I met Claire in the restaurant in the lobby of a hotel in Marina Del Rey. I had been staying there for nearly two months. The people that ran the place were kind enough to give me a good rate. They could see that I was in bad shape, and that I was desperate for a decent place to stay. My only complaint was that they gave me a room that overlooked the swimming pool. During the day, then, when I was desperate to shut myself off from the rest of the world, I could hear the tourists splashing around outside and engaging in dreary discussions about who was from where and what they did for a living and how many kids they had in college and so forth. But other than that, I had no complaints.

Claire swept into the lobby like she was a heavy hitter in the world, even though I knew she worked for Napster, which isn’t exactly something to brag about these days. She had on a smart business suit and had cut her hair a bit shorter. Or maybe I just thought it had been longer before. We hadn’t seen each other in a while.

She looked frantically back and forth around the room before she spotted me at a table near the edge of where the restaurant melted into the lobby. She smiled, of course, in that automatic way, and hurried over. I got up and pulled out a chair for her.

"Still a gentleman as always, I see, " she said as she sat down.

"Thank you for pointing that out, " I said to her. "I always enjoy you running commentary."

I'd already had a whiskey sour, and I ordered another when the waiter came along. Claire got herself a glass of white wine. "We can't waste time sitting here, " she said after she ordered. "Each of us pondering our shared history in silence."

"I hope I didn't take you out of your way, " I said.

"Of course you took me out of my way, " she told me.

"How are things down at Napster?" I asked her.

"You don't want an answer to that question, " Claire said.

"Why would I ask it then?" I said.

"There's no reason why you would ask, " she said. "That's why I know that you don't want an answer."

Our drinks arrived. Claire ran a finger around the rim of her glass. "We have this new client that my manger is really big on, " she said.

"A singer or a band?" I asked.

"It's all singers now, " she said. "There are no more bands."

"There are plenty of bands, " I said.

"I'm in the business, " she said. "Trust me. Give it five years. You won't see any bands everywhere except in dingry bars downtown."

"I'll do what I can to make sure that doesn't happen, " I said.

"There's nothing you can do, " she said. "You're irrelevant now, from a demographic point of view. You've been irrelevant for a while now. I am too, if it makes you feel better."

I downed my whiskey sour in an instant. "So it's a singer, " I said.

"I don't even know the name, " she said. "I can't remember it. She wants to sign with us, though. That's what her people have said."

"I don't get how that works, " I said.

"We'll promote her ourselves, " Claire told me. "Put her songs up so everyone can see them. You don't need to release records anymore. You realize that, right?"

"But she wants to sign with you, " I said.

Claire shook her head, then took a long draw from her wine. "We're not the bottom of the barrel, you know, " she then told me. "You like to think that we are."

"I don't care where you are in the barrel, " I said.

"Of course you do, " Claire told me.

"I know one of the guys you work with now, " I said. "Roger Fassero. He worked with us back at EasyManage."

"I don't do much with Roger, " Claire said. "Is that what you wanted to tell me? You drag me all the way out here."

"That's not it, " I said. "When did I even call you?"

She smiled again, in that way she does when she's annoyed. "Three in the morning, or thereabouts, " she told me.

"I thought so, " I said. "I apologize for that."

"I'm being melodramatic, " Claire said. "You don't look good. I'm glad you called. You look terrible, you know."

"Thanks for noticing, " I said.

"We have to find you some work, " she said. "I can make some calls. You know that I know people that can find something for you. You just have to ask."

"I'm not asking, " I said.

"I'm looking at you now and I can see the future, " she said. "I'm not going to ask your permission soon. I'm going to start making calls and people will be dragging you kicking and screaming for interviews."

"I'm fine with that approach, " I told her.

"You said when you called that you remembered something important, " Claire said. "But you told me that I had to come here today to hear about it."

"Right, right, " I said. "I remember now. This has to do with the time that we went out to Pomona. Do you remember that? There was a restaurant that you wanted to try. A seafood place that got a good write-up in the Times."

"It wasn't the Times, " Claire said. "I read about it somewhere else. I can't say where. But not the Times."

"Well, anyway, I told you a story while we were waiting for our food. Do you remember that? It took forever for our stuff to come. And I didn't even like it that much."

"I'm sure it was fine, " she said. "You complained about everything in those days."

"Maybe you're right, " I said. "The point is that I was telling you this story about this thing that happened before I moved out here. Back when I was still living in Missouri. You know, I was renting a room in a converted garage in a house in the worst neighbourhood in St. Louis. Or at least one of the worst. But I was making good money. I got right out of college and was going pretty well for myself. I just didn't know what to do with myself."

Claire took a moment to try and recall the moment. "I know you talked about being alone a lot back then, " she said. "Because it wasn't a surprise to me. You were telling this to me as if I was supposed to be shocked, but I wasn't."

"I don't remember telling the story that way, " I said. "But the thing is that I was alone most of the time. That much is true. But I didn't get to the end of the story. That's the thing. I wanted to make a point, and then out food came and that was that."

"I think I got the gist of the tale, " Claire said.

