craigmcn

I would like someone to explain 21^st-century economics to me. I mean, does a CD really need to cost $25 or more? I went looking for Melissa Auf der Maur‘s new album (which I found, woo hoo, ‘Beast of Honor’ is excellent, see the review), and happened to take a look at some other albums I was in the market for. Auf Der Maur was $26.99 (marked down to $16.99), Michelle Branch‘s Hotel Paper $27.99, The Tragically Hip In Violet Light was $18.99. Is this reasonable? I can’t wait around and hope that somebody puts these albums on sale for $15, or on a 2 for $20 or $30 rack. I want to be able to buy my music when I want it for a reasonable price. Hello downloading! I feel bad about it. I wanted Melissa Auf der Maur’s album, so I bought it. I wanted Liz Phair’s album, so I bought it. I want Michelle Branch, The Hip, Metallica, Garbage, Matthew Good, Billy Talent … but even at $20 each, no thanks.

The other thing about 21^st-century economics I need to know is why my pay doesn’t go up when my cost of living goes up? The Government of Ontario is taking more money from me in Health premiums, generally things I buy are more expensive, so I pay more PST and GST, and where’s my extra money to cover these things? If anything, I can look forward to a lower pay grade since my employer is looking to consolidate and re-organize operations. Yay?

But, I managed to see Some Kind of Monster, the documentary about the making of Metallica’s latest album, St. Anger. It also covers the healing process that Metallica had to go through to be able to sit down together and make an album. Cool. And I saw I, Robot. I’d really like to read Isaac Asimov‘s short story collection of the same name to see just where the story comes from … and whether the movie follows it to any extent. Pretty good.