Slight Changes

To all of my readers:

I just wanted to apologize for any confusion caused by the recent "Please Enter Username and Password" pop up you may have encountered when visiting my blog. I protected my twitter account, but didn't realize that would affect my blog readers. This has since been fixed, and you should have no problem. For the record, if you thought you wouldn't be able to read my blog without a password, your fears are understandable but I want you to understand that I would never do that to my readers. I'm a believer in free access to information. Not that I'm into pirating music or movies or books, but there's a fine line between justifiable protection of content and greed. Anyway, you would have been able to read my blog but not my twitter feed unless you 1) had a Twitter account and 2) were an approved follower of me. Now, you should be fine.

I also wanted to talk about ads. I know that ads can be annoying, but I've allowed them on my page because if, for any reason, you click on an advertisement on my blog, Google pays me a little bit of money. Now, I've been doing this for a year and a half now, and so far, I've made a whopping two dollars and forty one cents. But, you know...it's a minor source of income. Actually, I have not received this money because they won't send a check for less than fifty dollars. So, twenty-two and a half more years, I should be getting a check.

Another change you will see in future posts (and also added retroactively to older posts) is a new way to monetize my blog. This one I really like, and I think it might actually garner a better payoff than Google Adsense (the ads you already see). It's called Amazon Associates, and what happens is that I can link to a product sold by Amazon and if you, my reader, clicks on the link and then subsequently buys the product, I get a commission on the sale. I won't be posting random links, though. I talk about lots of literature, film and music on the blog, so whenever I mention something, I'll link to it on Amazon. And yes, I am aware of the irony of a partnership whereby Amazon might pay me money after I lamented the way they handle the vinyl they sell. And let it be known that I would much prefer you to go buy books and records from local book and record stores, but you can always get a great deal on Amazon and many of us (myself included) will continue to buy products on Amazon.

So, with that being said, I will now demonstrate this new feature.

This past Saturday (April 17th) was Record Store Day. I went to Euclid Records and picked up the new Broken Bells LP on Vinyl. And it's freaking awesome, as I said before in my review. I also found a copy of The Best of Buddy Rich on vinyl (a Best-Of which was never subsequently released on CD) and Kathy looked through to bargain bin to find a copy of the American Graffiti Soundtrack for two dollars. Sweet deal! I highly recommend you celebrate Record Store Day next year. And no, going to the music section at Best Buy and picking up the new Justin Stupidface Beiber CD does not count.

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