Random observations
1) As much as I bitch about the "curmudgeon zone" (which you might know as the "7th St. corridor"), I'd rather see people in FTW making money than empty storefronts.
2) I really don't miss working in record stores, listening to guys 15 years younger than me quizzing each other about minutiae related to rare '60s psych records (the way guys 15 years older than me used to quiz each other on minutiae related to rare '50s doo-wop records when I was a teenager). Also, when I was in Denton the other day, I heard a guy returning a new LP to Mad World, complaining about the pressing. The clerk told him, "Just tape a dime to your tone arm." I can imagine how the audiophiles that used to shop at the store where I worked on Long Island would have reacted to that advice.
3) Reading Tom DiBaggio's Losing My Mind. Tom, who recently passed, was an herb farmer and former journo who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when he was 57. His book chronicles the effect of the disease's progress on him and his family. He was a scout on a journey no one wants to take, but many of us will. Reading him, I'm haunted by my parents' dementia and reminded that every day one spends with a healthy body and sound mind is a gift, not a birthright. I've given up on the idea of further developing the thing I wrote about my dad. I got what I needed to off my chest, the relatives I wrote it for have all read it, and I can't imagine spending more time picking at that scab. A lot of what I'm writing these days is nothing more than downloaded memory. I kid myself that when I start losing my mind, I'll be able to search this blog to find clues to my past (as long as I retain that facility). A down thought.
2) I really don't miss working in record stores, listening to guys 15 years younger than me quizzing each other about minutiae related to rare '60s psych records (the way guys 15 years older than me used to quiz each other on minutiae related to rare '50s doo-wop records when I was a teenager). Also, when I was in Denton the other day, I heard a guy returning a new LP to Mad World, complaining about the pressing. The clerk told him, "Just tape a dime to your tone arm." I can imagine how the audiophiles that used to shop at the store where I worked on Long Island would have reacted to that advice.
3) Reading Tom DiBaggio's Losing My Mind. Tom, who recently passed, was an herb farmer and former journo who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when he was 57. His book chronicles the effect of the disease's progress on him and his family. He was a scout on a journey no one wants to take, but many of us will. Reading him, I'm haunted by my parents' dementia and reminded that every day one spends with a healthy body and sound mind is a gift, not a birthright. I've given up on the idea of further developing the thing I wrote about my dad. I got what I needed to off my chest, the relatives I wrote it for have all read it, and I can't imagine spending more time picking at that scab. A lot of what I'm writing these days is nothing more than downloaded memory. I kid myself that when I start losing my mind, I'll be able to search this blog to find clues to my past (as long as I retain that facility). A down thought.
posted by stashdauber at 8:10 AM
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