there IS stuff happening, so people end up in this half-catatonic state where 3/4 of their brain is just not even paying attention to the film so they pick up more of the film with repeated viewings...and of course people are so friggin' superficial and short-attention spanned that anything not from the "current" time of viewing is going to turn people off due to the different kinds of cars, clothing and hair style on display.  Films of the 1970's and 1980's often time don't look as shiny and glossy as current Hollywood productions and since everyone's obsessed with new-technology, people turn away from the not-so-perfect looking films, even though there's still a lot of visual beauty IN those movies for people who can accept and realize the fact that fashions change - they have - a million times over - and they will continue to do so.  I mean, admittedly, I don't watch movies, usually, made before 1968, simply because this country - the land of the free - was essentially a dictatorship run by superstitious pod-people who existed according to trumped up social codes that didn't make a dang big of sense.  People couldn't forgive themselves for thinking about anything sexual, and if they SAID anything of the sort, oh no, what would God think?!  Women especially were bogged down in that department, and if someone was suffering - from either internal or external ills - they couldn't tell anyone and if they did, nobody would do anything about it.  People couldn't handle thoughts of "mental illness" and living with a child automatically meant it was OK to beat them.  Just as long as they weren't physically dead, the parents couldn't be wrong for what they did...
  And the films of that day, because of everyone's fear of open communication and expression, were stale and have grown unwatchable as time's gone on.
  But then the government made a huge mistake - the Vietnam "conflict".  The grown ups tried to ignore it, but the children wouldn't.  Hollywood was losing money because they tried acting like nothing was happening, but the country was hurting, and the children were fed up with the world they were brought in to.  Movies were making more money from distrusting children and adventours college kids than adults who didn't even have as much time to gaze at the silver screen to begin with.  It was the age of artistic expression, honesty, beauty...
  And then Hollywood figured out how to modernize the Blockbuster - put fake things that look real in them.  A giant shark!  Space ships!  Aliens!  And as the education, legal, and parental units have all but washed their hands of responsibility and accountability, people walk around thinking things that don't make any sense as if they DO make sense, applying world views that defy truth to their purchasing habits - including movie tickets etc.!
  So most movies are either random flashes of shiny light, or half baked excuses for "drama".  In the case of AVATER, it's a bad case of both and it beat TITANIC - another example of technology-with-no-use - for the #1 highest ranking film of all time - financially speaking!
 

So BELIEVE me - when I say that having a Blu-ray player would be nice, but continuing to be able to watch my VHS tapes would be just as important to me if not more so.  VHS is cheaper anywayz, and the quality isn't really all that much worse than DVD, although I admit I like DVDs better, if I can get them for a good price...
  Right now I have a VCR, but it's really old and I always thank my lucky stars that it still works when I pop a tape in it.  But this will pass.  Is replacing it worth $300?  If it has a Blu-ray & a DVD player that isn't made by the mind of Satan?     Possibly.  Currently it's over $300 at Amazon, although not long ago it was on sale for $120...and it's got some bragging rights - a four star average customer rating?  If there's a better DVD and/or Blu-Ray player out there, it can't be worth trading over the 1-and-only Hi-Q VHS player currently being manufactured.  I mean, what more can a DVD and/or Blu-Ray player do?  Maybe NetFlix...but I'll probably need to replace this computer someday too ---- if i could get a computer that doesn't freeze up when NetFlix tries to stream movies on my computer, that would be great.  But nobody I know currently can afford to get me a $1K+ computer.  And I'm only 26...gosh, I'm getting old...

