Capitalism, FTW

Amazon's black Friday preview has some decent stuff - Prince of Persia: TFS for $10, Darksiders for $20, Episodes from Liberty City - $18.  I went over to gamefly to check on some used prices and cam away pretty good.  Got Blood Bowl for 9, Metroid Other M for 18, Lost Planet 2 for 12, and Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce for 16.  I'm not at all a fan of Dynasty Warriors games, but think my girl might like the hack and slash.  Not great games (well, maybe Metroid) but for the price, worth a gamble.

Went to the Roger Waters show last night.  It was amazing.  I've been a Floyd fan since I was 11, so a lot of the music has been with me for the majority of my life (lost my virginity in the back seat of an Olds listening to Run Like Hell - "If they catch you in the backseat trying to pick her locks, they're gonna send you back to mother in a cardboard box" - explains some things I guess).  Anyway, it was fun to be there and see the show.  One thing really bothered me though.  He's a staunch liberal type.  That's fine and all - I'm happily moderate and will always take the time to mock the outer fringes of either side.  On the wall, there are images of the hammers, above them, it says Capitalism... and below it says Trust US.  Fair enough, clever, even.  The pig comes out (which was really an Animals prop, but oh well) and on it, it's got things like "Don't Worry, Keep Consuming" a pleasant little capatalism image, the shell oil logo, etc...  It's all well and good, and at this stage in life, I even manage to take a little bit more away from "What Shall We Do Now".  Thinking to myself "maybe I do need to cut out the 60 hour weeks (after I just talked to my employees about how life in IT is not 9-5), maybe I do need to take a step back and downsize my life"

Then it kind of hits me.  $200 tickets (bought 1st day of presale, not secondary market), $55 for a T-Shirt (of which I actually liked 3), $25 for tour program.  I realize that Roger doesn't control everything, but I would think he has enough clout to heavily influence things.  If he just wanted to get his message out, couldn't he have played a larger venue and charged a pittance to get in?  Couldn't t-shirts (especially anti-capitalism shirts) be sold for a low price - if the intention was to get a message out there?

Another hypocritical moment that struck me was his use of the Apple logo in some parts, and using i in front of words - like iMurder, iPity, etc....  However, his catalog can be found easily on iTunes.  I'm no Apple apologist, just sayin'.

So anyway, it was an awesome concert, but I kind of died a little realizing that one of my musical heroes is just a shill.  It doesn't dissuade me, I'll probably order a couple shirts online, buy the inevitable iTunes release, and maybe a Blu Ray of the show.  Hell, I may even go in for the limited edition lithograph.  Capitalism FTW.

It kind of reminds me of that shirt with Che Guevara on it, y'know, the one that is required for young, enlightened, budding anarchists?  Anyway, there's a variant of the shirt that says "This shirt brought to you by capitalism".  I always LOL at that. 

It also reminds me of U2 concerts.  While Bono takes preaching to a whole other level, I always kind of smirk when he's up there, talking down to the audience, and the audience is loving it, cheering at all the right parts, chanting "coexist" and when the show is over, get in their SUV's, cut off their fellow man to get out of the parking lot quicker.   I can certainly appreciate a message in music, but 1) don't fucking talk down to me and 2) at the end of your little spiel, sing and dance for my pleasure, that's what I pay you for.  Sorry for the gripe, but just to clarify, Roger Waters >>>>>>>> Bono and I didn't mean my rant against Bono to be taken as an assault against Roger Waters as well - I didn't feel talked down to at the Wall.

I think I'll put my college football thoughts in a separate post.