G-Y-P....Madonna!

Last month, I ordered a couple of tickets to Madonna's concert in Seattle, to give to Heather for her birthday. The concert isn't until the fall, so I think she was adequately surprised, and pleased...which is always the mark of a good birthday gift.

As anyone who browsed ticketmaster knows, tickets to Madonna's concerts are fairly pricey. This year, moreso than ever. One of the things I thought made the price sting just a tiny bit less (and please keep in mind that I'm only talking about the small difference between nearly 400 bees stinging you and "just" 350 bees stinging you instead) is that a complimentary copy of her new album "MDNA" was included with the purchase of each ticket.

"Well that's cool, at least I don't have to buy that too."

On Monday evening, UPS showed up at our door, with an express delivery package that surely cost at least 10 bucks to ship, even at a bulk rate. It was kind of cool to be getting the album a day early, because I'm still one of those folks that purchases my music instead of stealing it online like most everyone else does. They've probably had the album since Christmas, but for me, this was a big deal. I felt pretty awesome...that is until I opened up the package and saw these:

For the uninitiated, you're looking at two copies of the "Clean", standard edition of the album. Like many artists today, Madonna has decided to release multiple versions of her album at retail, and this is the worst of the bunch.

I can't imagine that anyone over at Madonna's camp thinks that her fans would actually prefer the version of her album with the least amount of songs on it (11 compared to the "deluxe" version's 17). I can't imagine they think we're worried about hearing the naughty words in her songs considering we just paid in advance to hear them live. The only possibility that's left is that they're not just hoping, but assuming that we'll go out and buy the "real" CD at retail...and that maybe these might make nice gifts for friends. Friends who only want 64% of the album that is.

LAME.

I haven't even listened to the album yet, because until this morning, it was still in the plastic wrap. I was thinking I might try to sell it on Ebay except hundreds of other people had the same idea, and copies of the "free ticketmaster version" are currently going for 5 bucks or less. 

You don't need to zoom in on the picture below, but if you do...you'll how much the most recent auction ended for. That poor bastard LOST money on the deal.

So, since I can't sell them, and I don't know anyone I dislike enough to give one to, I went ahead and cracked the plastic on my stupid, non-deluxe, non-parental advisory, non-awesome version of MDNA and I'm going to listen to it at the gym today.

You win, Madonna.