Brewed Beverage of Choice: a cup of Oolong Tea on a Sunny Monday evening
When I was just a wee lad, I would watch hours and hours of Bugs Bunny cartoons. I would even go so far as sneaking in daily dose during Lent when the Television was forbidden. If you know me well enough, you know that I will spout off a random Bugs Bunny quote here and there for no reason but to show that I watched Bugs Bunny cartoons. The knowledge gained from watching endless cartoons is immense. What second grader knows what an ‘A card’ is? In fact I would say that Bugs Bunny led me down my philosophical path.
There was one cartoon that would mold me as a human being as I grew older. In the episode Bugs tames an orangutan with a violin because as the adage says: Music tames the savage beast. Little did I realize how much this adage would play a part in my keeping of sanity. In fact, as I write this, I am listening to a bunch of old 45s I have collected over the years. (Right now I am on Cardinal.) One does not realize how much they take the little things for granted. I, for one, did not know, or have forgotten, or knew and ignored, or knew and was too lazy to remember how much work, writing, reading, sleeping, philosophizing I completed with music in the foreground or background.
Part of the reasoning behind this slip of knowledge is the fact that music may soothe my inner beast, but that inner beast requires new music or it will attack. For reasons I will not bore you with, I have not been able to purchase any new and innovative music since August of last year…I remember that day because it was the day before my wedding…And with this tidbit of information I set myself off to the record store after work one day last week. When I walked into the local record shop, I really had no idea of what I was going to purchase. That is part of the fun of music shopping. Discovery is the key. That is what drove my shopping when I was busy as a Swing Dance DJ. In fact music shopping would be completely and utterly boring if I knew what I was going into the store to purchase. Might as well stay at home and download it from iTunes. And so here we go…
Lately I have been in a late 80s and early 90s old punk sort of mood. A Minutemen sort of mood. A Black Flag sort of mood. A Jesus and Mary Chain sort of mood. Big Black, Social Distortion, Bad Brains…You know. But after walking around this particular shop for about fifteen to twenty minutes I was not seeing what I wanted. It was a vinyl day and no one in their right mind was giving up these sorts of titles. So I perused some old stand-bys like Yo La Tengo, Ida, Iron and Wine. I think my heart stopped several times. Sticker shock is not supposed to happen when buying music. That is left for cars and televisions and large electronic things we do not need. $19.99 is what you pay for a pair of Chuck’s not for a new vinyl recording.
Time was getting closer to walking out and we all know it is taboo to walk out of a record store with nothing in our hands. The movie ‘High Fidelity’ should have taught us all that. Desperation was setting in. Frustration was waiting for me in the CD section. I hate meeting him there. He is so smug and pretentious. ‘Look at all these CDs,’ he would whisper in my ear. ‘Look at all the CDs. I dare you to try and find something enjoyable now.’ Cocky bastard! My shoulders slumped and I sauntered towards the CDs a defeated man. I swear as I stepped into the section the sun disappeared behind the clouds.
Of course you can guess I did not find anything. How can someone find anything when they do not know exactly what they are looking for? There are no maps to secret treasure in record shopping. Record shopping is like striking a pinata. One lucky punk smacks the hell out of the burro and down falls the treasure. And you have to be pretty feckin quick to even get the remnants or else you will be walking out with the musical equivalent of candy corn…Rick Astley anyone? But I was not going to go down that easy and I went back towards the vinyl on a musical mission (from god.) There was only one section I could go to with the knowledge I was going to find my holy grail. That section is Jazz!
Honestly I can say it took me all of one minute to find that grail. It was only the third LP in the row behind a couple of also-rans. What I found was a 1962 first pressing in excellent condition. It is a pressing of an LP I contemplated buying in digital form. The album…’New Wave’ by the one and only Dizzy Gillespie. It stared at me like a lover stares at their beloved from across the room. It gazed at me like a long lost friend. Where have you been? I have been looking all over for you. And for reasons I cannot explain, its price tag was less than a new LP on vinyl. How is that possible?
I quickly grabbed the LP as if there were ten snobby jazz aficionados about to reel in the same album. I snared it like the true hipster I am, knowing full well this was a find to end all finds. I grabbed it knowing my hipster card would not be taken from me for leaving a record store with no purchases. Some people have their Raggae. Others have their Punk. I have Be-Bop…and Jazz…with Diz, Monk, and Basie as Chairmen of the Board.
And so music (shopping) has soothed the inner beast. With my find and an exclusive high, I head to the front counter to…well, well, well…What do we have here? The New Year on vinyl. Hell, I will take that too. Off to the counter. Thanks Bugs!
Prost!
the confucian brewer (hopefully the hiatus has ended…)
45s listended to whilst writing this included Yo La Tengo, Rex, Jawbox, Palace, Will Oldham, Cardinal, Eric Matthews, Spain, Edsel, and Folk Implosion.