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captainsblogFine. It was only to the edge of the city limits, and it was 1:30 on a Saturday afternoon, but still. It was to check out the not-quite-late-night record shop on this, the sixth annual Record Store Day. We still have a few pure indies around here in farther-flung parts of town, but I chose a smallish chain store just over the Amherst border called Record Theatre.
It once billed its Main-and-Lafayette flagship as "the world's largest record store," but for the early years of the CDification of US music it was forced into some changes, most of them bad. Into the early 90s, they still had huge posters of early 80s album covers on their outside walls, including one unfortunate one by The Knack. (Not even their Meet-the-Beatles knockoff with "My Sharona" on it but their even more forgettable followup.) Then, Blockbuster Video took over the store and tried to combine their video rental business with record sales in a concept they called "Music Plus," proving that sometimes two doomed business models aren't any better than one. Record Theatre ultimately survived, though; it got smaller, moved out of malls and other cities (they'd been in Rochester and Cleveland, at least), ultimately claimed back the flagship from the failed video moguls, and now just have two old-school stores- that one and a longtime location across from UB's original campus.That's the one I visited earlier today, in search of the new Dar Williams album. Which they had- only one, but it's all I needed. The place was busy, featuring live-music acts in the back of the store, and highlighting some vinyl-only new releases in honor of the occasion as well as plenty of their own still-supported collection of used LPs. I told the guy in line ahead of me, who was buying one of them, "Wow- I haven't seen this much vinyl in one place since the last time I was in the East Village." The clerk asked each of us if we wanted a bag. I didn't- Dar was already nicely shrink-wrapped- and he didn't want one either for his Dark Side of the Moon vinyl. "Don't worry, man," I assured him. "It's Floyd- the water will bounce right off it."
I know that one day a year won't save them from Amazons and Spotifys and endless streams on smartphones, but they're a plucky lot, and I was probably twice the age of the next-oldest person I saw in there, so there's hope. They even decorated:
Oh, and Dar's album rocks, too:)
----
From there, I resolved to keep the buy-small model going. I cleaned our fish tank earlier, and we needed new filters for it when I was done. I also wanted to replace the plastic stick that aerates the water; Eleanor bought one a few weeks ago, but it stopped putting out bubbles after the first few weeks, and no amount of cleaning or adjusting the hose seemed to work.
Our newest local Wally World is on the way home from the record shop, but I resolved to give first dibs to the small pet store across Sheridan from them. They don't sell puppy-mill pets, have knowledgeable staff, and are generally good eggs. So I bought both products from them, but on the way home, discovered that I probably didn't need the new air stick. It was the same model as the last one, but this time I got to read the instructions on the back:
In hard water areas. mineral deposits may clog any air stone.
Yeah, that's us. Read on:
The Bubble Wall®, however, is the only aeration product which can be easily regenerated. Simply use a pin or needle to puncture with as many small holes as needed.
I tried this out on the old one, and, sure enough, it regenerated. Now, though, I have to explain to Gene and Gomez why their daily food intake is going to be supplemented by fishsticks and custard.
It once billed its Main-and-Lafayette flagship as "the world's largest record store," but for the early years of the CDification of US music it was forced into some changes, most of them bad. Into the early 90s, they still had huge posters of early 80s album covers on their outside walls, including one unfortunate one by The Knack. (Not even their Meet-the-Beatles knockoff with "My Sharona" on it but their even more forgettable followup.) Then, Blockbuster Video took over the store and tried to combine their video rental business with record sales in a concept they called "Music Plus," proving that sometimes two doomed business models aren't any better than one. Record Theatre ultimately survived, though; it got smaller, moved out of malls and other cities (they'd been in Rochester and Cleveland, at least), ultimately claimed back the flagship from the failed video moguls, and now just have two old-school stores- that one and a longtime location across from UB's original campus.That's the one I visited earlier today, in search of the new Dar Williams album. Which they had- only one, but it's all I needed. The place was busy, featuring live-music acts in the back of the store, and highlighting some vinyl-only new releases in honor of the occasion as well as plenty of their own still-supported collection of used LPs. I told the guy in line ahead of me, who was buying one of them, "Wow- I haven't seen this much vinyl in one place since the last time I was in the East Village." The clerk asked each of us if we wanted a bag. I didn't- Dar was already nicely shrink-wrapped- and he didn't want one either for his Dark Side of the Moon vinyl. "Don't worry, man," I assured him. "It's Floyd- the water will bounce right off it."
I know that one day a year won't save them from Amazons and Spotifys and endless streams on smartphones, but they're a plucky lot, and I was probably twice the age of the next-oldest person I saw in there, so there's hope. They even decorated:
Oh, and Dar's album rocks, too:)
----
From there, I resolved to keep the buy-small model going. I cleaned our fish tank earlier, and we needed new filters for it when I was done. I also wanted to replace the plastic stick that aerates the water; Eleanor bought one a few weeks ago, but it stopped putting out bubbles after the first few weeks, and no amount of cleaning or adjusting the hose seemed to work.
Our newest local Wally World is on the way home from the record shop, but I resolved to give first dibs to the small pet store across Sheridan from them. They don't sell puppy-mill pets, have knowledgeable staff, and are generally good eggs. So I bought both products from them, but on the way home, discovered that I probably didn't need the new air stick. It was the same model as the last one, but this time I got to read the instructions on the back:
In hard water areas. mineral deposits may clog any air stone.
Yeah, that's us. Read on:
The Bubble Wall®, however, is the only aeration product which can be easily regenerated. Simply use a pin or needle to puncture with as many small holes as needed.
I tried this out on the old one, and, sure enough, it regenerated. Now, though, I have to explain to Gene and Gomez why their daily food intake is going to be supplemented by fishsticks and custard.