Sad Robot Pancake Arm

A robot learning to flip pancakes from Sylvain Calinon on Vimeo.

Pre-Williamsburg Smash! Run

Prior to my yearly trip to Williamsburg to run sound for Tidewater area high school graduations, I always pick up my friend Derek from the Chinatown bus.  Then we both head down there for 4-5 days and then watch like 3,000 kids graduate.  It's a... blast.  But I have a really good time with Derek and we pretty much just hang out and talk about zombie movies and this year, Lost.  Man did we talk a lot about Lost!  But prior to the pickup, I had a couple of free hours on my hands and I decided to use it at my favorite DC record store, Smash!  Got lots of great stuff and left a bunch of incredible 7"s up on the wall that I didn't see until after I was already checking out.  Seriously need to go back for the Bane and Converge 7"s.  Really hope no one snags them in the meantime... One of the best things about Smash is that they really have a lot of what you're looking for, if you're looking for specific stuff.  Like, if you want to pick up a bunch of really great 70's and 80's soundtrack albums in really great condition, you are in luck! Or perhaps some obscure metalcore from the 90's... or the next Judas Priest LP to continue to round out your collection.  That's what that store is, a great collection rounder outer.  So when I go, it is with that purpose... and to get a few ridiculous things that I probably won't get anywhere else... so here goes...

FULL LENGTHS:

The Lost Boys OST
The Goonies OST
The Elms Street Group - Freddy's Greatest Hits (this is pretty out of control awesome)
Judas Priest - Point of Entry
Grade - Headfirst Straight to Hell (picture disc)
New Order - Brotherhood
Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (new)

12"

New Order - Confusion
U2 - even better than the REAL THING
U2 - Lemon Remixes (gold/lemon vinyl)

7"

Overcast/Arise - Split
Drowningman - Weighted and Weighed Down
Crispus Attucks - Yo Peho!
Outspoken - The Current
Prince - When Doves Cry
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - War
J.A.M. '86 Jersey Artists For Mankind - We've Got The Love (got this on LP and 7" now! Psyched!)
George Harrison - Got My Mind Set On You
The Knack - Good Girls Don't

Cause It's Been Too Long!

Been like 6 months! Can't believe this list actually includes some Christmas gets and wintertime purchases. Since then, I haven't been out to that many record stores locally, but I managed to do Long In The Tooth in Philadelphia, Just Play Music in Santa Barbara, and got to walk into one of the Amoeba's in San Francisco, but didn't have time to shop. Super upset that I didn't get back to the LA Amoeba. I want to move there just for that. Also to note, the best pancakes I've had this year so far would go to Ella's in San Francisco - blueberry mascarpone. Deal with THAT! My only complaint was that they weren't packed with nearly enough bluuuubs, but the mascarpone made me forget with each bite. And I got them with some rocking blood orange juice. Coffee was average. Cakes at Izzy's in Santa Monica weren't half bad too. I continue to search for that illusive perfect pancake with perfect coffee/espresso restaurant. When I find that, I move to that. Done Deal/Deal Done. Especially if there is a record store next door... that is run by a man named Adam M. And I run the breakfast place. And we both run the used flip flop stand in the basement. I bought some records...

Full Lengths/EPs/etc:
Telekinesis! - S/T
Nada Surf - If I Had a Hi-Fi
Prince - LA Sports Arena 1989 (but really '88)
Prince - The Beautiful Experience (Sealed)
Majority Rule - Emergency Numbers
Fripp & Eno - Evening Star
The Philadelphia Sound - Various
Prince - Rave un2 the Joy Fantastic
Brian Eno - Test Press of Apollo: Atmosphers and Soundtracks
Corrosion of Conformity - Technocracy
Anthrax - Among The Living
Volcano Choir - Unmap
We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue
M83 - Digital Shades [vol. I]
Coldplay - Prospekts March
Miles Davis - Nefertiti
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - S/T


12"
Pet Shop Boys - Left To My Own Devices
U2 - When Love Comes To Town
New Order - True Faith
Prince Mix #1 w/ Batdance, Good vs. Evil on Side 1 and "The Ultimate Prince Mega-mix on side 2 - Not sure if this is legit or what...
The Killers - When You Were Young (my second copy)

10"
Killing Joke - Follow the Leaders

7"
U2 - Angel of Harlem
Telekinesis - Dirty Thing
Japandroids - Art Czars
Season To Risk/Starkweather - Split
H2O - SEVENINCH (I know Why/Temperature)
Pet Shop Boys - Left To My Own Devices
Men At Work - Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive

End Of The Year Accounting

Got a few records for Christmas.

