Tag: The Cure

Who still owns audio cassettes?

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I do. They’ve been gathering dust in the closet because I can’t bear to part with them. The reason? They contain songs I like but don’t own in any other format. Don’t get me wrong, I do own some of them on CD, most notably all my Cure and Depeche Mode albums, but that’s about it.

Quite frankly the idea of getting rid of my Cure cassette collection makes me break out in a sweat. It’s illogical, I know – I own every last cassette, and then some, on CD, but for some reason I feel they hold more value than the CDs because The Cure was the first band I really got into and had to own everything they ever released. Buying just one cassette was so exciting to me. And the year I got four albums for Christmas? Best year ever!

Anyway, most of the cassettes I own contain only one or two songs I enjoy so I don’t feel it’s worth the expense of buying the full album on CD. While I haven’t listened to these songs in years, I don’t want to part with them for good.

In addition to albums and singles, I also have two cassettes of some of my favorite songs recorded off the radio sometime between 1998-1992. The problem is I’m not sure I documented the titles correctly because I can’t find many of them online. In addition, there’s an adaptation of The Devil Went Down To Georgia called The Devil Came Up To Chicago that even Google has minimal information on.

I guess I need to figure out an inexpensive way to get these cassettes digitized. I’ll have to put this on my list of projects. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

And before you suggest iTunes, please don’t. I dislike how they won’t let you convert the songs to MP3. I realize that option exists but every single time I choose it I’m told the song is copyrighted and I cannot do it, so what’s the point? It’s like they hold the stuff you buy hostage. I prefer listening to my music using Winamp anyway and don’t enjoy being forced to use iTunes. Plus it runs hella slow on my computer.

All other suggestions are welcome, however.

Cure tour postponed

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Oh my, I just spent WAY too much time over at The Cure’s site reading the 1200+ comments in reaction to their announcement that part of their tour has been postponed until next Spring. I’m pretty aggravated with them at the moment, but I know I’ll still buy the new album and attend the rescheduled show next year. After all, I still love their music.

Here’s my contribution to all the drama at their site in case you’re interested:

Disappointed in Chicago
8/25/2007 9:39:21 PM – by halo969

The postponing of the North American tour with such short notice is disrespectful to the many fans who have non-refundable hotels and airfare. I feel very strongly about this and I’m not even one of them. I will lose nothing from this because I live close to the venue.

What truly disappoints me is Robert’s flippant attitude toward the fans’ reactions – as if they have no right to their feelings. Sure, some people have been unbelievably rude in expressing themselves but they were venting and I think many of you should be more understanding of that. After all, you’re so understanding about the band’s poor decision.

I have to wonder how foolish you must feel to continue kissing someone’s ass while they disrespect your time and money. Does that make you a bigger Cure fan than myself, or the other justifiably angry fans, just because you refuse to stand up for yourself? What do you think, if you tell Robert how much you love him he’ll give you backstage passes?

Fact of the matter is Robert probably should have resisted the temptation to retaliate to some of the comments. It shattered my impression of him and I really wish I hadn’t read those posts at all. It’s not that I ever thought he was perfect, but I also thought he cared a bit more about his fans’ feelings than that. Quite frankly, it’s a slap in the face. Let’s not forget who’s making the band rich having to re-purchase their entire collection in order to obtain bonus material. And I’m happy to do it, because I love the music, but I’d be less resentful IF I felt ‘someone’ was a little more understanding about our concerns.

All this love and devotion toward a man who doesn’t even know our names. Seems rather silly to keep arguing over who the biggest fan is, doesn’t it?

As the British would say, what a bunch of rubbish!

Cure tix

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Well, I got my tickets to The Cure concert this morning. I’m not happy where they’re at (back of the lower-level). Nothing good was coming up and we tried many many times, so I snagged them before it got worse since Joe was getting all upper-level after they came up. I’m disappointed, but at least we’re fairly straight across from the stage and a little to the left which is where Robert usually stands. And who knows, maybe the sound will be better in that section since at previous concerts I always sat more to the side of the stage. I’m crossing my fingers because the tickets weren’t cheap. With Ticketbastard’s “convenience” and order processing charges, it was $154! Add to that the $20 parking charge and holy shit, that’s an expensive night out!

