"FOREIGN AFFAIRS" (Or, "$AVE MONEY WITH MOVIE MARS!")

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Yes, this is titled “Foreign Affairs”, but, no, this is not the blog bit in which I spill the beans about how I got suckered by that Russian spy chick. I would rather not “disgust” that. Well, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice… that’s twice as nice. (But nice guys don’t kiss and tell… all of America’s secret military secrets buried in secrecy.)
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Nah, this is about Tom Waits’ Foreign Affairs. See, a buddy of mine, DiscConnected, offered to burn a compact disc for me of the Tom Waits songs I like but that I don’t have in the CD format. So I looked through the bloke’s albums that I don’t own and I compiled a list of song titles. But after realizing that I had listed 7 of the 9 songs included on Tom’s ‘FOREIGN AFFAIRS’ album, I knew it made more sense for me to just purchase the entire album.

PROBLEM: My local brick ‘n’ mortar music store didn’t have ‘Foreign Affairs’ and told me that it is out-of-print.

SOLUTION: Order ‘Foreign Affairs’ from MOVIE MARS [http://www.moviemars.com/]. Which I did on July 16.

If you are one of my 2.5 regular readers, then you already KNOW that I would never ever order ANYTHING from Amazon.scum. …Er, I meant, “.com”.

“Hate” is a strong word, but when it comes to my feelings about Amazon.com, like a cup of decaffeinated coffee, it ain’t strong enough.

Besides, in the slightly more than three years since vowing never to buy anything from Amazon.com ever again, I have found that in some ways, Movie Mars is actually a BETTER online source for entertainment products.

For one thing, it is not uncommon for me to find that the Movie Mars price for a new DVD or CD is actually lower than what it’s being offered for at Amazon. Here are just two of many examples I could post:

The ‘Foreign Affairs’ album by Tom Waits which I purchased from Movie Mars was priced at $7.16. In my price comparison, I found that Amazon was asking $10.99 for it.
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Now let’s say that instead of ‘Foreign Affairs’, you’re actually in the market for Ennio Morricone’s great soundtrack to the classic “Spaghetti Western Made In America”, the movie ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ (and really, who wouldn’t be in the market for that?) At this time, at Amazon.scum, they’re axing $7.98, but at Movie Mars, they’re axing $7.52.
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Is that a savings of just forty-six cents? Are you axing for my two cents worth? Yes? Well then, in that case: NO! It’s a savings of a few dollars and forty-six cents. [For a few dollars more, you could probably also buy from Movie Mars ‘For A Few Dollars More’ – although it’s not really a very good movie, in my opinion.] “How so?”, you ask? Because of the shipping savings you just got by ordering from Movie Mars rather than Amazonk.

You see, at Amazon, unless you order at least $25. worth of stuffs, you’re going to pay a shipping charge of a few bucks. But at Movie Mars, the shipping is FREE – my favorite price! So, at Movie Mars, the price you see is the price you pay, even if you’re only ordering a single item.

And I’ll tell ya one mo’ thing about Movie Mars: it has been my experience that they actually listen to their customers (unlike some other online store called Amazon which shall remain nameless).

Ya see, once upon a time – oh, about a year ago – I went to Movie Mars to change my password, but when I discovered that there was no way to do that, I was irked, flummoxed and flabbergasted – which I acknowledge sounds like a very bad law firm. But it could have been worse. At least I wasn’t Lohan, Stewart and Winehouse.

So I sent Movie Mars an Email, explaining and complaining. I told them that all internet security expert dudes recommend changing passwords from time to time, and I added, “So, what up with this?!”

Believe it or not, I soon received an Email from one of their computer programmer I.T. expert geek dudes who said that he was going to go right to work on correcting that oversight on their site. And within just a couple of days – voila! – I found that customers were now able to alter their personal passwords. So, if you axe me, Movie Mars is A-OK.

Now, in the spirit of full disrobing, I ought to say that— Uhm. Wait. Check that. It should read: “in the spirit of full DISCLOSURE, I ought to say that” being a loyal Movie Mars customer, the company Emailed me to say that it would give me a $5. rebate on my last purchase if I wrote at least 3 sentences about my positive experience at MovieMars.com on one of their preferred review or blog sites. And this site happened to be one of them.

Well... anyone who knows me well also knows that I’m no prostitute. Unfortunately, I haven’t the looks for it. And please also notice that I wrote far more than just 3 positive sentences about Movie Mars. That’s because this is an honest testimonial. After having done business with Movie Mars for some years now, and never once having had a bad experience, I can recommend the site with a perfectly clear conscience. Writing this caused me no mental anxiety and it was no trouble at all. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. I mean, how often does one get to write a heartfelt testimonial and get a $5. rebate for doing so? (Meaning that, in reality, my Tom Waits album, ‘Foreign Affairs’, only cost me two dollars and sixteen cents, counting the nonexistent shipping charge.)

And as if that weren’t enough, this deal also gave me the opportunity to kick Amazon.com around some more. A nice little bonus. After all, as Tom Waits observes in his ‘Foreign Affairs’ album, I’m almost at the bottom of my bottle of MD 2020 and I have nothing but my revenge to keep me warm.

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Pre-Postscript Post-Postscript: Just yesterday, August 2nd, I received an Email from a very nice woman at Movie Mars and she invited me to share this "$2. Discount Coupon Code" with y'all. Here's what she wrote:

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"We occasionally run specials on our website with a coupon code for a discount on your next order. Our current code is summer777 (not punctuation, all lower case letters). That code will take $2 off your order. It's a one time use coupon. You are welcome to share this information on your blog if you'd like."

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Make a note of that, Peoples, and save $2. along with the free shipping!

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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Postscript: And the next time you change your account password at Movie Mars, don’t forget that it was Stephen T. McCarthy who made that possible. Send me a full bottle of Mad Dog 2020 and we’ll call it "even Stephen".

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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