Welcome to Forgotonia

Earlier this fall, Sufjan Stevens’ record company issued a statement arguing that consumers should think twice before taking advantage of Amazon.com’s  five-dollar pricing. (See the Nov. 2010 list of multi-genre cheap albums here.)

Sufjan’s company was wise to say in the statement that it’s a plus when a low price helps fans discover new music. But, according to their argument, artists’ effort and creative product–such as Stevens’ most recent album–”is worth more than a cost of a latte.”

On one hand, I totally get where they’re coming from. To be honest, I was surprised when Amazon started doing its $5 pricing, (or at least when I first discovered it, a couple of months ag0), there wasn’t more of an uproar from the recording artists. (Where are you on this one, Lars Ulrich?!).

An Sufjan Stevens, with his creativity and originality represents the very kind of non-corporate artist I dig.

By the time his company made that fuss, I had already realized that my instant Amazon purchase of the Arcade Fire‘s The Suburbs– the week it was released, for five bucks–was the equivalent of buying something at Wal-Mart because it was easy and cheap, even if I don’t believe in the values of the Wal-Mart way. I knew that as I sat at my computer contemplating the purchase, I should probably log off, walk up the street, and pay $10 or $12 for the tangible album at The Phoenix, (which, true to its name, has arisen multiple times and endured in several different locations around Macomb, but which I fear is surely struggling.)

So the comment from the Sufjan camp did cause me to stop and think.

But then I was done thinking about it.  “Purchase with one click?” Why yes, Amazon, thank you, I believe will!

And so I basically ripped off an artist I like and respect (not to mention a local store owner). Just like I’ve done over the last couple months, when I bought the latest albums by

• Broken Bells
• Yeasayer
• The Hold Steady
• Band of Horses
• My Morning Jacket
• LCD Soundsystem
• The Avett Brothers
• The Weepies
  and others.

In other words, I’ve purchased more new music in the last few months than I have in the last couple of years–or maybe since I became an adult.

It’s like a floodgate has opened after a drought–a drought so long and severe that I had resigned myself to the idea that it was permanent.

Depressingly, my lifelong passion and devotion for pop music began to wane as soon as I had to start facing such things as,  say, an electric bill.

For the music fan, everything about adulthood slowly begins to take you away from what you love. From being able to go out and comb used-CD stores every weekend to discover that gem that’s going to change your life. From racing out to get the latest from your favorite band on the day it’s released. From going to shows, which require tanks of gas to get there, Ticketmaster fees, overnight accommodations, etc. (And btw, Sufjan, I did go to see you in St. Louis a couple years ago, and those tickets cost me at least a week’s worth of lattes.)

So does five-dollar pricing suddenly change all this and turn you into a teenager again?

Well, no. But it makes a difference.

It allows work-pants-wearing, responsible adults like me to feel like they can stay connected to their passions without worrying about whether they’re exhibiting arrested development by purchasing the new hyped Gorillas album when they’re supposed to be buying a hypoallergenic heater filter.

Somehow, even though it’s not that huge a difference, spending $5 rather than $15 or $20 seems like something I don’t have to feel financially guilty over.

But then we’re back to the ripping-off-the-artists problem.

I certainly want artists like Sufjan and The Weepies and the Avett Brothers to be able to make a living by creating, and not having to work crappy jobs to support themselves. But the company’s decision to issue a statement feels sort of akin to parents leaving for the weekend and saying to their teenagers, “Hey, that beer in the fridge? We know you want to experiment, but…it’s wrong, okay?”

I can’t pretend to have any real answer for how the music business can continue to make money, or the legitimate concern about artists not receiving what’s due to them.

But when it comes to easy-access digital music being Good for Fans vs. Bad for the Company, isn’t the horse already a long way out of the barn?

I wouldn’t have heard any of these new albums listed above if it weren’t for Amazon’s new deal–unless a friend pressed a ripped copy into my hands. Which would mean zero dollars for the artist or the company. Maybe the price of a latte is better than nothing at all.

What do you think? What’s your stance? Support artists and local stores, but go broke trying? Amazon and Wal-Mart to be the death of independent artists? Leave me a comment below, or like/share/comment on Facebook or Twitter.

According to my hometown paper, the weekly Journal-Pilot, there’s big news in the town of Carthage.

