magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

Okay. So I've gone and done it. I've purchased music in electronic-only format. Laura Veirs's Year of Meteors via iTunes. I had listened to 'Galaxies', the single, which was included on Paste's sampler disc a few issues back, to death. Or not to death, which was the problem. Again and again and again and again and again. And I still loved it. And still wanted more. And I had up until now held back from the instant gratification of iTunes, telling myself that there was something irreplaceable about the physical object, the shiny disc, the glossy, four-colour booklet, (I'm trying to rid myself of all the plastic cases). Knowing that once I rationalised that first album purchase ($10? That's cheaper than two beers!) the next one would probably come that much easier. And the next. For years, ten or twelve years, the entirety of the '90s, and a smidgen on either side, almost all of my disposable income (and probably a lot of money that I really should have been spending elsewhere, or saving, if I were smart about such things) went towards fattening my CD collection. Over the last four or five years, I've probably purchased at most a couple dozen new CDs. This in spite of the fact that half of my monthly magazine subscriptions are music related. From time to time iTunes had beckoned, I've paused momentarily over the 'Purchase Album' button, but have resisted, knowing that once I start, there's the potential of falling off the wagon, and who's to say where I'll stop.