Elmo Williams & Hezekiah Early - Takes One To Know One
Jelly Roll Kings - Off Yonder Wall
Asie Payton - Worried

Fat Possum for Christmas is awesome. The one I was really looking forward to was Elmo & Hezekiah, but the best one turned out to be Asie Payton. I'm not sure exactly how I went this long without getting into him, but I'm happy I could get it corrected. Plus, free sticker and a button. And my mom decided she wasn't going to keep them for herself. Yeah!

New Year's Eve I decided to do a thrift store run-through. It had been probably over a month since I'd gone to any thrift store, which is pretty much an eternity for me. And I was rewarded pretty well. Got a few Queen records in very good condition, a few Elton John records, the second Terry Reid, and a few others that are inessential but good to have, like a couple Wings albums and Lou Reed's Transformer, things like that. At one place I found a copy of Them's second album. It's not in great shape, but it's a pretty unusual find for a thrift store. It would be a good find in a record store, so there was no way I was leaving it there. And I also found Yessongs. I was excited about that, however, I wouldn't call my search for Yessongs over. The cover on this one is terribly water-damaged, though the vinyl looks to be in okay playable shape. It'll be better once I dust it off. I'll still be keeping my eyes open for it, but this copy will tide me over until I can find one in better shape and including the booklet.

Then, fun news to go along with this, with the additions of the thrift store run to my spreadsheet I have exceeded 1000 albums. In actuality I did that a while ago because, almost two years since I started the spreadsheet, I still haven't entered my classical albums into it. So, that only took 13 or 14 years. Let's make it 2000 by 33.

Seven Inchers Galore

Decided to use a $20 gift certificate and the $20 i had from my frequent buyer card to raid the Last Vestige 7" bin. Right before I went over to it, I had about 10-15 jazz/prog records in my arms (brand x, billy cobham, etc.), but they all went back once I found the REM. Here goes:

7 INCHERS
REM - Tongue (Limited Edition 1995 Tour Souvenir)
REM - Crush With Eyeliner (Limited Edition Calendar, Orange Vinyl)
Pearl Jam - Off He Goes
Love Battery - Foot (green, sub pop singles club #37)
Bruce Springsteen - I'm Going Down
Echo & The Bunnymen - Bedbugs and Ballyhoo
Weird Al Yankovic - Like A Surgeon
Men At Work - Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Dreaming
The Outfield - All The Love In The World
Eurythmics - There Must Be An Angel (playing with my heart)
INXS - What You Need
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam - Little Jackie Wants To Be A Star
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - If You Were A Priest
Handsome - Swimming/Can't Connect (sub pop '95)
Sister Double Happiness - Don't Worry/Wheels A' Spinning (sub pop '90)
Ithaca/The Color Turning - Split
Carrison - The Bend Before The Break
The Raymond Brake - New Wave Dream

Totally taking chances with that last bunch, but they were mostly a dollar, so worth a shot. Lots of Sub Pop singles in the bunch. Just reviewed their discography online and I am now realizing that I left a couple from the singles club back in the bin - Green Magnet School and Gorilla... there were like four copies of the Green Magnet school though and I never really got into them when I checked them out waaaay like a year ago, so I'm not too stressed about it. What I am stressed about is the possibility of not making it to the Albany location tomorrow on my way out of town, sadly, to go back home. Total Bummer. I really like it here in Saratoga for sure and if only I could spend a few more hours searching through bins, completely void of outside world thoughts. That is The Brilll (with three els). Oh, one more Vinyl to add:

David Sylvian - Gone To Earth (double import)

Been meaning to get into him for ages now and the Frippage on their will hopefully help.

Future post coming up in the next day or so: records I got for Christmas. Have I mentioned that it has been a good trip?

Last Vestige Freakout.

Glorious find after glorious find! And most of it didn't come until after I checked out and went BACK to the $1 section (which ended up being .50 cents each yesterday = sweet). It is an addiction...