Behold:

“Plans proceed for traffic light to replace four-way stop“

That’s right. The blinking-red-light-on-a-wire in the middle of town—that would be on Highway 136, right between the DQ and the Hardee’s—is going away.

Of course, to those of you who aren’t from my hometown, this might seem like less than interesting news. (And okay, it’s not exactly “breaking”—it’s from last week’s paper. And you have to scroll down to the sixth paragraph of this story to find it. )

But the red light in the 4-way stop—and that’s what it’s called, by the way; not “the intersection of such-and-such streets,” but just “the 4-way stop”—is an icon. It’s a symbol of small-town life, in a place where traffic is so scarce, my driver’s ed teacher actually used to use lines like this when we were practice-driving in the taupe Taurus:  “Okay, try to pretend there’s a yellow light,” or the classic, “Now, if you needed to switch lanes, and let’s say someone was behind you– what would you do?”

(And my college friends wonder why I was always too chicken to drive in Chicago. Or Peoria. Or…Monmouth.)

Anyway, there’s no information in the newspaper story about what would necessitate an actual stoplight in Carthage. This is all you get, before the story moves on to another subject in the next paragraph:

“Bidding on the four-way stop expansion and installation of automated traffic lights [was] at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5. The project, originally drawn up in 1995, is expected to cost around $1 million.

Obviously it hasn’t been too pressing an issue if they’ve been working on it for more than 15 years.

But now that it’s on it’s way, it’ll be the second stoplight in the entire county (Hamilton can claim rights to the first). Next thing you know? Urban blight.

1. People who live in Georgetown (or anywhere else west of the County Market and Hy-Vee on East Jackson Street) will no longer have to drive all the way through freakin’ town to grab a gallon of milk.

According to Tri States Public Radio’s story, the city has loaned close to $100,000 to the future owners of Jackson Street Market, which will be not in the former Thompson Food Basket—that’s been occupied by a megachurch for the last couple of years—but across the street in what I would call a….Morton-Building-type-mini-mall. The proposed location is 1601 W. Jackson (in what was Brenner’s Furniture).

So: are y’all psyched? Will you shop there? (And perhaps more importantly for those on the west side of town…will this place get a liquor license?)

[See items 2 and 3 below, after the Google Maps location image]

Jackson Street Market location

2. We’re part of a region suffering from a “B.A. divide”—and the separation between people who have a bachelor’s degree and people who do not is getting more dramatic, according this blog, where you can see a map tracking the increasing separation. (If you’re interested in this topic, also be sure to check out some of the entries by  Timothy Collins, who works for a center housed at WIU. Also, tell me if you agree that perhaps they shoulda used different colors for the states on the map, connotations-wise, than red and blue…)

And finally,

3. It turns out I am not the only one who feels frustrated when the sidewalks roll up at dusk. As you know from reading this blog, I like to gripe about how Macomb could do better at offering things downtown for shoppers and eater-outers, especially considering that there are thousands of students here (and they have suburban parents who visit them). According to the results of a recent survey conducted by WIU students, the majority of respondents would also like business owners on the square to acknowledge that some people actually shop and do things after, like, 10 o’clock in the morning:

Most notably… 80 percent of the respondents indicated they think businesses should stay open past 5 p.m.

Yeah! Boo-yah! That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout. (So, um….Chamber, are you on this now? Or whoever else is supposed to make that kind of stuff happen? Thanks.)

On a somewhat related note: I had the opportunity to spend some time in the lovely little town of Galena (Ill.) this past weekend with C-Nor and some of my college friends. As we were walking around on the last day of October, taking in the sunshine and the movie-set feel of that historically preserved city, I couldn’t shake this weird feeling, and finally realized what it was—I was in a small town, going in and out of businesses, on a Sunday afternoon. Not only were there businesses to go to, but they were open.

So, you ask, does everything in life have to be about consuming? Is shopping and eating out the most important thing in a community?

Well good question, you.

I thought this over after we drove back down to Macomb with our candy corn (from the old-timey candy store) in tow, with thoughts of Galena’s vintage toy store and nothing-but-socks store (um, yeah) and Abe Lincoln and U.S. Grant dancing in my head. And my answer is that no, shopping ain’t everything. But having lots of stores and restaurants, and a historic site or two—and having them open on a Sunday afternoon—leads to people (and their dogs and strollers) walking around downtown on a sunny day. And that, always, is more hope-filled and less depressing than things like this.