Wednesday, August 01, 2007

It's not that easy, bein' frugal.

Sniffle, sob.

I just put one of my all-time favorite CDs up for sale on eBay: "Sing: The Songs of Joe Raposo." If you are a big Sesame Street fan or know someone who is, please go check it out. Here's a review from the AllMusic Guide. And here's one from Entertainment Weekly.

I would not part with it, but I'm trying a new system to keep my media greed from eating me alive -- it's called, "Yes, you can buy that, but only if you sell something else first." So in order to fund my latest lust (the entire Muppet Show Season Two on DVD! Madeline Kahn! John Cleese! Steve Martin! Peter Sellers! Cloris Leachman! Woo hoo!), I must auction off one of my pricier preciouses.

The CD contains songs written for Sesame Street by Joe Raposo, who was the show's composer from its beginning in the 1960s until his death in 1989. Other than one track (an unfortunate Elmo cover of a Raposo song), the collection is delightful, and according to the AllMusic Guide, nine of the twenty tracks are not available on any other CD (including out-of-print CDs). Guest performers are Ray Charles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Patti LaBelle, and the Carpenters. My favorite tracks are "Would You Like to Buy an O?," "A Little Bit at the Beginning," "I'm an Aardvark," and "Bein' Green" sung by Ray Charles, but how can I leave out "Peanut Butter" and "C is for Cookie" and.....! Ten years ago I bought the CD for $7 but now it's been out of print for years and usually sells for $50-$75.

Okay, yeah, that's a lot of money. But if I can get it to sell for more than $30 (the cost of the Muppet Show DVD that I want to buy), I'll donate the rest to the charity of your choice or to a perpetual microloan on Kiva.org.

So if you love your old school Sesame Street, check it out.

If you don't check it out, I'll still love you, but Mr. Snuffleupagus may not. He doesn't cope well with rejection.

10 comments:

April said...

I don't know about Cloris Leachman (Ai yi yi), but I loved watching Sesame Street. There's no one I could identify with more than Grouchy. Aside from his peculiar fondness for garbage, of course.

Good luck!

Belladonna said...

Interesting concept. I tried something similar once with an old hump backed steamer trunk I own. I said I would allow myself to collect/gather/keep that much sentimental mementos that have no practical function. Once it got full the rule was that if I wanted to keep something else then I had to make room for it in the trunk by giving up one of my previous treasures.

The plan worked well till we bought a house with THREE walk in closets. Now I must admit that I've got more keepsakes, travel brochures, old letters and the like the Carter has liver pills.

I go through a grand purge every few months, but alas...there seems to be quite a bit that I just can't seem to part with.

At least you have something you can sell that others may value. What the heck do I do with a crystal paperweight with my name and a scripture on it that was given to me as a commemoration of service when I left a former job? I don't need it. These days I don't even particularly WANT it. But it's not something anyone else is ever going to value since it has MY name and years of service etched in it, but I just can't seem to bring myself to throw the thing away.

wynne said...

So sorry to hear that Joe must go.

However, you're makin' a mighty fine trade, I must say!

What I want to know, though: is there any Muppets music out there? I mean, I have volume one, thanks to your own fairy godmotherliness, but is there more? There MUST be! Please tell me what you know and where to look...

Marie said...

April -- Cloris Leachman (or Clorox Bleachman, as my buddy calls her) is hilarious. But I'm really tuning in for the Muppets. They are so wonderful, even Oscar the Grouchy.

Belladonna -- I don't think it will work as well as I hope, but I figure it's good to at least try. I'm a medium-range packrat who also likes space. As the two impulses cannot be reconciled, I at least need to set goals for myself. It's a start. I completely understand sentimental attachments to bulky things that I don't really like in and of themselves. I was very inspired by that show on the Home and Garden network where they forced people to sell all their junk that wasn't ABSOLUTELY essential and then they used the proceeds to renovate their now-spacious houses. It was so CLEANSING, but could I actually do it? Maybe, but it would be UGLY.

Like Steve Martin in The Jerk. "I don't need ANYTHING! Except this lamp. And the paddle ball. And the remote control. And the ashtray... But that's ALL I need! Oh, I need the matches..."

Wynne -- Which Muppet album did I give you? Hits Volume 1? I believe I have Volume 1 and Volume 2, as well as the Muppet Movie soundtrack. Email me and let me know -- I want Jake to have more Muppets than he can shake a cat at. Keeps those evil Barney cravings away.

April said...

And Clorox Bleachman I shall call her forever more.

i i eee said...

Ha! Clorox Bleachman.

I just hope you have kept all the songs on your hard drive, as I'm sure you have.

I'm going through the process of cleansing my own space. I need to put up a little yard sale or something, since nothing is of mine for sale is really ebayable for the moment.

Hey, It's Ansley said...

I am also trying to clean and purge. I do about 30 minutes at a time and then I have to rest, it's so emotionally taxing.

And good for you for being willing to donate the extra money to charity. I would have just kept it for the season 3 purchase and not sold anything that time.

Thanks for the laugh, I love The Jerk. "Why does he hate these cans?"

Anonymous said...

I have 100 or more audiocassettes I bought for 10 cents each from a store's going out of business sale. I intend to listen to them at the first opportunity, which never seems to be today.
But I've thrown away or given to D.I. 1.5 to 3 dozen books this week, and plan to not immediately fill up the reclaimed space with "new" books (Except the 2 I just ordered on Amazon).
"I have no space to store it" has been a valuable tool for me for several years, sometimes as an objection presented to a salesperson, but usually employed to quell my temptation to buy attractive gewgaws.

Left-Handed said...

Years ago I decided to give up a R.E.M cd at a garage sale (with this same concept in mind.) I totally regret it now.

Marie said...

Ansley -- Good luck. I do aspire to get things to a point that the next time I move it's much less painful (and back-breaking).

Dad-- Thanks for "geegaws." Was that a Morgan County word? Do I say it with a hard or a soft "G"?

Rachel G -- Please steer clear of my Junk Hoarders Anonymous meetings. You'll mess us all up.