Quickies

Just updating a few things:

Sam and I decided to take a break from the podcast this month. It's Christmastime after all, and plus there's a movie coming out this weekend I've been waiting about nine years for.

I got and read The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West #2. We meet the Sawhorse, who—while not the somewhat surly creature Baum wrote about—is quite a fun character. Some great plot development as Tip and the Scarecrow flee the Emerald City, but Jinjur sends the horrid Wheelers after them!

I also received my CD copy of Colonial Radio Theater's The Emerald City of Oz. My earlier review was based on a free MP3 copy that was provided for me to review. I like the cover art better than the previous CRT Oz releases, but to be honest, I miss jewel case packaging for dual CD sets. Sure, it was breakable, but it feels a lot sturdier than a small paper box with a slab of styrofoam and the CDs in paper envelopes.

I never thought I'd be waxing nostalgic over CD packaging. But I guess this is what we have to deal with as physical media gives way to digital, even if the physical media contains digital data. I appreciate both. I can't really feel like I can count digital texts, pictures, video and audio in my collection and I don't. With a few clicks and keystrokes or a bad accident, they could be gone forever. There's ways I can make those into physical media, of course, but unless it's something really rare that I'm unlikely to get any other way, having the real thing is much more fun.

On the other hand, particularly with digital audio, it's much easier to load digital files onto a portable player and use that on the go rather than carry around a lot of CDs.

Also received a great little Christmas gift from a wonderful Ozzy friend: a copy of Ruth Plumly Thompson's The Princess of Cozytown. Totally floored by this one!