In homage to Adbusters’ annual “Buy Nothing Day”, I’m re-running an item that has become, for better or worse, an Xmas shopping fixture around here.

(v. 1 – CSTB, 11/29/03)

(v. 2 – CSTB, 11/27/04)

If you’re gonna take a stand against rampant consumerism and all-encompassing commercial exploitation of everything that moves, abstaining for a day is pretty fucking weak. How about “Buy Nothing EVER”? Certainly a more ambitious plan, but if you’re gonna be cheap most of the time anyway, you might as well embrace an activist agenda (hopefully distracting others from your personality defects).

There is something on the Adbusters site about “Buy Nothing All Year” which eloquently talks about bartering for goods and services, but I’ve got two non-philosophical hang-ups with this :

1) my ISP isn’t down with this bartering thing. They want cash, cheque or credit card payment in exchange for reading Adbusters’ wildly entertaining fantasies. I offered to mow their lawn, but no dice.

2) the plan seems sensible, if a bit utopian. But nowhere does Adbusters explain how I’m supposed to get a $29 DVD player

(Xmas shoppers go berserk upon hearing the news that Jandek’s ‘Austin Sunday’ is on sale for $7.99)

(Please note that in the 3 years since this item originally appeared, $29 DVD players have become somewhat commonplace. So feel free to substitute another big ticket item that’s a little more contemporary. On the other hand, even at $2.99, the DVD of “White Chicks” is most certainly coal in the stocking of someone you must not like very much.