Record Store Day

What a glorious day it was. Info from recordstoreday.com:
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Conceived by [a few guys] as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the U.S. and hundreds of similar stores internationally. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products were made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists made in-store appearances. Festivities included performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, and DJs spinning records. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Franscisco last year and the annual event is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.
NOTE: A Record Store Day participating store is defined as a physical retailer whose product line consists of at least 50% music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70% located in the state of operation. (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores—not online retailers or corporate behemoths).
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I hit Sonic Boom Records, a couple blocks from home. I've been going there weekly for three years and have not seen this many people on one occasion. Boxes of records everywhere. People milling about, fingering through titles, buying records, using a t-shirt iron-on machine. A DJ setting up, indie rock DJ Cheryl Waters from the world's coolest station KEXP. Plenty of staff on-hand to answer questions and help people find things. The staff at this store rocks, always playing cool stuff, always friendly and helpful, knowledgeable but honest about copping to what they don't know, always making sure you find what you're looking for and super cool about special-ordering titles they don't have, as I've experienced with a few titles in the past.

My Record Store Day booty:

My treasure trove of 7-inch vinyl includes:
MC5 - Kick Out The Jams b/w Motor City Burning - packaged in the original rare picture sleeve, first time available since 1969
Pretenders - new song + one unreleased song
Dylan - Dreaming of You /Down Along the Cove - recorded live at Bonnaroo '04; packaged in clear sleeve with 3x5 photo
Springsteen - new song + the unreleased "A Night With The Jersey Devil"
The Stooges - 1969/Real Cool Time - packaged in the original rare picture sleeve
Tom Waits - live tracks from Atlanta & Edinburgh
and and AND... While there, I picked up the new Wilco tour documentary DVD, Ashes of American Flags.
Aaaaaaaand... they gave me this full-length long-playing record!
It's got remixes of songs by Raphael Saadiq, MGMT, Franz Ferdinand, Black Kids, Willie Nelson, plus a live in-studio recording by Glasvegas and songs by Q-Tip, Tiempo Libre, Charles Mingus, Living Things, and Cage The Elephant. Free? DAMN!

Going to the record store is a cultural experience that can never be replaced by anything. Not by convenient online purchasing channels, lower prices, or anything. Like anyone in the 21st Century, I buy music online. Case in point: My 2am enlightenment that the 3-disc Queen Anthology needs to be on my shelf is a good idea but one which will die of old age even if I write it down and wait for the store to open at 10am (truth: I played "Flash" at my DJ gig last night and people LOVED it!). But, I buy most of my music at independent, locally owned stores. This behavioral habit is driven in equal parts by my preference to support local business and my need for the record store experience. If you haven't been into a record store in a while, and you like music even a little, even just enough to want the latest hits by Lady GaGa and Beyonce in your iPod, do it. You'll find that it isn't a novelty & nostalgia lark, like eating Tater Tots or wearing trucker caps (still crappy after all these years). It's the experience you wish had never left your weekly or monthly routine, and you'll delight in re-applying it. Maybe you build it into your budget, every Saturday, or every payday, or once a month, you go to the record store and spend $x or less. Live in the now. Still get stuff on iTunes or emusic or wherever. Just build the local record store into your diet. That's all I'm suggesting.

IN UNRELATED NEWS:
The New York Skankees got all Nancy Kerrigan on us today: "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY??? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY???" when they were bludgeoned to a baseball pulp by my new 3rd favorite team (after the Red Sox and Cubs) the Cleveland Indians. In the course of a 22-4 Indians victory, both teams set a host of inversely delightful records. In the second inning alone, the Tribe scored 14 runs on 13 hits and all nine of their players scored. As if the Bronx Bummers being on the business end of a 5-star beat-down ain't enough... this marvelous slice of Americana happened in the new Yankee Stadium. I'd feel bad for any other team this situation, but it's the Yankees, so... Welcome to your new digs, jerkoffs!

Taxation With Representation

That's what I'd call the current goings-on. Yesterday, conservatives around the country protested the Obama administration's tax policy and related bailout and economic stimulus plans. In a way, I take pleasure in watching right-wingers being angry about such matters. Witnessing their shift from smug to angry, while they fearlessly brave the elements and exit the friendly confines of their climate-controlled SUVs in favor of making signs and organizing in public demonstrations, was quite delightful. I am proud of them. Quite frankly, I didn't know the Havemores had it in 'em. A hidden benefit here is that the occasion gave all those Ron Paul supporters something to do.

