One of the many, many reasons I hate the music industry and the parasitic goons who make up its Kafkaesque structure is that now and then when music comes along that I want to buy, I can't. Because the label pushes the release back repeatedly, sometimes delaying the release indefinitely.
Case study: Fefe Dobson, represented at the time by Island Records. Her first CD was brilliant; I ended up buying it on a whim based on the strength of having only heard "Take Me Away" during a late-night drive home from work--when all the good music crowded out by the top 10 got played. The CD was on sale for a ridiculously low $7, and this at FYE where normally they try to charge you for walking in the door. (I may be exaggerating.) But I digress. Dobson's second release, Sunday Love, was scheduled for October 2005 and featured a single, "Don't Let It Go To Your Head", that I heard only once on the radio and fell in love with. The release was pushed back to November, then the following February, then canceled indefinitely; Island Records, it seems, was not pleased with her sophomore effort and dropped her. They still hold the rights to all those songs; the album never got released except for a demo. Reportedly, the album is really good. I'd buy it, but I can't.
My newest frustration comes due to an artist I sort of discovered by accident: Jennifer Paige. You may remember her song "Crush" that was on the pop charts for a while in 1998. That first CD was, I felt, not quite my cup of Dew, but her second album, Positively Somewhere, was incredibly fantastic. You probably haven't heard of it if you live in the US, because it was completely unpublicized, but apparently she gets more of the fame she deserves internationally. She released a new CD in '08 aptly titled Best Kept Secret, but on a limited basis and in just a few countries. A re-release in a deluxe edition, including some new material, was due this past November. It was rescheduled for December. It was rescheduled yet again, according to her Twitter account, for the beginning of January--that is, this month that's almost over. No word on a new date. Every preview snippet I've heard from this CD is amazing. I can't buy it yet and have no new word on when it will be out, if ever. If I want a physical CD, my only option is to buy the original release used but at new prices, or new at Sotheby's prices.
What's the freaking hold-up? The artist wants me to buy their CD. I want to buy their CD. This really ought to be a simple transaction. The only "people" standing in the way are the labels, who are unwilling to make the CD despite the fact that it costs them peanuts and they pocket most of the revenue anyway.
On a barely related note, eBay is a really horrible place to buy LEGO. One idiot was selling eight 1x2 tan plates for $2 total, when I can pay a fraction of that on Bricklink. What is it with these tiny lots? And the huge lots are ridiculously vague, often with Megablocks mixed in. Mixing Megablocks with LEGO and then labeling the lot as LEGO should be criminal.
Back in high school I made a small fortune buying my friends' old Legos off of them for peanuts, then reselling them on Ebay. Screw mixing in Megablocks though... who the hell buys Megablocks in the first place anyway?
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The days of owning physical CDs are very slowly coming to an end. I can tell this based on the prices of games.
At Harvy Norman or EB Games, I can pay upwards of $102.00 AUD for a censored release of L4D2 (which can be made uncensored very quickly and easily). I can download the game off Steam for much less the cost. The same goes for music and iTunes. Not that I've actually bothered to buy any albums on iTunes yet. I suppose given our absurdly capped and even more absurdly priced internet connections, in the end, the cheaper and easier route would probably be to buy the CD/DVD. =/ SilkWizard wrote: who the hell buys Megablocks in the first place anyway? Lois Griffin. | |
I wasn't aware people still paid for music.
For an 8th grade project my class was required to build models based on the structures of castles. We were paired in groups of two for the assignment. My partner and I, being LEGO connoisseurs, naturally turned to LEGO's to build probably the biggest castle submitted. We got an A, but the damage was done and our LEGO stockpiles were already completely mixed up. I ended up just letting him keep my LEGO's since I didn't really use them anymore. | |
Well, we have a LEGO store at the local mega mall, so that's where I get my LEGO...and yeah, screw megablocks.
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We have a Lego store too(if I remember correctly, it's the same Lego store, DP, in Concord Mills). Their block prices are too high. I went there thinking I could get a good price on some bulk Lego and finally build that Lego computer case I'd been thinking about for ages. I was mistaken. Their prices were so high to buy enough Lego to build a computer case it would cost me hundreds of dollars. I should start hitting the second hand stores to see what they have in stock.
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As a rule LEGO is not particularly cheap. If you were looking for enough bricks to build a computer case, that sounds about right price-wise. It's unfortunate the company doesn't do bulk runs of certain brick sizes + colors.
Still, I'd kill to have a LEGO store in Syracuse. | |
Lummox JR wrote:
If you were looking for enough bricks to build a computer case... This idea is what I'd generally consider insane. I remember playing with Lego as a kid... I wasn't very creative. I wouldn't imagine using it for something like a computer case. I'd rather purchase a large tower case, and familiarise myself with power tools. Which I someday plan to do. =D | |
One potential problem is that you'd have to ventilate the crap out of a LEGO case. ABS melts at fairly low temperatures so unless you kept it very cool inside, your tower would be prone to sag over time. Also being plastic, it won't ground well.
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You could somehow incorporate the Lego design with this creative guy's idea.
Then you'd probably solve both the problems. | |
I had the whole thing calculated out, grounding an all, a few years back(before we got the Lego store). My PC does not run particularly hot, so that isn't much of an issue(also good ventilation is easy with Lego).
There are a few examples of people creating Lego computer towers around the Internet, I wouldn't be the first. http://images.google.com/images?q=lego+computer+case | |
As for the lego thing at the end, Never owned either legos, or megablocks. I had Lincoln Logs, and made wooden cities.