In 1982 I bought my first LP: Echo and the Bunnymen’s Crocodiles. In 1986, I recorded the vinyl to tape so that I could listen to it in my car. In college (1990), I bought the same album on CD. In 2002 I converted that CD to MP3 and I am listening to it on an iPod as I write this article.
Six months ago I bought Crocodiles again on lala.com for pennies north of a dollar because I didn’t have my iPod with me. I didn’t “own” that copy, I had “rights” to listen to it while on Lala’s site. When the site closed down recently, my rights evaporated with very little recourse.
Today, I have reverted to buying all of my music on vinyl because inside the sleeve of each new album is a little card with a URL and a code that I can use to download a high-quality, DRM-free, MP3 copy. (In one case, Beck’s Modern Guilt, I found that the digitized copy was of the vinyl itself… clicks, pops, and all.) This is a brilliant scheme! I get the music I want to hear in the formats I prefer (the best sounding and the most convenient). Though I pay a premium for it (albums cost about $20 each), I’m still happy.
Books (and their e-book counterparts) do not yet follow this model, so I will not be buying a lot of e-books this year. It has been noted (by people more astute than I) that printed book has excellent battery life, is portable, and has very high resolution. Not only that, books are transferrable. Most of the books I’ve bought recently have come from Strand or Powell’s (used book sources) or, even more likely, have been gifted by friends or relatives.
Recently, my sister-in-law sent me a used copy of Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, which I have been enjoying greatly. Because I have an iPad, I visited Apple’s iBooks and Amazon’s Kindle storefronts to see if I could get a digital copy of the book (there are times when I haven’t had the book with me, but wanted to read it). However, for $9 I was loath to buy license a copy of the book that I wouldn’t be able to pass on to someone else when I’m done.
This is the crux of my problem with e-readers and online music services. Though they provide convenience and instant gratification (books and music can be bought directly from the device in an instant), the content is thereafter locked to the device. The DRM, in effect, allows me to buy, consume, delete, but little else.
So, until I can buy a paper copy book that comes with an epub version that I can download and put on my iPad, I’ll rummage through free book bins on my neighbors’ stoops, accept hand-me-downs from literary relatives, occasionally plunk down at the local retailer, and less-frequently buy overpriced, DRM-free epubs from the likes of ebooks.com.
M drove the car into Manhattan twice last weekend. On the way back from her second trip the car wouldn’t start; it would turn over, catch, rev, and die, but it wouldn’t stay running. Eventually we realized that the little “immobilizer” icon on the dashboard remained flashing after the car died, which indicated that the anti-theft device had kicked in and we’d have to tow the car. After some late-afternoon calls, dead cell phone batteries, and inevitable wrangling with AAA, the car was towed to Cobble Hill Super Service (I was unhappy last time I had service done there, but it was the only place I could find that would take it). The owner/manager assured me that they could fix the immobilizer on Monday, if in fact that was the problem. FIne. So he called me on Monday and informed me that the alternator was dead to the tune of $700 (he also told me that I need new struts and my battery is leaking). However, he was unable to get the car started… even when he strapped in a new battery. That sounded fishy to me so after he had bullied me into authorizing the repair I called him back and asked a couple more questions (me: “how do you know the alternator’s bad if it wouldn’t start?”, he: “I’ve got computers that tell me” etc). I was in touch with some mechanics I know and they said it sounded funny too, so I called him back and cancelled the service… “Fine,” he said, “I wouldn’t work on your car anyway… are you questioning my diagnosis? Fine! Take it to the dealership and pay THEM to change your alternator. Come down here and tow your car away…” etc, etc. So I took half a day off work and went down there. It turns out that Cobble Hill Shell — of all people — is the outfit who AAA has called to tow my car! They cancelled the tow and procrastinated for nearly three hours while I stood on Atlantic in the cold. Finally after a dozen calls to AAA and an eventual death-defying, 55-MPH ride down 4th Ave in Brooklyn, we narrowly made it before the VW dealership in Bay Ridge closed. The folks there took a look at it today and chalked it up to a weak battery. They reset the immobilizer, reprogrammed the keys and we were on our way. It wasn’t an inexpensive “repair” from VW, but they did the job right: no threats and no bullying. I will never go back to Cobble Hill Shell/Super Service and I recommend you don’t either! 
My latest corporate crusade was against AT&T/Cingular: I tried to upgrade M’s and my phones. We’re on a family plan so the hyper-incetivized offers from Amazon do not apply (the small print indicates that if you try to upgrade any part of a family talk plan they’ll charge you full price for the handset retroactively). I called and emailed customer service over a dozen times and was getting nowhere. (However, prior to all my calls I had dropped a letter in the mailbox to Kansas City laying out my position: upstanding customer, wants free phones, will take refurbs). Just when I was ready to give up and buy phones from eBay or 