Saturday, January 19, 2013

Piracy close to home

The infamous Beatles compilation Alpha Omega.
First original post of the year.  For the past few years I have seen this stall at a car boot sale section of a motor show I've grown up going to in a small county town over 20 miles away that sells not only pirate CDs, but CD-Rs with inserts printed off a computer.  Original Oldies I think they're called.  They are wrapped in cellophane like official new CDs.  Even in a one-horse town like this some poor devil can get away with it in broad daylight every September!  He has The Beatles (the album shown above that led to the red and blue albums), Black Sabbath (I gave it away after finding legal Israeli and EU imports), and for all I know Johnny Mathis (I mainly recall seeing country and granny [as Lennon would call it] music for sale).  I used to see even cruder CD-R copies sold at flea markets and cornershops in Syracuse in a manner similar to downstate and Russian street vendors but not anymore (so-called mix CDs of rubbish are still available in some spots).  These obvious knockoffs make even early Eastern European imports look like they were sold at Sothebys!  All the downloading has made CD-Rs and even DVD-Rs almost obsolete though recent bootlegs at record shows can appear on these now.  I don't buy those often as they can be a bit naff and expensive at the same time.  I bought ΑΩ because it would practically be an import as CD-Rs are usually made in Taiwan or mainland China.  I had to do a bit of research on this as the seller apparently buys them in bulk.  I wanna find out who he is but I don't want it to go too far so I'll just look for him again next time.  Another tent or two had real CDs (some from Canada so there's some legitimacy after all).  As for this so and so, I wonder where else he sets up shop the rest of the year if not from his home.  He had some people buying from him yet even the layman can tell that he's not the next Sam Goody!

Monday, January 7, 2013

Blog Stoned: Rick Wakeman - A Unique Journey

Blog Stoned: Rick Wakeman - A Unique Journey: Rick Wakeman - A Unique Journey Le Théâtre Du Parc Champlain Trois-Rivières Québec Canada 06/30/2001 Mp3 VBR~320kbps - Soundboard Disc One 0...