We are living in dog years.  Every day feels like seven.  137,000 dead and rising.  The positive cases keep stacking up.  What a horrible mess we are in.  No national leadership and no plan. God help us.

Elective surgeries recently opened up, so on June 17^th Amelia had a bunionectomy and surgery on two hammer toes on her left foot.  It was originally scheduled for April, but the Covid kiboshed it. “A summer to remember” is the mantra I keep repeating everyday, much to my wife’s chagrin 😉. Six weeks on crutches and in a cast, then four weeks in a boot.  So we are definitely staying home and hopefully safe this summer while she recovers.  The Airstream is sitting in storage.  I go over once a week to visit her and reminisce. My other repetitive line, is a catch all for the Covid era: “People are stupid.” Every day the news confirms and reiterates it.

Music has always been a passion of mine. There have been times when it’s only smoldering, but the Covid has fanned the flames. Staying at home equals not spending as much money as usual and listening to a lot more music.  I’ve been taking that extra money that we used to spend on god knows what and investing in the joy of music. I’ve bought more CDs in the last four weeks than the last two years.  Music is powerful.  It stirs up emotions and memories.  I’ve never been a guy that wanted to be in a band or a rock star.  Instead, I’ve always wanted to be a songwriter.  To be able to craft a short story into lyrics…that’s magical.

In the late 70s and throughout most of the 80s every payday signaled a trip to Tower Records on Sports Arena Blvd.  All of us would load into someone’s VW Bug, super excited to go buy more music.  The vibe in the store was amazing. You could spend hours leafing through all the vinyl, listening to what they had spinning, chatting up the employees, and people watching.  You had your favorite artists, and always knew when they had a new release coming out.  You also mined the store for unheard gems, looking to be the first guy on the block to discover the hot new artist.  Bragging rights!  I like to take credit for discovering Lucinda Williams, but truth be told, it was my friend, Suzie. I will take credit for Green on Red, Jason and the Scorchers, The Plimsouls, Scruffy the Cat, Steve Earle, and Wire Train.

I currently do not have a turntable, but still rue the day I sold hundreds of albums and a handful of 45s before our move to Mammoth Lakes.  I actually thought I sold everything, but I had so much vinyl that there was a stash I forgot about!  So I still have about a 50 LPs.  There’s just nothing like holding an album sleeve in your hand.

 

Scruffy the Cat, Boom Boom Boom Bingo LP with the Tower price tag! 1987 release on Relativity Records.

 

Valley Girl, what a great movie. The Plimsouls playing, “The Oldest Story in the World” in the bar scene. And Nicolas Cage with one of the best lines ever in a movie. “That chick Julie is truly dazzling.”  Need I say more.

 

 

All of us screwed up at least once and accidently left an LP in a hot car. It’s crazy how bad the vinyl would warp. The record would be ruined.  One time the Tower Records lot was full so I had to park on a side street.  When I came back to my car, someone had stolen my Pioneer AM/FM Cassette player.  They yanked it right out of the dash.  I was so bummed.  If you had a VW, shit like that happened too often because it was so easy to break in through the wing vents.

With all your albums you could then spend time crafting mix tapes. It was a real art form and a great way to impress a chick.  The movie High Fidelity, starring John Cusack, does a terrific job of nailing that era.  The Hulu series remake of the movie with the smoking hot Zoe Kravitz is also worth viewing.

 

One of my favorite mix tapes.

The last mix tape my brother made before passing away on April 5, 1994.

 

Then one day, vinyl was out and compact discs were in.  There was great hype surrounding CDs, but the bottom line was vinyl sounded better, a lot better.  And then the world famous Tower Records was gone daddy gone, shuttered, out of business. Now CDs are on their way out and everyone is streaming music, but the bottom line is CD sound quality is a lot better than streamed music.

When my two friends and I opened Fins in 1989, music was a big part of our concept.  At first we played cassette tapes, but there was always the issue of having to flip the tape!  We quickly got smart and bought a five CD player and brought in our own existing CDs and started buying a bunch more.  Each store had a couple hundred CDs and we encouraged managers to bring in music. The opening manager would select the day’s music trying to create a theme that could be titled, if not the Fins logo sufficed.  I won’t name names, but a couple of managers always seemed to have their one go to CD that they always played, so eventually we just hid A Decade of Steely Dan and Honk, Five Summer Stories Soundtrack! Each store had a space on the wall for Today’s Music Mix, a plexi-glass holder that held the sleeve of each CD that was playing.  Every Friday was Jimmy Buffett Day (Fins, get it?). CD Trader on Miramar Rd was the place to go, but it was nowhere as cool as Tower in their heyday.  From 1989-1997, when we were in the stores all the time, with great managers, it was music magic. We had some brilliant mixes and customers loved it.  But as often happens, growing pains and lack of control doomed the great idea.  You can read the article below from an old Fins newsletter.

 

 

 

I’ve already said as much, but I’m not a streaming music guy.  I really enjoy laying down a five CD mix. I’ve been working remotely since 2012. Music keeps me company and makes me smile. Three years ago my last five CD player crapped out on me.  I was in a panic.  Good Ol’ Craig’s List saved me! I found a guy in Vista that has a garage full of receivers and CD players he has repaired and sells. If I were smart I’d contact him tomorrow, don a mask, and go buy two more players, because sooner or later this one is going to crap out too. Now, during the Covid, I’ve started naming the mixes again, just like back in the day at Fins.  And texting the pic of CD inserts to my music loving buddies.  It’s great fun, a nice way to stay connected, and gives me a little daily creative outlet.

 

 

Here’s a few of my recent mixes:

 

Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer’s, Not Dark Yet, is a real stand out for these times. I can’t rave about it enough. Another real gem that I recently knocked the dust off of and now can’t stop working into mixes is Kathleen Edwards’ 2003 release, Failer. I hope someone doesn’t hide it from me 😳.

 

Please stay safe! 😷