"But there was more, " I told her. "Because the thing is that there was this old coffee place around the corner from me. You know, it was one of those franchises you only see in the bad neighbourhoods. Dimly lit. But still open all day and all night. And I would go there sometimes. Not a lot, but once a month, maybe. And whenever I went I would talk to one of the regulars there. This old guy named Oscar. You know, Oscar was in there all the time. That's what the people who ran the place said. They would say, 'Oscar lives here. He doesn't have a real home.' I presume he did have a home, but he might as well not have."

"I have to get going soon, " Claire said.

"Let me finish up quick. The thing is that Oscar would be at his table and I would just join him. You know, I'd ask, but it was still a crazy thing to do. The place is nearly empty, so I could sit anywhere. But I see Oscar and I don't even know him at first, but I come up to him and ask if I can join him. And he nods his head and we get to talking. You know, he'd had a long life. He'd tell me stories. He grew up in St. Louis but spent a lot of years in Kansas City. One end of the state to the other. And he's worked a lot. You know, when he was younger. Three, four jobs at a time. So he had his savings, and he didn't have to work anymore."

Claire checked her watch. I had to get to the point. "So here's the thing. I'm young and making what I think is decent money, but I realize then that I don't understand anything about life whatsoever. Do you know what I mean? I'm working 40 to 50 hours a week, making my salary, and thinking about the future and a house and a family. But it's all so automatic. I'm not even thinking about what I want to do. I'm going through life and not making any choices. And here is Oscar, who seems like he was aware of every choice he made when he made it. He considered his actions. Even when he was at the coffee shop. You know, he made a commitment to be there all the time. It was not a normal thing to do. He had to come up with the idea himself."

"You get those people everywhere, " Claire said. "The old retired regulars at the bars and the coffee places. That's not so unusual."

"It's not just that, " I said. "You could just tell that he'd lived exactly the way he wanted to. And I realized that I would never be able to do the same. You know, you think I'd be insprired by him. That I'd come to some great realization that would alter my own actions. But that didn't happen. And I knew that that wouldn't happen. I knew, right away, that I was never going to be like him."

Claire finished off her wine. "So why the great need to tell me this?" she asked.

"Well, I think it explains a lot of things, " I said.

"What does it explain?" Claire said.

"The way things happened, " I told her. "I never could have made things work. I know it's all my fault. I know that. But don't you see? It was destined to happen. I knew what I was like all those years ago. I just forgot."

Claire thought about this for what seemed to be a full minute. She rocked the empty wine glass in front of her back and forth. Finally, she spoke up. "It's too bad you forgot, " she said.

"I guess so, " I told her. "I could have saved you a lot of trouble."

"I believe you, " she said. "That's the craziest thing. I should tell you right now that you're crazy and making excuses. But I believe you. I can't even believe I'm saying that. But it's true. I think you're right. You're absolutely right."

I joined Napster after looking at a 7-day trial membership offer claiming I would only be charged $5 / month only after the 7 days. Within a couple days my account charged over $60.00 for an entire year's membership.

When I finally found a customer service phone number on their website and waited for over 20 minutes to speak to a person they told me I had authorized the payment and would not refund the fees.

Every time I downloaded a supposedly free trial membership song their were no less than 4 windows before downloading the song; their must have been some authorization window, right?

At best the site is vague or ambiguous, but I think it's deliberate. Anyone want to start a class-action?
Jason Walker
[email protected]

Chase fraud department called to inquire if I charged $1 on Napster, which I did not. Seems this is such a popular site to test stolen credit cards, Chase has to call their customers to verify. Any reputable business would implement their own security procedures.

I can't believe how difficult it is to try to cancel the free 7-day trial its absolutely ridiculous. The instructions tell you to sign in then click on my account in the top left hand corner select account status and billing menu then SIMPLY chose the change membership option. Believe you me there is NOTHING SIMPLE about this process, i can't even get signed in never mind anything else. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS
A warning to anyone thinking of trying the Free Trial then cancelling BE AFRAID VERY AFRAID !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I joined napster about a year ago, upon trying to sign-on to download music, it wouldn't let me into my account. About a week later I gave up after e-mailing them for help, the e-mails I received were generic at best, basically it said I had something set improperly in my P.C.

So I did what anyone else would do and cancel the free trial, well, I received an e-mail saying I had to do it in person over the phone, I e-mailed back stating it was all set-up via internet and I should be able to cancel via internet, so just cancel the subscription. Fast forward about one year later, I was checking my online bank statement and noticed a charge from napster, they were still charging my account and I didn't even notice! So I wrote them a nasty e-mail saying to cancel my account or I will seek legal help in the matter. Surprise, surprise, I get an e-mail saying they were sorry to see me go but they will cancel it, but then I check my online bank statement and they charged me again for their service, well I think I'm going to have the bank investigate it after all and contact the consumer protection. You see, I never used their service because I could never get it to work or a person from their company to help me, so I'm not paying for services not rendered or used, especially since I asked to cancel and they ignored my request and charged me anyway, napster is a scam in my opinion, stay clear of their company at all costs.