(this post is part of an aborted 1 year experiment in material abstinence I called The Necessary Year)
[UPDATE: I just learned that the entire new Melvins album is available, streaming for FREE at this site (as of 7/27/08, anyway). Gawd I luv the innernet!]
*sigh*
I’ve been avoiding internet sites and stores for this very reason: to not be tempted.
Yesterday I am coaxed into a record store by a friend who wants to check out a group that I’ve been blathering about after hearing them on NPR and what do I see just inside the door?
A new Melvins album. Not buying this when I see it is similar to not eating a cookie I find on my plate or walking past a twenty dollar bill in the gutter.
The good news is that this album will still be there in June of 2010. The bad news is that the Melvins are a bunch of rotten bastards who will also likely release a number of limited, r@@@re, and even cooler items along with it that, a year later, will not only be hard to find but bloody expensive so, though I can console myself about the main album release, there is also all this side crap that I will end up paying too much for in the long run.
Or not.
With the exception of the jolt of seeing a new Melvins album on the shelves (gawd help me if Tom Waits releases something in the next 9 months) I’ve been doing rather well not thinking about or being especially troubled by the thought of all the new, shiny goodies out there.
Further, when I do see something like this, all I really have to do is remind myself that it existed before I saw it and yet I was completely content – thus the “omigawd I gotta buy that!” anxiety is illusory to the point of childishness.
Of course, that’s the point: ignorance is bliss while knowledge=torture. My present goal is to have the latter equation change into something a little less ridiculous for me, emotionally. It’s not like I break out in a cold sweat or begin making helpless mewing noises in my throat when I see such things but there is a definite uptick in my heartbeat and the sense that, just this once, maybe I could forget TNY. Who would it hurt?
But no. I can wait and I do have that $20 gift card. I could easily pick up one of the items on my “frivolities” list right now (though not the Zappa album, dammit) and will, eventually, but I have come to the conclusion that I’d best save said for the halfway mark of TNY in order to not only give me some rumination time as well as to see what the hell else is released that I “cannot live without” but also to give me the space to become more familiar with NOT having new things upon which to focus.
Besides, I’m in the process of moving into my new place and am beginning to realize the large number of things I do not have, particularly in the kitchen, that I am going to need. It is highly possible that, instead of a new book or cd, of which I have plenty, I may need to translate that $20 gift card into something more practical, such as help in buying a toaster, a set of steamer pans, kitchen knives, etc. These items will make me a whole lot happier and improve the quality of my life a whole lot more than some movie, album, or goony toy.
Another interesting discovery is that TNY may not only be an interesting exercise in restraint but also end up saving my ass as, near as I can tell, this whole divorce/moving process is likely to drain my finances down to 0 or farther – even without “unnecessary” expenditures.
Talk about serendipity!
Ahh indeed, the necessity to have unifromed slices of bread toasted. lol.
I have always thought that was one of the weirdest inventions, because it only has one use; yet it is something every family seems to own….
Well, you don’t find having bread weird, do you? Having a method to toast said bread shouldn’t seem terribly strange either, then. Personally, I think a toaster oven makes more economic sense than a toaster because of the former’s wider variety of potential uses. That being said, I’ve never used one for anything other than toasting bread or frozen waffles …