You slacker

Installment 1 of my personal let's-try-to-learn-not-to-be-so-materialistic shtick: slacker.com!

What does a free radio website allowing you to create your own personalized radio station have to do with anti-materialism, you might ask?

Well, let's just say I've realized that for me, much of the allure of acquiring random, esoteric, funny, quirky, *insert adjective here* music on my iTunes is so that other people can look at my library and see how random, esoteric, funny, quirky, *insert other adjective here* I am. I devote extra energy and money to acquiring more music so that I can "own" it and show it off. So that I can play it for my friends (subtly, not acting like it's any big deal).

They'll be all like,
"Oh, how eclectic she is. She listens to Amy Winehouse AND Sufjan Stevens AND the Beatles AND Imogen Heap. AND Jim Croce AND India.arie AND Gorillaz AND some random Christian Contemporary bands. And she doesn't even know how eclectic she is. How cool."

With a site like slacker.com, you listen to the music. Period. And it doesn't record how many times you listen to a certain song, and you don't "own" what you listen to (although you can request songs and they play them relatively frequently). In the words of many a tortured artist, "It's all about the music, man."

And hey, I've discovered some really cool music through this site. (You can modify the settings to allow a certain amount of music that you haven't selected yourself to pop up and play.) Romica Puceanu, anybody?