Vinyl Dreams

I do believe that the music industry robbed society when they switched from vinyl to cassette. Not only did they take away the concept of fantastic cover art, they destroyed the romance that comes with holding a 12' square (approx) cardboard sleeve with pure magic inside. To reach inside, pull out the cool, shiny record; to flip it in your hands and admire the grooves; to place it gently on the player, the center being penetrated for the first time; lifting the arm and ever-so-carefully setting the stylus down and hearing the staccato burst of static as the record spun in it's hypnotic circle.

It's romantic. It's a love affair. You got what you paid for. Cassette tapes were pure shit. CD's brought back a little of the square packaging and the art and etc, but the damage was done. And now? Now?! Vinyl is being pressed for tons of new stuff. I was in ***'s (name hidden to protect etc) two days ago and found almost as much new vinyl as I did old. They charge from 12.00 to 20.00 for new albums, but I feel like I got my money worth with an album and not so much with a CD. I'm an average consumer. I fall for that kind of shit.

So I had a family member in town recently and she brought me 50 used albums. That kind of stuff makes my day more than some other things. Mostly 80's stuff, but I did get some vintage Aerosmith, Kiss, ELO, etc. Lots of live albums with inserts and etc. Awesome stuff. I now have about 250 albums, which doesn't seem like much and doesn't look like much. What started as a small hobby collection is becoming a nice getaway for me. I come down into the basement, sit at the pub table and put on some vinyl.

I have some great ones; Double Fantasy, the White Album, Sticky Fingers with a functioning zipper, Muscle of Love in the original box packaging. Great stuff. And I play them all. I don't collect shit for the purpose of collecting it. What's the point in that?

As mentioned, I went to *** and I have to say- it's not as great as the stores I hit in Portland, Oregon. Those stores are fantastic, grossly filled to the gills, and cheaper. I could buy Bob Marley for $5. *** charges $15 for worn copies. I don't want to knock the store, but I've been there twice and didn't get the warm and fuzzies. The place is picked dry, from what I could see. And buying vinyl, for me, is a treasure hunt. If I stop in a garage sale and find a huge stack to paw through, it's beautiful. Going to a smaller store is akin to walking on a beach with your metal detector. Right behind 20 other guys with their metal detector.

But I have found some decent buys in there. Springsteen, Talking Heads. I'm still looking for vintage Bowie, Alice Cooper, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel. I don't care what the value guide says they're worth. I want to listen to them. And so should you. So go out and buy a turn table and pick up some vinyl. New or old. Just don't buy up the shit I want. And if you're at a garage sale and find a pile of folk rock or classic rock, buy 'em up and give me a jingle. (If you know me.) I am always buying vinyl. It's my love affair.

Republicans

I'm sitting at the table, working on my laptop, and since I needed background noise I turned on the TV. The Republican National Convention came on at 10:00 or something. Rudi G is currently speaking and he has the whole group of Repubs chanting 'drill, baby, drill'. I don't know if they're talking about domestic oil production or prodding Levi to go after Palin's daughter again. That's what I get for not paying close attention.

I, as an adult, would never chant 'drill, baby, drill' so I can only look at these people and shake my head in mild amusement. Time to change the channel to Family Guy, where Stewie makes more sense than Rudy.

Brewery Dreams

I have a ton of work that I could be doing right now, but I keep having this dream...

There is this vacant property down the road from my place in East Lansing. It's on Park Lake Road and it used to be a golf course. I see this building and I start getting all kinds of ideas. For example, there used to be this restaurant down by the airport in Cleveland, Ohio. Or was it Toledo? Any way, it was called 57th Fighter Squadron or something like that. The front of the building was laid out like a 40's European street with brick sidewalks, phone booth, bare bulb lights strung across the walkway. They had a lovely Willys jeep in the drive among other vehicles and weaponry. The inside of the restaurant looked like an Enlisted club, right down to the jackets hanging on the coat racks. The music was WWII vintage. The outdoor pub was built inside the burned out hulk of a barn that had a fighter jet hanging down from the roof as if it crashed through the barn and burned out. Example: HERE

The place was AWESOME. It was designed to look like a French countryside farm. So what if that theme was coupled with a brewpub and it was plopped down on this vacant property?

What does it take to start a brew pub? Where do you find good brewmaster's? Now, a few entrepreneurial spirits could really market a great restaurant, but you know, most restaurants fail within a year. I suspect themed restaurants rank higher yet. But if the theme is well received and you diversify your attractions (brew and a badass restaurant) and you have all this property out back,... hmm. This gets better. What if you allowed those military war re-enactor groups to use your property to do their thing and you had a pavilion for spectators and etc? You could really draw crowds. The interest in war hasn't faded. If anything, it's increased what with Band of Brothers, Flags of Iwo Jima, Saving Private Ryan, etc.

So who wants to get in on this with me? I have about $14.00 to use as starting capital which should buy 500 napkins.