Regularly Priced
Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - The Pacific Age
A Flock of Seagulls - Modern Love Is Automatic/Telecommunication 12"
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (Picture Disc!!!)
The Sugarcubes - Life's Too Good
Al B. Sure! - In Effect Mode
Johnny Gill - S/T
Ready For The World - Long Time Coming
Sting - Nothing Like the Sun
Paw - Death To Traitors
Gas Huffer - Mole 7"

.50 Cents Each Section
Go West - Dancing On The Couch
Belinda Carlisle - Belinda
Caterwaul - Beholden
Icehouse - S/T
Howard Jones - One To One
Kiss - Hotter Than Hell
Shadowfax - The Dreams of Children
Roman Holliday - Cookin' On The Roof
Rick Springfield - Beautiful Feelings
Phyllis Nelson - I Like You
Simple Minds - I Travel 12"
Rumble Fish - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Stewart Copeland)
Paul Young - No Parlez (track 2 is a Love Will Tear Us Apart cover!!!)
Billy Ocean - Love Zone
Real Life - Heartland

Can I tell you how excited I was to see that Real Life album? One of those finds that makes you go "No way!" or "Yessssss..." or "hahahaHAHAHAhahaha" or "Oooooooohhhh..." and you hope no one is actually around to hear you geek the freak out over a .50 cent synth pop record. But the same happened for the Lauper picture disc and the Go West, and the Paul Young, and the Howard Jones... sometimes it pays to love what most people might consider irrelevant music. Fine by me though, left me more money to pick up that Sugarcubes piece of gold. And totally psyched to dig into Paw... Definitely think there will be some great, obscure, longtime friends to be had when I get this batch home to the safety of my shelves, where they belong. Now only one more stop to the location in Albany where I have read on their site that they have Prefab Sprout's If You Don't Love Me 12" and A-Ha's Stay On These Roads LP... if I could find both of those it would be like finding 3/5ths of a Last Temptation of Christ Soundtrack... fingers crossed!

Some crazy news that I found out after I left the store... Apparently Last Vestige will be consolidating into their Albany location and closing the Saratoga store... pause to watch heart sink to the bottom of the ocean... continue reading - but the longtime Saratoga manager will be renting the space on her own to open up her own record store. Sweet. I am up for that. Especially if it can bring some new vinyl into that shop. The one thing that plagues me about their stock is that the new release availability is horrendous. I always want that option when I go into a record store to pick up some new stuff that I've been obsessing over while I search through the past time and time again for the few new discs that have been placed among the ages... and the dust. Or if you would like the exact formula, one We Were Promised Jetpacks to each Milli Vanilli... And a side note to Adam - I almost picked up Yessongs and Fragile, but ended up putting them back. Wasn't sure what the going rates on either of them are. Yessongs was $18 and it had a notch cut out of the lower left hand corner. Think I would rather spend that kind of money on the 180 gram reissues at this point and hope to find them both for less at another time. Twas pretty darn awesome to see Yessongs fold all the way out though. No luck on finding another Close To The Edge to replace my warped copy. Pollacks... Jackson Pollacks...

Oh, and I had some totally basic, bland, whatever pancakes at the Latham 76 Diner the morning after I got into town at like 5AM. Might have been the most average pancakes to ever pass my lips. And can you believe they didn't even offer blueberry? or strawberry? or any berry for that matter? Waste of my time except to fill up the ole cake tank. I will have to find better before I leave.

Oh (x2), I have been meaning to post up two of the records that I snagged from my Uncle's box o records in his basement in Glocester, NJ. Normally, I could never ever EVER raid another person's record stash even if they say "take anything you want". Because of the way I feel about my records, I know that I could never take any bit of music that could have possibly been the soundtrack to a moment in someone's life, thus rendering them incapable of putting the disc on, reliving that wonderful nostalgia. Just can't do it... BUT, when he told me that he got some of the records from someone else and that he totally doesn't care about them, I went into "Well, if you insist!" mode... Let's just say that in a box full of Perry Cuomo, I doubt he will miss Kiss Double Platinum and Kiss Rock and Roll Over, both in perfect condition with vintage inserts intact. WON DER FUL. I swear, if you have never been a Kiss fan, go get double platinum. That shmurph is OFF THE HOOK. Except for Strutter '78. Wha the WHA were they thinking... other than, hey guys, you want to make some more money? Sure what the heck... Long story short, thanks Uncle Richard!

Now I shall drive into Saratoga, get a cappuccino at Uncommon Grounds and begin my last day of Christmas shopping. I Like Vacation.