ego basher

the emo songs i always hear are like a refuge
the emo girls I always see around are like a dream
the dreams I have are like an addiction
I know they wouldn't feel the same
I'm either too selective or not selective enough
I like the prog-rock, new wave, hair-bands...
Can't say I'm hardcore when I'm so soft in the middle

the punk songs I always hear are like a plauge
punks are always bashing what's beautiful
my inner beuty is like a joke
I know they'd feel the same
I'm either too selective or not selective enough
I like to bash those punk-rock/noise-rock junk-rock amatuers
Can't say I'm open minded when I'm so hateful

the emo girl I always think of is just a passing thought
the thoughts I have revolve around this emo music
this music is like an addiction
i'm nothing without it
I hope she doesn't feel the same
But is it possible to embrace such a deformed soul?
When said embracer is relatively normal?
If so, I hope she stops me before I say another nasty word
But doesn't bash my ego

southcott flees the scene

A pop-punk band called Southcott once had a song titled "Red Lights And Rooftops" (wake up, wake up, we can't keep sleeping on the job, watching my neck for knives you plant beneath my jaw...) which was played regularly on my local RAGE 103.7 in its day (2005), yet the album (FLEE THE SCENE) is scarcely available used/new on Amazon, out of print, and the customer reviews (7 total, 3 1/2 star avg) are largely written from the standpoint of "just another pop-punk band" type thing, seemingly oblivious to there having been any airplay of them.
  It's like a ghost-CD!  I mean, who knows, maybe the band has some local (Cape Girardeau, Missouri) roots, but it seems odd that my local alt-rock station would be the ONLY station that plays/played these guys (I don't listen to RAGE much anymore since they started reverting back to the "real rock" w/ demons - ala Godsmack - style of "alternative" that was all the rage back in 1998, with very little "indie" rock, or pop-punk/emo...I mean, RAGE used to be Cape Girardeau's radio center for people who wanted stuff like The Shins, Radiohead, etc....but that's so 2005, I guess...).  I mean, if the CD had any exposure to the masses, you'd think there'd be a good 20++ copies available for sale on Amazon, but there's 13 total, 5 of which are "new" (some Amazon sellers sell a "new but opened" CD and list it as "NEW", which is AGAINST Amazon's guidelines, but whose paying attn, right?), so there's 8 used copies.  For a CD rated at 3 1/2 stars on average by "the people", there sure must be an awful lot of people who are either packrats or can't bear the thought of letting go of such mediocrity (although I like that one song A LOT, I haven't heard the rest of the CD, so...but anyway...); OR the CD just didn't touchdown on many a CD player and THAT'S why it's out of print...I mean, there's all kinds of reasons music goes OOP, a lot of CDs that are out of print go back into print at some point or another, and usually the ones that are unavailable are unavailable b/c the demand has reached a plateu - everybody that wants it has it, so there's no need to manufacture anymore...for a 5 year old CD, that seems like an odd scenario...

lalalalalalalalalalalalala, I can't he-ear you....

Lala is no longer accepting new members as of today and they will be shutting down on May 31st.  A sad day for low income music lovers indeed.

it's like a nut...

(TV ad reference, let's move on...)

Yeah...it's weird not having much of a reason to shell out $3-$15 for each album I want to listen to...I guess I'm addicted to the notion of collecting music...I say "notion of" b/c it's been a looong time since I ever collected CDs...I've bought a lot of 'em, but they don't stay together, thus "collection" is out of the equation, thus "collecting" does not apply...
  idk...I guess there's a lot of facets to the behavior I engage(d) in, when it comes to buying CDs.  Maybe not a lot, but it would sound like a lot if I said I am addicted to THREE things, since addiction to ONE thing seems like a shocker in and of itself...and I don't know what the other two things are; I know there's shopping...I guess the possession of material objects is another...
  Thanks, LaLa.  Not only for increasing my ability to spend money on non-music...but for letting me put my life in perspective...not that I don't do that enough as it is, but...thanx...

wwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiirrrrrrrrrd...

woah, man, there's like this new thing, it's called a web-album!  It's SO freaky, 'cause like I don't have to own the physical album, it's like 1/10th of the price of a typical (legal) album download and it's there for you whenever you're online and don't mind going to LaLa.com, and the artists get their fair share, and it's even cooler for a guy like me who always gets rid of their music, you don't have to pay $3+++ to get it back, just a dollar or so, maybe more if there's, like, a lot of songs on the album...woaaaaaaah!!