They have an opening act this time around – 65 Days of Static. Based on the music on their site, I think they’re going to be pretty good. I guess we’ll see.

I’m sleepy, The Cure, and Sears finale

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Ok, I am wiped out! I’m not used to working all day and then going out until 10 pm. My parents came over and we went to Old Country Buffet for dinner because everyone but me loves that place. I don’t hate it, I just don’t go out of my way for buffets because the food typically isn’t good. This OCB wasn’t bad, though. And the kids love it, so what can you do?

After dinner we went to this miniature golf place that we drive past all the time and have been meaning to check out. It’s fairly new and quite nice. I had a coupon but they had some family special and we ended up saving a bundle. Or I should say my mom did since she insisted on paying for everything. The kids are finally in bed and I’m probably not too far behind them. I have to make sure I’m up in time to buy Cure tickets tomorrow.

Speaking of, the presale today wasn’t much better than yesterday’s. At least it allowed two tickets at a time, but all the seats were lower level in the back. Although now that it’s too late someone informed me that those have a good line of sight. Oh well, hopefully I’ll get lucky and score decent tickets tomorrow. If not, at least I will be able to hear them no matter where we’re sitting. I’ll get tickets one way or another; it’s not like they are going to sell out. I may love them, but I’m realistic about their popularity. Although something has to be said for the fact that they are still successfully touring over 25 years after they formed but Kelly Clarkson had to cancel her tour due to poor ticket sales.

I finally picked up my Sears packages on Monday and wouldn’t you know it, nothing fit but the shoes. Wednesday I took back two shirts, two bras and the duplicate pair of shoes for a refund. Since they credited me for the more expensive shipping, I’m not going to ask that they credit the other one as I would have paid for one order’s shipping anyway. They never credited me the price difference for the shirt, but since I took both back, it’s a moot point now. I doubt I will ever order online again from them because it was such a hassle. Plus it’s too hard buying clothes without being able to try them on first. Even the bra which was my size and a brand I already own was too small. Bleh.

Cure presale

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You know you’ve been domesticated when ordering a new toaster oven gets you all excited. Not bad for $9.99 (after rebate) though, huh?

Do you know what doesn’t make me excited? Dealing with Ticketbastard pre-sales. I tried to order tickets to The Cure concert today via the pre-sale code posted at The Cure’s website and not only could I not find any seats unless I was willing to purchase one ticket at a time, but even that seat, while on the main floor, was way in the back. Who the hell goes to a concert alone? Ridiculous! Even worse is that stubhub.com had tons of tickets in the front. WTF? How do the scalpers get all the good seats?

It sickens me that the true fans, who were bitching up a storm at The Cure’s site (and who can blame them), can’t get decent seats unless they are robbed blind by the scalpers. It’s a conspiracy! I wish everyone would band together and refuse to buy tickets from scalpers so they’d stop the act. It’s disgusting, and I think it should be illegal to sell any tickets above face value. Also, I think Ticketmaster assists the scalpers. I bet they sell the better seats to the scalpers above face value so they can make extra money and then the scalpers just bump up the price further. There are tickets online for over $250 a piece! I love The Cure, but I’m not willing to pay that much for tickets. Especially not to see them at the shitty Allstate Arena. I’d really like to take a survey of all the people in the first 50 rows to find out how they got their tickets.

I really feel sorry for some of those fans. They were so desperate to get what they thought would be better seats during the presale that they bought whatever they could get their hands on. Some even bought the tickets one at a time and now are trying to locate someone holding the ticket to the seat next to them to see if they’d be willing to swap. So sad, and pathetic. Is this what we’ve been reduced to because they can’t come up with a better way to reward the loyal fans who buy every album their favorite band releases? We have to stoop to scalpers and e-bay just to get a glimpse at the band whose pocketbooks we are lining with our devotion? If they truly cared enough about their fans, they wouldn’t allow that shit to happen.

Anyway, there’s a radio-sponsored pre-sale tomorrow morning so I’m going to try that one as well. Not that I expect any better results. I realize they only release particular seats during a pre-sale, but are you telling me the band couldn’t get better choice seating for their fans? I hate Ticketmaster so much, but luckily for them I love The Cure more than I hate them or I wouldn’t even bother.