Pumcakes and Records

I took a trip to Williamsburg this weekend. (More about that to come on my blog.) Mostly just for the hell of it, but I also wanted to go to a performance of Messiah at Bruton Parish. But that's here nor there. Because on the way down I stopped at Plan 9 Richmond. On the way in I stopped at Plan 9 Williamsburg. And on the way to go to sleep I stopped at IHOP. Glory. Predominantly P&R Friday.

Plan 9 Richmond was the greatest as always. I was actually mostly going there to see if I could find this CD that my brother has been bitching about never being able to find for well over a year now. I could've ordered it from Amazon a while ago, but I kind of wanted to put Plan 9 up to the challenge. And have an excuse to go there. Well, they delivered on that end, so that was awesome. Of course then it was downstairs. The dollar section has gotten even bigger, which is excellent. The three dollar section has gotten bigger. The regular "these are albums people look for and we price them accordingly" section was actually miniscule. Personally, I like that. I never buy anything from that section anyway unless it's an absolute must-have, shit's just too expensive. Mostly what I wanted was Yes. I've been listening to Yes a LOT lately, and yet all I have on record is Fragile from way way back. One of the first records I found in my basement. So I managed to find Close To The Edge, The Yes Album, and of course 90125. But no Yessongs, Relayer, Going For The One, or Tales From The Topographic Oceans unfortunately. I had kind of counted on Yessongs being there, but oh well, I can deal with what I got fer shur. Also picked up first albums from Booker T. & the MGs and The Mar-keys, which I was very excited about. Ultimately pretty successful, especially considering how much I put back. I rarely ever put anything back in the dollar bin. I convince myself, "It's just a dollar. How can I leave it?" But I was able to tell myself this time, "I came for Yes. I'm sticking with Yes this time. Settle down. Put it back."

This was the first time I'd been to Plan 9 Williamsburg since they moved to the Big Lots shopping center. I guess the space is about the same size? Maybe? I have a hard time remembering. But it seemed like they had a lot less stuff than they used to. The racks just seemed to have pitifully few albums in them, and that goes for CDs too. I was looking through the records and thought I had wandered into a bust. "Oh, S.O.S. Band, that's okay. Sade Stronger Than Pride, I can deal with that. Best of Minnie Riperton, I kind of want that." I get into a weird mood when I stumble into a place like that. Even though there may be stuff there I'm willing to spend a dollar or three on, I get into this mood where unless I feel like you're trying to give me some real reason to get excited, I refuse to go to the cash register with anything. So, almost a complete bust when I get to the 5 dollar section and find a pretty good copy of Sign 'O' The Times. Then I got excited. And of course, when I got excited, I went back and picked up the other three I was sort of interested in. I'll call it a success.

Then pancakes. This concert I was going to started at 8, and somewhere I got the idea in my head that it was going to be 2 and a half hours long. So pretty much from the time I decided to go, I had also decided that my stop afterward was going to be the old familiar IHOP right near the old townhouse. (More on my blog about the old neighborhood. Jesus christ!) And, by golly, the time had come, I was going to get some of those Holiday Pancakes! But how to choose?!? As has been noted, I was keen on all four choices. I had pretty much ruled out Egg Nog, just wasn't interested enough in those. When I got there and looked at the special menu, I immediately got a little stomachache just looking at the pecan pie pancakes. Those look a lot better in the commercials than they do on the menu. So it was between gingerbread and pumpkin. Gingerbread looked to have a lot more going on in terms of ingredients, and I kind of consider pumpkin the underdog of the bunch. It's the only one that gets no mention whatsoever in the commercials, and it's sort of no frills. They just look like regular pancakes. No confectioners sugar, no goop. There is some whipped cream but that's as far out as it gets. And being that pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors of anything, it was pretty much the favorite going in. Well, they didn't blow me away. When the plate came out, the smell was overwhelming. I mean it really smelled of pumpkin, cinnamon, and ginger. Biting into them, the taste was not quite as powerful. It tasted like something to me. Wasn't quite pumpkin pie. I realized later that it was this pumpkin cake I had made in my microwave using pumpkin, egg beaters, and powdered peanut butter. For real. Tried them with and without syrup. Without syrup, the pumpkin flavor was evident but not mind-blowing. With syrup, it was hard to tell this from a regular pancake. Ate 'em all up fast though. After all, they were pancakes. End of story.