Earlier this week, I had a typical consumerist reaction to a void unaddressed. That’s right . . . I just really wanted to get something. Anything. And in particular Radiohead’s newest album “In Rainbows.” I had heard it in its entirety a few weeks back and made a mental note that I wanted it for my Radiohead collection. Said collection consists of 4 albums and the rest that my friend uploaded to my iTunes- essentially everything except for “In Rainbows.” Oh well, that’s neither here nor there and for me to go on about it feels like bragging to other kids on the playground about having toys they may or may not have. Such is the way of collectors and their collections.
I decided to get it where I get the majority of my albums and, as it turns out, where I’ve purchased all of my Radiohead albums: marsRed Music in Haddonfield, NJ. The owner, Scott, has a great wealth of knowledge about music, as well as movies, in all forms of various genres. He’s an all around great guy as opposed to the usually snotty “gatekeeper of all things cool” attitudes CD shop employees and/ or owners tend to have. I feel bad that I swiped the swell picture from his store’s web site, since marsRed is now closing thanks to that post-Industrial mentality of entitled swiping and/or not supporting.
How often have you heard people bragging about what they got from Limewire? About seeing a current theatrical release movie on DVD that “looks crystal clear?” Anymore, it’s like a badge of honor to be shoplifting.
That’s right. Closing. Score one for the big box chain stores. Let’s root for the rich kid to get that full scholarship because their parents have powerful ties. Didn’t we do that in 2000 and 2004? Sure, lots of people are employed at BestBuy, Target, and WalMart. Right now, during this recession, that’s actually a great thing (until the corporate bigwigs have that desire to make themselves even more money by cutting whatever benefits they pay out to those very same employees). And, really, who buys music from WalMart? Apparently it’s a lot more common than I’d ever want to think about. Isn’t that like an child of the early 80’s proudly admitting that the clothes they’re wearing came from K-Mart? Have we no shame supporting those who don’t need that support? Trickle down economics doesn’t really work. In theory, it sure as hell makes sense, but all it takes is one Gordon Gekko to mess it up for the rest of us. And there will always be more than one Gordon Gekko.
To paraphrase Lord Acton “Power corrupt[s], and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He summed it up pretty succinctly.
Anyway, it felt like I was sucker punched as I walked by the shop on Tuesday and when I walked in again on Friday, I talked to Scott for a bit. He was visibly saddened that he was forced to close up his dream. I definitely saw it in his face as I talked to him and it killed me. I’ll miss swinging by to pick up a new CD by a band I heard on WPRB, WXPN, or glowing word of mouth review (including Scott's). I wish Scott great luck in whatever he chooses as the next path he’ll pursue.
Maybe we're all doomed to see our dreams die off in the name of getting things on the cheap. We kind of are, already. China and India have taken the reigns because we, as a people, feel entitled to get paid more than we are willing to work for. We work for "stuff" and for "money." How many people work to do a job well done?
This entry, which no one ever reads on their own, is all over the place. I’ll try and tighten and edit it later.
Oh, the "glad" part of this entry's title refers to the really great date I had last night which included umbrella sharing. That made the loss of marsRed not mar my week completely. I’ll write more about it later.
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