Alaska is a bad place for music. Oh, we have musicians, and we have audiences -- that's not the issue. What I'm talking about places to buy music. Anchorage has a couple of places with a decent selection, but it doesn't compare well even to cities of the same size. Fairbanks here is a small city, so you would except one or two decent-sized music retailers or something. We have none. I'm serious. A college town. With no record store. Since you're likely getting some of your textbooks from Amazon, you find yourself buying music from there, too. (I don't do it much because I'm afraid of what will happen if I make a habit out of it. Besides that... I'm moving to Boston.)
This means that I find myself prowling the strange racks of grocery stores like Fred Meyer. Their selections are bizarre because of how condensed they are, but also because of what they don't have. Like, for instance, Brian Eno: he's a pretty big influence on modern music, and is contemporary with a lot of the stuff they have a glut of. Regardless, you're not going to find anything from him there. That's just one example, too.
What really gets me is the "best of" and the "essential collection" nonsense, though. That's a irrational foaming-at-the-mouth pet peeve of mine.
