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.