We’re at that weird time where people no longer want STUFF as much. I just had a friend get rid of a few crates of CDs (example A) and he kindly offered me first look to see if there were any I wanted. I took NONE (example B). This is unprecedented for me, as I am a music hoarder. But, truly, I have shelves of CDs I don’t touch because most are digitized or streaming. It’s easy. So is reading the news on my phone as opposed to gathering a potentially soggy newspaper from the porch.

We’re also at the point where we’re NOT QUITE SURE if we want to pay for these things because they no longer exist in physical form. Were we paying for the disc and the plastic jewel case, the pulpy gray paper and ink? Or were we paying for the musical compositions and the journalistic research?

I hope we come around and step behind the paywall again. Good art and research takes money to do.