Awesome Thing of the Day/Month/Whatever: Bandcamp.com

"This band was better when I was younger."

As you may have noticed by now, I don't like much of anything. Thus, on the rare occasions that I do, I feel it's my duty to share it with the world.

Today, that thing is bandcamp.com.

I'm not being paid for this endorsement, nor was I encouraged by anyone but myself to make it (though I'm totally willing to sell out if Bandcamp wants to throw me a few bucks). 
I've absolutely no personal investment (well, maybe a little) in this.

Let's start with some background.
I have some slight conundrums with how I buy my music. Yes, BUY, not download from The Pirate Bay. Jerks.
I want to listen at home via CD/Vinyl/streaming, in my car which only has a CD player, and in the gym on my phone which doesn't have enough storage to hold more than 13 seconds of music. 
I also am old-fashioned and want to have a physical object when I buy albums. I like to look at the album art, read the booklets, etc. The physical part of the music makes my connection to it stronger than just listening; I could (and maybe will eventually) go on about this at great length.

There just aren't many ways to meet all these needs without buying multiple copies of the same album, which simply isn't going to happen because that's stupid.

Bandcamp is (so far) the only place I've found that covers all my bases. By way of example, let's take the latest Myrkur album.
I bought it on vinyl (the CD was sold out at the time).
With all physical album purchases also comes the digital download, allowing me to burn a CD to play in my car. Downloads are available in MP3 or lossless audiophile-friendly FLAC or WAV.
Furthermore, there's an Android app (I assume there's one for you iPhone dorks too) that allows unlimited streaming of any albums you purchase, regardless of the format in which you purchased them.

So basically I get the album in three formats while only having to buy it once.

Amazon's digital download service has a similar streaming app, but it's only packaged with digital downloads. Buying physical copies won't allow you to stream them.

A further benefit is that the artists (probably) get more financial support.
Though I can't say how the money works out when record labels are involved, I can say firsthand that of all the middlemen (Amazon, iTunes, CDBaby, etc.) that handle music sales, Bandcamp skims way less off than any others. Streaming services like Google Play, Pandora, and whatnot pay artists absolutely bugger all, so by actually buying the album you're providing way more support.

Next time you buy an album, check to see if it's on Bandcamp first. There's a good chance it is.

Image stolen from gettyimages.com

So now that the Rams are gone...

The defeat in their eyes...

Well, the Rams moved to Los Angeles.

This is old news, but for anyone who missed out on any of the details I'll recap:

Before the move was officially announced and was still assumed to be in the "rumor/preventable occurrence" stage, a group of people got together to prepare a plan for a new stadium to keep the Rams in St. Louis. They had an architectural plan, a plan to secure funding, the property (mostly) acquired, etc. There were some details still needing to be ironed out but that's irrelevant for purposes of this discussion.

When this was all announced there were people who were vehemently opposed to the idea, saying "I DON'T WANT MY TAX MONEY GOING TO A FOOTBALL STADIUM! THEY COULD SPEND THAT MONEY ON FEEDING THE HOMELESS INSTEAD OR BUILD A NEW AARDVARK SHELTER OR WHATEVER!"

My response to that was "But they won't."

"It's not like there's a bucket with a billion dollars sitting in it waiting for someone to decide which project it'll be thrown at," I said. "Almost all of the funding is coming from new hotel taxes, stadium naming rights, and other new taxes that are related to the stadium. Either this money is used for the stadium or it's not used at all. Even the revenue streams that aren't related are only going to be created if this stadium is built. If there isn't a new stadium, they aren't going to feed the homeless or build a park or bring back Firefly. NOTHING will happen except people staying in St. Louis hotels will save a buck or two."

Well, now that all has been said and done, stadium-opposers, I'd love to know what altruistic ends that money has gone to.

Now that we don't have a stadium to build, I'm sure the homeless of St. Louis are feasting gleefully upon the lambs and sloths and marmalade and orangutans and breakfast cereals that have been purchased for them with the money that would have been wasted--WASTED I tell you!--on a football stadium.

