Going Bananas

College students enjoy a healthy snack just as much as anyone else. If they feel the urge at CSUN, a single apple or banana at the Marketplace or other campus retailers will cost them $1.00. This compares to $1.00 for two bananas at a nearby 7-Eleven store, and an amazing five bananas for a dollar at Trader Joe's. The most expensive banana I could find off-campus was 69 cents at a local grocery store.

I don't know why students are being overcharged so egregiously for fruit. Perhaps it is the same captive-audience mentality that drives up the prices of snacks at airports and movie theaters. Perhaps, in the face of budget cuts, limited classes, staff layoffs, poor maintenance, and the huge salaries of CSU presidents, it was determined that frequent tuition increases simply aren't enough to keep things running. If only half of CSUN's approximately 35,000 students could be persuaded to pay an extra 50 cents for a snack just twice a week, that would amount to an extra $17,500 per week to The University Corporation, whose website informs us (somewhat ungrammatically) that, "Surplus generated through its commercial endeavors are transferred to the University for discretionary use."

Food for thought.

If the Music's Too Loud, You're Right!

In a triumph for grouchy old people everywhere, science has proven that pop music really is much worse than it used to be.

Scientific American reports that in a study of nearly half a million songs released since 1955, researchers found that, after a high point in the 1960s, creativity and variety in music have steadily declined. Music has gotten louder and louder while becoming less and less interesting.

When disgruntled baby boomers complain that today's performers all sound the same (and not very good), they are right. Thanks to the formulaic application of Auto-Tune and other homogenizing technologies, it seems that just about anyone can produce a song whose pulsating blandness guarantees success among zombified fans who can no longer differentiate between a human voice and a synthesizer.

Maybe it's time to dust off that old vinyl collection. If you don't have a turntable (or if you don't know what a turntable is), no worries. All the hits of the sixties are at our fingertips online, ready to provide instant relief from the dull conformity of all those Kesha wannabees. Rock on!