A new movielog entry (and the mechanism with which to input it) is in the works. Meanwhile...

This evening, after the movie, I wandered over to Best Buy. This was a mission with purpose. I had been informed that The Corporation was recently released on DVD. Though I haven't yet seen it, I had read enough reviews to become convinced that it was one I wanted to buy and pour over the special features.

Yes, I am fully aware of the irony of going to a corporate chain store to purchase a copy of such a film. A few years ago, I used to find such things funny. Now I just shake my head and wonder what it will take to reach the threshold at which a genuine change in behavior takes place. As they used to tell us in our childhood, "knowing is half the battle." I know. But that is obviously not enough. What's the other half?

I scanned the new releases section and saw no sign of the title I was looking for. So I wandered around, wondering if they even had a "Documentary" section, having never recalled seeing such an area on previous visits. But then a again, I had never looked specifically. Action, Drama, Comedy, Family, Scifi, Television, and a tiny little area labeled "Special Interest".

The poorly organized "Special Interest" section did have Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, and Super Size Me, so if it would be anywhere, this should be the spot. But nothing. I visually scanned several times to be sure.

Then I started wandering around hoping to find a helpful employee. Why is it that the pseudo-friendly Best Buy employees always seem to be coming up and asking if you need help when all you want to do is browse, but whenever you really want help, there are none to be found that aren't busy with something else? Eventually, I did find a guy and asked him if they had it.

He had obviously never heard of it, but went to the computer to look it up. I had to correct his spelling on the first search. The first four letters are "CORP", not "COP". Still, no results turned up. (Now I'm suspecting that he may have spelled it "corpEration" instead of the correct "corpOration" -- a mistake I also made in an online search -- but if he did, I didn't catch that. Obviously, their system's spelling correction is not even a tenth as smart as Google's.)

In any case, no luck. Though I had been tempted by several other products while I looked around, I left empty-handed. Smart choice.

I contemplated the possibility that maybe Best Buy is also past the point of silly irony. Could it be that they're intentionally keeping this documentary off their shelves because what it reveals might tell a little bit too much truth to too many people? After all, how could any self-respecting dvd store not be carrying a release of such critical and public acclaim which just came out last week? As of now, it's at #30 on Amazon's sales rank, so the demand is obviously there. (Well, at least Amazon.com isn't part of that particular conspiracy, if such a thing exists.)

After thinking about it for a while, I decided that it could be because the content doesn't fit with a worldview they want to promote, but it's equally likely that Best Buy is just really fucking stupid. Remember a few years ago, when the first Babylon 5 DVD release came out? No, not the box sets. Before that. Just the pilot, and the accompanying "In the Beginning" tele-movie. (A mismatched set if I've ever seen one, considering that "In The Beginning" wasn't made until season 4, and contained multiple spoilers about the first several seasons.) I went all over town looking for that damn thing, and couldn't find it. I know I wasn't the only one. Everyone was talking about it, but obviously Best Buy hadn't been clued in.

After that, I briefly looked at Circut City, but found even less hope there. With my most likely meatspace candidates exhausted, I decided I would have to resort to online ordering if I wanted to obtain my own copy of this film.

Two obvious options:

• Get it from the store suggested by the official website. Pay more for the disc itself, plus a whopping $7.99 shipping charge. Feel like I'm being gouged, but at least the money wouldn't be going to some big nasty conglomorate.
• Buy it cheaper from a notorious online retailer with a history of shady dealings. Even better, throw in an interesting looking paperback to get free shipping, making the total order only slightly more than it would be with only the movie.

I leave it to the reader to guess which choice I made.

I feel dirty now.

Go ahead, laugh all you want.

This must be how Catholics feel when they go out and have all sorts of affairs and abortions and think dirty thoughts. Go to the priest and confess it all away. Then do it all again.

Enough of this. I'm going to finish my code.