Danielle & Grant

Discussing OMD Albums

I consider it a privilege to witness the daily interactions between people in front of my counter.
Grant brought by his yard sale leftovers, Danielle came by to find out why I'm so surly about Cake. Grant got his dough, I had taken care of him before Danielle even showed up, so he was only there being Grant, discussing his jobs, his dogs, and his love for O.M.D. Danielle is one of the most relentlessly positive people this side of Steph Coyle, and a very accomplished professional woman. I really enjoy talking to her, because she totally knows what she is talking about. She doesn't buy into my fatalistic world view, and looks at me with the pity and amusement an essentially superior being can have for an underling, A curious creature such as myself. So we talked. About buildings, architecture, and how little I know about it.
Later on she left a note on my facebook wall saying that I was especially surly today. The only thing I can remember being surly about was having to go back to work, and end my conversation about brick cladding.

Alone Time

Brion and Joy Contemplate The Weekend 

Former marketing director, now head of Idaho Live Concert Productions comes by the store with Calexico tickets, and Brion shares with her his suggestions for her weekend.

The Republican'ts

Fair & Balanced is TIRESOME. 

So, after playing the JFK memorial album, we came upon this gem from the '50's.
Featuring Eisenhower, Nixon, Rockefeller and Goldwater, and hosted by a curiously muted Reagan, this goes to show how tiresome Modern Republicanism is, and always has been.
Fair and balanced is all well and good, but you never believe a word these dullards say, even though these stanch bulwarks of Republican ideals never get the temperature above lukewarm.
What kind of branding and groundwork did it take to get a minor league B-movie actor, largely regarded as a lightweight and a joke, to the point where people seriously advocate putting his face on the dime, and carving him into Mt. Rushmore?
It's a convincing argument for the series of little lies, repeated ad nauseum, until they are accepted as truth theory, and defining the narrative.
The truth of the matter is that people will accept anything that allows them to feel comfortable, and not have to change.
It makes them vote against their self interest. Because what is in their interest? It's hard to tell here on the ground. It takes thought. And Americans are allergic to thinking.

Joe Picks Up The Trash, Is Rewarded

A Hell Of A Meal 

Joe found them both on the sidewalk, not in the gutter, not in the trash can, not warm. It never has anything to do with the bar next door.
You wonder what kind of process happens inside a body sustained by such things. It's probably not healthy, but, what is healthy?
Is it better to starve, or eat dirt and garbage?
Probably could stand to miss a meal or two. Or drink it out of a bottle.
Joe is a Vegan. He looks down with pity, from his throne of vegetable matter, on all us poor carnivores, consuming fear, feces, and blood.

Ask Not What You Can Do, Etc, Etc...

Adj. 1. steely - resembling steel as in hardness; "steely eyes"; "steely nerves like those of a steeplejack"  

Played the JFK Memorial album from 1964 in the store today. This is the kind of stuff we do when presented with the opportunity to present ancient politicians in their heyday.
I was ready to tell anyone who asked that it was Mitt Romney, but no one asked. As a matter of fact, a couple who were walking by came in, listened for a minute, and quickly left.
Which is probably why Ownership objects whenever we play things like this.
I don't have the results handy, and I am too lazy to look them up, but, I don't think Kennedy did well here in the 1960 election. Call it a hunch. Idahoans make no distinction between Democrats and Socialists. The myth of the rugged individualist, making a stand against nature, varmints and liberals who want to take his land and money still holds sway here.

Friday Parade

It's not just me, I don't think. Things take on their own momentum, their own life. We are just part of the whole. I like seeing the parade.

Alan P. has been coming into the store since the nineties. He's obsessed with: David Gates and Bread, Bread, David Gates, The Kinks, Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Bread, The Kinks, and....Tish Hinojosa.

He called yesterday, when I was too busy to talk to him, and working the front alone, because Brion had work off the floor. He ordered something that was no longer in print, so we had to make an order from a private party to fill the order for him.

Today, he bursts into the store on a crowded Friday afternoon, blathering and blaring his special order orders at us. You can't really do justice to his thing in print, but he is a word linker, he can't modulate his voice anymore, and he sounds like a cartoon character. "HEHHEHHHEHHHEEE THAT HOMELAND, IGOTBUSINESS HEHEHEHHEHHHEHEHEH ANDI'M HERE ANYWAY, ANYWAY, HEEHEHEHHEHEHHEHEHEHE, IWONDERIFYOUGOTHEHEHEHEHHEHEH THAT IN? HOMELAND?"

Carl photobombs Alan

That it comes at the worst time is a given. There are people and products everywhere. It's very chaotic, and there is plenty going on. Lot's of selling, lots of side stuff. Two huge CD buys. Phone calls. The damnable BODO cards. Ticket selling. I'm ok with all of it. It stretches my abilities to keep this all together, because by nature I am pretty scattered. It just is what it is. It happens. But most of the regulars have been in, all the crazy regulars that grab things from the free box by the door, the giveaway rack, and everything.

Looking for Blaank

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEH YOU USTA HAVE THEM C90 CA-SETS A LONG TIME A-GO, I AIN'T GOT A CASSETTE HEHEHHEHE YOU KNOW THEY ARE OUT OF STYLE..HEHEHEHHHEHE WHENIGET MY HAIRCUT I GET THE MILITARY DISCOUNT, BUTTHEYDON'T CARE. I DON'THAVEMUCHHAIR! .HHHEHEHEHEHEHEH, WHERE DO YOU HAVE THE BLANK CD'S FROM HEHHEHEHEHEHEHEH?"

Heading for the car?

Where is he heading? Back to his life. The guy is what we refer to as a "recordstore legend" You get to know people, but on a very narrow basis, with only what they tell you about the details of their life to go on. And sometimes these people turn up in the news. Alan has been coming to our store as long as I have worked here. I remember when he brought his family along, and how "normal" they seemed. They also seemed pretty aggrieved to be there. And later, they got divorced. I think he is completely estranged from his family. And that could be sad, but you really never know about things like that. They could be complete assholes as well.