Six Things These Protesters Should Ponder:
1. Obama didn't create this clusterf**k inside of his first 100 days. The Republican-dominated Capitol Hill had eight years to cultivate this little masterpiece. Obama is stuck to clean up after them. Thanks, George. Hope your ranch hands are doin' right by ya.
2. Where were these people on the government spending issue when Bush was cutting checks of $300-600 for every American in 2001 and 2008? With 304M people and stamps at .42, the postage alone ran us more than $127M each time. Please, if they'd only given that money to the Red Sox, we'd have CC Sabathia AND Mark Teixeira.
3. The "liberal media" - conservatives rant about this despite the fact that while these protests of 150-200 people per city was front-page news in every paper and a lead story on every news program yesterday, Prop 8 protests of 5,000+ in major cities received very little coverage in local outlets and virtually none in the national news back in November.
4. Christian, my ass. Based on any poll identifying the Republican base, most of these loons would probably categorize themselves as Christians, a religion based on a guy who preached in favor of charity, collectivism, helping the poor, and what we'd later come to know as Marxism. I'd categorize Jesus as a Socialist before estimating that he'd equate taxing the rich as "punishing success and rewarding laziness." Christians are good people. Scumbags posing as Christians are just tarnishing the good name of bags of scum everywhere.
5. Public sector jobs are an overpaid pen-pushing scheme with gold-plated pensions? Really?As people complain about public sector employees being paid too much, I reflect on the ones I know and none of them make much money. I also notice that teachers, nurses, police and firemen aren't quoted much in the "liberal media" every time private sector income per capita increases while public sector pay increases at a rate far behind that of inflation (see, pre-summer 2007).
6. Let's admit that race has more than a little to do with the conservative outcries. It's no coincidence that the states who've mentioned a desire to secede - Georgia, South Carolina, Texas - are generally a bunch of ignorant white racists who are simply crapping their pants over having a black president. (look, without broad generalizations, Sociology wouldn't exist). I say let them secede, let 'em have a go at it, the public works industry, that is. Then they can fail, come running back to Daddy (his name is Barack Obama) and he can be too busy to help. Extra bonus with these states seceding: the median IQ and literacy rate of Americans will spike and our school system will rank higher in the global standings. You see, there's always a silver lining.

All that said, I think Timothy Geithner's wages should be garnished by the IRS. I believe he owes about $30g for the non-payment of self-employment taxes and penalties between 2001 and 2004. I owed a little more than one-tenth that amount for 2002 and 2003, and in '06 about 90% of my net paycheck was garnished without any notice. I immediately visited the Taxpayers Advocacy office at Seattle's Federal building, re-submitted a 1040 for each year, signed a one-pager agreeing to a monthly automatic debit payment plan, got my garnished pay back 2 days later, and paid them back in 2 years. Why can't something just like that happen to Mr. Geithner? I'm not calling for his head on a platter here. Just demanding he be treated like the U.S. citizen he is. Ironically, while any IRS employee who misfiles is terminated without appeal, as the Secretary of the Treasury, Timmy G. oversees the IRS. I do think that elected and appointed jobs of public service should come with perks - free steaks and cocktails, good seats to the ballgame, private jet travel, etc. (but not hookers - good god, man - behave!) - but this "do as I say, not as I do" business is a joke.

Mariners Opening Day

Great day at SafeCo Field for the Mariners home opener and the return of Ken Griffey Jr. Ed and I enjoyed front row seats, right on the visitors' dugout, courtesy of Big Sark. You see folks, it's not who you know, it's who we know. The M's won 3-2 in ten innings, improving their record to 6-2 and remaining in first place atop the AL West, their best start since 2001. It was a thrill to be present for Junior's return, and he had a nice day going 1 for 3 with a walk, a single on his first at-bat, and a marvelous slide into the second baseman which allowed the batter to reach first, keeping the inning alive while Ronny Cedeno scored the game's first run. Here's a short video of his first trip to the plate in the era I'm calling Griffey Redux, a moving welcome home ovation for the Kid with a classy wave and tip of the hat to the Seattle fans.

