I've Gone Dolla Dolla Crazy!
I have just spent about 300$ in the last two days. Through E-bay, Amazon.com, CD stores and book stores, I have been participating with gusto in the ancient art of exchanging currency for goods and services. This ancient and sacred art of commerce started over 100,000 years ago through long-distance trade. Although now I may buy DVDs, CDs and books over the internet, it is still the Trading Tango For Two of the Days of Yore. Sure, they were mainly trading flint, obsidian and animal hides, but it's still the same. In fact, I still like to buy my flint and bronze from Phoenician seamen now and then. You can find anything on the internet!
So let's go over each purchase in small (though still somehow painstaking) detail:
E-BAY:
E-Bay, and all internet stores are great because you never need to come into contact with any fellow human beings in the flesh. Human beings often wage war and treat one another poorly, and I generally keep my distance from them. By hiding behind a "screenname" (or in internet lingo: "sn", or "s" or " ") and communicating through e-mail, a healthy space is kept between both peoples participating in the trade.
In the last two days I have bid on and won these items:
-A signed picture of conductor and composer Pierre Boulez-possibly the most controversial figure on the post-war classical scene.
Another signed picture to add to my collection of composer autographs (Alban Berg)!
I am a pathetic nerd.
-A poster of the cover art for Steve Reich's first recordings of his "Sextet" and "Six Marimbas"
-A score of Boulez' "Le Marteau sans Maitre"
-A score of Berg's "Lyric Suite"
Cheapo's
Cheapo's is a large CD and DVD store in the hipper-than-thou Mecca of the Twin Cites, Uptown. After entering the store you will see at least three people with Che Guevarra shirts and enough soul patches to form an actual beard. You will then precede to walk into the Jazz/Classical section where you yearn to be adopted by the gay-couple (men) that are looking at Lou Harrison albums, the only two people who you will ever connect with over music.
-"The Dead Texan"-The Dead Texan
Excellent ambient music from a member of Stars of the Lid. I never thought I'd get so into this type of music.
-A double cd of Mozart's "Haydn" Quartets played by the Julliard String Quartet. It was used, and it was Mozart which makes it by default, good.
Magers & Quinn
A great used bookstore in Uptown. I however, am always intrigued by the "Antique Book Library" hidden in the back and inhabited by a mysterious old woman. I have never seen anyone enter, and I am afraid that If I did I would be transported back to 1862 and have to live out my days hearing the librarian rant to me about her dead husband and son who left to join the "Yankees up north" while cleaning the cobwebs off everything.
-Jorge Luis Borges-"Selected Poems"
-Theodore and Denise Stravinsky: "Catherine and Igor Stravinsky: A Family Chronicle"
A nicely illustrated memoir by Stravinsky's oldest son and his wife about his complex father and his sickly and ever-suffering wife (and first cousin). Bought it more for the pictures.
-A bunch of guys-"Confronting Stravinsky"
Scholarly essays on Stravinsky. Good stuff.
-Bertrand Russell-"A History of Western Philsophy"
Over a thousand pages. Wish me luck.
Barnes and Noble
Sucks.
-Paul Johnson-"A History of Christianity"
Which of course I bought along with:
-Bertrand Russell-"Why I Am Not a Christian"
Whooo!
-Saint Thomas Aquinas-"Selected Writings"
If I read this and my head doesn't explode I will become a believer. (I am referring not to the content, but Aquinas' style which is considered incredibly difficult and hard to understand even for the most brilliant philosophers).
(As you can tell from the wonderful image I've found and copied here of the cover):
-Baruch Spinoza-"Ethics, Correspondence etc."
Why am I buying philosophy books? I really could care less.
I have just spent about 300$ in the last two days. Through E-bay, Amazon.com, CD stores and book stores, I have been participating with gusto in the ancient art of exchanging currency for goods and services. This ancient and sacred art of commerce started over 100,000 years ago through long-distance trade. Although now I may buy DVDs, CDs and books over the internet, it is still the Trading Tango For Two of the Days of Yore. Sure, they were mainly trading flint, obsidian and animal hides, but it's still the same. In fact, I still like to buy my flint and bronze from Phoenician seamen now and then. You can find anything on the internet!So let's go over each purchase in small (though still somehow painstaking) detail:
E-BAY:
E-Bay, and all internet stores are great because you never need to come into contact with any fellow human beings in the flesh. Human beings often wage war and treat one another poorly, and I generally keep my distance from them. By hiding behind a "screenname" (or in internet lingo: "sn", or "s" or " ") and communicating through e-mail, a healthy space is kept between both peoples participating in the trade.
In the last two days I have bid on and won these items:
-A signed picture of conductor and composer Pierre Boulez-possibly the most controversial figure on the post-war classical scene.
Another signed picture to add to my collection of composer autographs (Alban Berg)!
I am a pathetic nerd.
-A poster of the cover art for Steve Reich's first recordings of his "Sextet" and "Six Marimbas"
-A score of Boulez' "Le Marteau sans Maitre"
-A score of Berg's "Lyric Suite"
Cheapo's
Cheapo's is a large CD and DVD store in the hipper-than-thou Mecca of the Twin Cites, Uptown. After entering the store you will see at least three people with Che Guevarra shirts and enough soul patches to form an actual beard. You will then precede to walk into the Jazz/Classical section where you yearn to be adopted by the gay-couple (men) that are looking at Lou Harrison albums, the only two people who you will ever connect with over music.
-"The Dead Texan"-The Dead Texan
Excellent ambient music from a member of Stars of the Lid. I never thought I'd get so into this type of music.
-A double cd of Mozart's "Haydn" Quartets played by the Julliard String Quartet. It was used, and it was Mozart which makes it by default, good.
Magers & Quinn
A great used bookstore in Uptown. I however, am always intrigued by the "Antique Book Library" hidden in the back and inhabited by a mysterious old woman. I have never seen anyone enter, and I am afraid that If I did I would be transported back to 1862 and have to live out my days hearing the librarian rant to me about her dead husband and son who left to join the "Yankees up north" while cleaning the cobwebs off everything.
-Jorge Luis Borges-"Selected Poems"
-Theodore and Denise Stravinsky: "Catherine and Igor Stravinsky: A Family Chronicle"
A nicely illustrated memoir by Stravinsky's oldest son and his wife about his complex father and his sickly and ever-suffering wife (and first cousin). Bought it more for the pictures.
-A bunch of guys-"Confronting Stravinsky"
Scholarly essays on Stravinsky. Good stuff.
-Bertrand Russell-"A History of Western Philsophy"
Over a thousand pages. Wish me luck.
Barnes and Noble
Sucks.
-Paul Johnson-"A History of Christianity"
Which of course I bought along with:
-Bertrand Russell-"Why I Am Not a Christian"
Whooo!
-Saint Thomas Aquinas-"Selected Writings"
If I read this and my head doesn't explode I will become a believer. (I am referring not to the content, but Aquinas' style which is considered incredibly difficult and hard to understand even for the most brilliant philosophers).
(As you can tell from the wonderful image I've found and copied here of the cover):
-Baruch Spinoza-"Ethics, Correspondence etc."
Why am I buying philosophy books? I really could care less.
posted by PWS at 7:00 PM
1 Comments:
Spinoza - great choice. Could you enlarge the pic a bit? I can't quite make out the title.
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