I’ll fight for the latest model

So the nanny-staters turned out to be right. Videogames can cause real-world violence, just not in the way the professional killjoys had always claimed.

Contrived scarcity as a marketing tool -- it’s a surefire method of convincing wild-eyed early adopters and aspiring eBay price-gougers to line up outside the nearest Best Buy for the privilege of being fleeced out of six hundred bucks. But, hey, have you seen the Playstation 3 version of Call of Duty 3? It’s like the previous two installments, but with (cue drumroll) better graphics!

My days in the Gotta-Have-It Brothers’ Circus are long over. My deep pocketed clown pants have been packed away in the attic somewhere. My bucket for tossing disposable income at faceless corporations is now used to store bird food. I still dabble in some Situationist commedia dell'arte now and again, though. Down with the spectacle-commodity society!

Gang of Four – Return the Gift (from Entertainment! 1979) – Entertainment! is one of those rare albums for which my affection grows, rather than fades, over the years. There is so much going on – musically, lyrically, politically – that each listen brings forth new things to ponder and appreciate.

Action Pact – Consumer Madness (from The Punk Singles Collection, 1997) – While it’s a little long at three minutes and forty-two seconds, this 1984 b-side is still a pretty decent effort from a time when most other Britpunk acts were either in the process of imploding or turning into Discharge clones. I can’t decide which fate is worse.

Robert Hazard – Escalator of Life (from a 1982 EP, collected on New Wave Hits of the 80’s: Volume 8, 1994) – An excellent summation of Reagan Era attitudes by the Philly-based Hazard. He was also the man responsible for writing Cyndi Lauper’s überhit “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”.

Lene Lovich – New Toy (from the 1981 New Toy EP, collected on Flex…Plus, 1991) – Thomas Dolby penned this song for Lovich during his brief stint with her band. In one of those delightful cases of ironic licensing, this satirically anti-consumerist track ended up being used in Target’s 2005 Christmas ad campaign.