from withleather.com: FRENCH BUST ARMSTRONG FOR SHOWERING

I occasionally (okay, daily) check out the blog With Leather: The Cleveland Steamer of Sports Blogs. For every handful of forgettable, sophomoric items, there's a gem to found there. The writing isn't anything a periodical would pay for, and it leans too heavily and too often on bikini-clad women for eye candy (not that there's anything wrong with that), but at least a couple times a week this blog makes me laugh. Here's one that made my morning a little more fun (the rest of this entry comes from withleather.com):

FRENCH BUST ARMSTRONG FOR SHOWERING
France’s anti-doping agency is at it again with Lance Armstrong, better known as The Only Reason America Pretends To Care About Cycling. Armstrong is now under fire for not respecting, uh, “the obligation to remain under the direct and permanent observation” of a doctor assigned to him on the day of a substance test. Creeeeeepy:
At question is a 20-minute delay when Armstrong says the tester agreed to let him shower while the American rider’s assistants checked the tester’s credentials. AFLD said cycling’s governing body has given its permission to open disciplinary procedures against Armstrong, but did not say what the punishment could be.
AFLD president Pierre Bordry noted that the statement does not say that Armstrong is guilty of an infraction. AFLD is expected to make a decision on whether to proceed with sanctions after its nine-member ruling committee has considered the tester’s report.
I have no idea whether or not Armstrong is dirty, but I respect the “game within the game” that PED testing has become over the past 20 years. If you don’t get caught, that’s as good as not having done it for me, since all these other clowns are out there shooting each other in the ass with who-knows what. Just because The White Barry Bonds doesn’t shave his legs and take part in their spandex circle-jerk doesn’t ruin his standing in a sport where he’s the only reason I even care. Besides, anything that annoys the French is automatically awesome.

Stupid People Are Funny

Listening to a bit of the Cubs-Brewers game today on ESPN Radio, I heard two funnies by a pair of broadcasters whose identities I never got:

Announcer 1: "[so-and-so] was not even on the spring training roster, but he managed to make the team on the strength of his strength."
Announcer 2: "And he certainly has plenty of that."

Announcer 1: "[so-and-so] had Lasik surgery in the offseason, making his vision a perfect 20/20 without needing the contact lenses he's always worn on the field. The surgery literally saved his career."
Announcer 2: "And so far this season, he's 0 for 11 at the plate."

I don't even need to comment. The material just writes itself.

Twit For Twat

After much resistance, my cousin Paul (scumbag) convinced me to conduct a trial period as a member of the Twitterati. I've previously dismissed Twitter as a conduit of non-essential information. "Like I care that so-and-so is listening to the Cure and making French toast? Who has time for this stuff? Don't you people have jobs?" I'd say. Paul - dude, he's wicked smaht - suggested that if most of the content is indeed non-essential, the useful stuff can be quite useful and interesting, making a rewarding Twitter experience a matter of selecting the right people to follow. He also praised the value placed on brevity (never my forte) and simplicity (I do thrive in this area), as all posts are limited to 140 characters including links, and the content is as "tight and light" as it comes without the photos, videos, ads, and all the other white noise found on other social networking sites. So, Paul suggested I follow a certain author's Twitter activity (I still can't call it "tweeting"), and asked me to play along for a couple weeks and then re-visit the issue.

Despite my "non-essential information" criticism, I actually do find it nice to get these little updates. For example, I miss my old hometown Chicago, and reading that my friend Jennie started her day with some Dunkin Donuts (heavy on the sugar) made me smile, creating my own imagery of her easing into a Sunday morning that way, perhaps joined by her husband Jones, also an old friend who I miss, finally wondering if they eventually walked over to Durty Nellie's for some brunch.

After two days, so far, so good. A couple weeks from now, maybe I'll see Twitter as just another place to go online to find things which can be found elsewhere. Maybe it'll be a place to find unique items. Maybe the value of simple "what so-and-so is currently up to" paired with short statements and links to articles will retain my interest. Maybe it won't. Clearly, though, it's worth the trial period. I'll report back with my findings. In the meantime, you can find me here. Stand by.