the extinction of buttons

Firstly, I have to come right out and recommend that if you have access, please go and watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I know it's a Brad Pitt movie, and all the Hollywood entertainment shows are talking about it and they're putting Jennifer Aniston's movie Marley and Me up against her former husband's box office tallies but don't believe the hype.... just go see the movie. As an actor, and not a glorified entertainment news item, he should be proud to be a part of this engaging story... and it's so well shot too. It left my heart wrenched and my friend noted that the three hours of my life it took away was definitely well worth the time.

So, in a tangental story that I've been thinking about a lot lately that really has not much to do with the movie I just recommended you see above, I've been thinking about the death of industry. I've been employed in the music industry for the last three years, and before that in the cultural arts industry, and recently the company who paid my wages filed for bankruptcy protection. A rather unsettling thing to have happen, but hey, apparently we are in a global recession so them's the breaks. Today, I read a column in the Toronto Star that addressed the idea that there may not be a music industry as we know it today in six months. It was a rather inconclusive mail-it-in type of piece and ready didn't say much except that the industry is basically in hell and that music will continue to exist in some form. Now if you'll allow me I'll now insert the part about the buttons into this thought process. So, everybody knows that the music industry isn't doing so well and that the auto sector is getting bailed out. But what about the buttons? I went to my parents house on the west coast this December and I'd brought a black cardigan with me as a sort of fix-it project. Owing to the fact that I didn't have a regular paycheck, I thought it would be better to replace the button at home while I had some time rather than replace the whole item of clothing.

I asked my mum if she knew where I could buy some buttons. She looked at me and said "you know, it's really hard to buy buttons these days, I think that perhaps it's costing more to produce buttons than it does to sell them." It occured to me that it had been a long time since I needed to buy a button. I replied " I guess the return on investment isn't that great, but can't I get some at walmart or something?" She just said that honestly, she thought the industry was dying. And I thought, well here's another example of some everyday thing that people totally take for granted that isn't ever going to make headline news. It's going to get lost in the shuffle. What's next, zippers? There can't be much money in that related industry either?

Food for thought that's all. Go out and support your local button maker.