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This evening, I embarked on an experiment. I visited several local stores in search of the CD's that Josh recommended to the thEd. Well, as the old adage goes: The chances of finding anything are much greater than finding one specific thing. Which is to say, I didn't find a single one of the Josh Top-5, but I did come home with a couple of interesting filmmaking magazines.
Stores are nice for browsing in a way that a web browser - pardon that - can't quite yet match. It's really great to be able to put your hands around a book, go off to a corner, and read for an hour in order to form a thoroughly informed buying decision. Amazon, in contrast, offers reviews and a couple of useless blurbs/excepts. Cdnow offers 30-second soundbites that often miss the entire gist of a song or symphonic movement. Granted, that's better than what a lot of stores offer, but some places have listening stations that allow you to listen to whole CD's for several minutes - a clear improvement over the best online offerings. Unless, that is, you frequent the underworld of MP3's (which I don't, for bandwidth reasons).
Ah, but I never got what I wanted from my run around the city, did I? I'm going to have to order said CD's online, probably from a patchwork quilt of sources offering current and deleted catalog titles. Since I know exactly what I want, it'll be a snap. That's the beauty of the internet: if you know already what it is you want, nothing beats it for breadth and depth of selection. Between AbeBooks and Amazon, you'd have to be crazy to go to a Borders in search of a specific title. But, if you don't already know what you want, then the vast flood of choices online is likely to paralyze with little recourse for edification. The internet is good for buying; stores are good for educating. In some strange ironic twist, something inspired by Academia has traded places with a product of Evil Capitalism.
I love going to my local Borders and using it as a library. Actually, I have no choice. My local city-operated branch closes at 5 pm, except on Thursdays, when it's open until - gasp - 8pm! I'm usually at work until 6 or 7, so if I want to browse and expose myself to new music, books, or periodicals, I have to do it commercially. Often, I won't even buy things at all, just make repeat visits to fully digest a large volume. For awhile, I was reading Borders' copy of The Penguin Guide to Jazz, an excellent self-education that combines an encyclopedic information base with listening recommendations. Then, I switched to Pauline Kael's 2-inch-thick tome containing all the New Yorker reviews she ever wrote. Well, until it sold. I came in last week and it was gone. Damn. Hopefully, it's on backorder and will reappear. Otherwise, I'll have to buy a copy. From Amazon, probably.
Anyway, It's getting late and I must go. I have to place a cdnow order before I shut down and turn out the lights. Sorry, we're now closed - please call again.
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