I'm only being partially snarky here--it's possible that something actually has been done, in which case I'd love to hear about it. I truly do hope I'm proven wrong. 

I'm asking the stadium opposition to come forward with the information because since they were so fervent about not wanting their money to go to a stadium I'm certain they've been monitoring where else it might be going and are keeping very well-informed about municipal fiscal matters.

So I ask you again--where did this money go instead of being WASTED on a stadium?
Was it put to good use, making everyone's arguments against building a stadium valid or was I [gasp!] right again?

I'm disappointed that the Rams left, but as Christina Aguilera sang in the theme from Pearl Harbor, my heart will go on.

The problem is that they didn't take all the assholes with them.


Image stolen from stltoday.com

"Adulting" Isn't Hard.

Inspirational quotes seem to have gone the way of the dodo and have been replaced by complaints about how hard "adulting" is. If you were watching me type this you'd see the squiggly red lines under "adulting" because it's not a goddamned word.

Ignoring my desire to rant about how annoying it is when people turn nouns into verbs, I can't help but wonder how being an adult is so hard for all of you.

The complaints aren't about legitimate things like "omg the coal mine was so hot today" or "today was the fifth day in a row that rabid okapis savaged my village" or even "my dog ate my cat."

It's "I have a kid to take care of?!? When did this happen?!? I'm still a kid and I'm supposed to take care of ANOTHER kid? And I have to PAY BILLS? OMG mailing envelopes is hard AF!!!"

Shut up. You don't even have to mail envelopes anymore. 

The actual process of being an adult is easier now than it's ever been. You can do the vast majority of your paperwork online and likewise find pretty much any information you could ever want in five seconds' time.

When I first became a parent I had my moments of "what the hell do I do with this thing?" Everyone does. In days gone by you'd guess and end up giving your kid malaria or whatever. Oops.
Now you can just do a quick Google search for whatever color fluids are spewing from your kid's body and you don't even have to go to a doctor.

"BUT I HAVE TO GET UP AND GO TO WORK EVERY DAY AND DO STUFF!"

Did you not have a job before you got out of college? Even if you didn't, grades K-12 are basically your job until you graduate high school. You've had to get up on time Monday through Friday every day since you were five. Why's it a challenge now?

You can try arguing that it's for humor's sake but I don't believe that people are posting this crap without on some level believing it.

What happened? Are we a generation raised by overbearing helicopter parents and now we can't handle simple stuff like getting up on time in the morning and paying an electric bill without them standing over us telling us how to do it?

At best it's inaccurate. Raising kids isn't hard at all. It's pretty simple to make sure they don't die. Raising them well is a bit harder, but honestly everyone blows that out of proportion too. 

Similarly, going through the grind of being an adult isn't hard, it just sucks. It's like saying "Walking 1000 miles is hard." Well, no, it really isn't because you're doing it a bit at a time. It just takes a long time and your feet are going to hurt.

At this point you're probably wondering why this bugs me so much.
The problem isn't that people are complaining, it's the implication that this isn't fair. It isn't fair that life has been thrust upon them and they have to do stuff. It isn't fair that they have student loans to pay. It isn't fair that they have to raise kids who are so poorly behaved. It isn't fair that they're fat.

Who forced you to go to college?
Who applied for that job you hate so much?
Who forced you to have kids? 
Who raised your kids to be such shitheads?
Who bought that car that you're lamenting having to make payments on?
Who keeps jamming donuts into your mouth?

All of the "adulting is hard" memes are rooted in our unwillingness to take responsibility for how our lives have turned out.
Yeah, sometimes you get dealt a shitty hand, but for the most part if your life sucks it's because of the choices you've made.
You did this. You raised your kids to be assholes. You made yourself fat. You ran up a huge credit card debt.
"Adulting" isn't hard, but you've failed anyway. It's no one's fault but your own.

So stop saying that being an adult is hard, and practice the following phrase: 

"I regret everything."

It's a start, at least.




Images stolen from wherever. Who cares. Sue me, you idiots.