Week 21 - Ratarue - Odd Augmentation, Inc

 (This is Week 21 of my 52 Austin CD Reviews in 52 Weeks. See the first 20 here.)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

“Does life imitate art / or art imitate life / why are we like this / caught up in this strife.”
- “Voyeuristic”

Ratarue
Odd Augmentation, Inc.

This freshman effort from seasoned emcee Ratarue (former member of Austin’s Spin Alley) is a solid throwback hip-hop effort. I say throwback because his sound doesn’t subscribe to the current trend in the rap/hip hop scene. He doesn’t swear every three words. He doesn’t form tracks around objectifying women or spit meaningless self-masturbatory lyrics. It’s not mindless repetition backed by a heavy bassline. More A Tribe Called Quest and less Lil Wayne. More Del The Funky Homosapien and less Soulja Boy.

The 18 song album (15 + 3 bonus tracks) is chock full of great tracks. He tips his hat to Jimi Hedrix in “Jimi’s Warning,” talks about lost love in “Time Heals A Broken Heart,” and calls out someone with a girl who has “stink breath like Frodo Baggins” in the battle-rap “Opiates and Flatbeds.”

Yes, there are songs about making money (“Maintain Scrilla”), sex (“Mad Eps”), and fame (“Radio”) but they are done with complex lyrics layered with some impressive scratches, mostly by Austin’s DJ Trouble. Ratarue seems set on elevating hip-hop and Odd Augmentation, Inc is his calling card.

“800 Pound Gorilla” is a standout. It’s got a really nice acoustic guitar loop overlaid by drums and scratches. But, the lyrics are the most impressive. “Invigorating, elaborate, conscious is my approach / To put him in denial is to get your body broke.”

I also really dug “One Bite At A Time,” a track about making it in life. “The ego is an ugly troll that lives under a bridge between your heart and your mind. A rabbit’s foot is a sad substitute for horse’s sense. How to eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Odd Augmentation, Inc. was released on January 25 at an INsite Night in Austin. It can be found at Waterloo Records. If you’re a fan of hip-hop with meaning, you should pick this one up. For more information about Ratarue, visit his MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/ratarue), follow him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ratarue) or subscribe to his blog (http://ratarue.blogspot.com).

Interesting trivia bit - Ratarue’s real name is Corey Powell. The moniker is a something his younger brother made up to use as a battle cry while they were growing up.

The Acuvue Rebate I'll Never Get (Updated 8/25/09)

I decided to start wearing contacts. I've been wearing glasses since I was about 15. I'm 36 now... it's about time. Plus, I has surgery on my neck a in November 2008 (want to see a picture?) and since that surgery the stem of my glasses has been bothering me. Seems when the doctor removed the golf-ball sized cyst from my neck, he hit and damaged a few nerves. I think the right side of my head will tingle for the rest of my life whenever pressure is put on it because of this. Yea me.

So, It was either contacts or LASIK. Since insurance doesn't pony up any of the $$ for LASIK yet, I opted to poke my eyes every morning.

Anyhow... I've been waiting to get contact lenses until a sale came along. My sale came along in June 2009 when Acuvue announced their 2009 National All Brands Rebate Offer. You had to jump through a few hoops to get the rebate.
1. Be a "new wearer" of contacts (I am).
2. Have an eye exam within the last 90 days. (I did)
3. Buy 8 boxes of contacts by June 30. I did.

If I can do all of those things... and send them all the required information by the end of July, I should receive $100 back.

(My rebate was for $100 because of a slight astigmitism in one eye that the doc said wasn't serious enough for specialty lenses, but I needed to use Acuvue Oasys, which was a $100 rebate instead of the regular lenses that had a $30 rebate. I thought it was a double score.)

So... I bit.
Problem was... it was already the 25th of June and I didn't know where I was going to buy the lenses. So, I went online and shopped around. Nobody would be able to get me the lenses in time for me to get the $100.. until I called Sam's Club. They had them in stock and ready to go. So on June 29 I made the purchase. Got all my information together and sent it in. Sam's wasn't the best price I shopped.. but it was the only place I could get the purchase made in time to take advantage of the rebate.

The next week I shipped it all off in the mail and waited for my $100 to roll in.
I was pretty proud of myself.

So, I got the mail yesterday, and was very excited to see my letter from Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., the makers of Acuvue.

The letter reads:

Thank you for participating iun the 2009 National All Brands Rebate Offer. We are unable to proces your request because:
• Sams Club no longer accept manufacturer's rebates; instead they have removed rebates and offer savings in-store or on-line at time of purchase

So.. not only do they renig on my rebate, they throw Sam's Club under the bus.

I guess they needed to be paid back... so their not really risking anything by offering this, they're going to punish the vendor for selling the product by charging him to make the sale.

NICE WORK ACUVUE.

Now I've got a year's supply of contacts that cost me about $50 more than I could have gotten them somewhere else and a really bad taste in my mouth when it comes to Acuvue Lenses.

So.. I wrote them a little letter.

I followed everything I needed to do including rushing out and buying a years supply of a new contact lens product that I've never worn in order to get a $100 rebate.

Now, you send me a letter saying I am not getting a rebate because of where I bought the lenses? Where EXACTLY in the rules does it say I can't shop at Sam's Club (which was the only place I could find the lenses before the deadline).

I did my research. I had quotes from several places. I shopped at Sam's only because of the need to purchase by the end of June.

This is highly unfair and if you are trying to attract new customers to your product,you are failing. I expect to be contacted and I expect to receive my rebate in the mail, as PROMISED.

Thank you for your time.
- Sean Claes

I did a little google search and I'm not alone.. Others have had the same problem. Here

I don't expect anything to come of it. But if you're reading this and it stops you from purchasing from them. That is reward enough.

Anyone know a good alternative contact lens provider? I need a supply next year.

--

UPDATE 8/25/09: Apparently the letter worked. They sent me the rebate. Thanks Acuvue for responding with a check. I thought about taking this down... but I'm betting there's a bunch of other people who didn't get that check... and they should know that writing a letter like the one I did above actually worked (at least once). Take a chance, it may be worth $100.