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Stompin’ Tom Connors: Stompin’ Tom and The Hockey Song

The best game you can name is played, apparently, by teams and players you can’t name.

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The Culling: The Next Day

The 10 records-a-day pace has slowed a bit while I’ve been busy with other stuff (like work). I’m in The Osmonds (2 double LPs in a row) with The Partridge Family coming up next. I just may slit my wrists.

It sounds like a horror movie - and sometimes it is (listening to 4 Dino, Desi and Billy records in a row). I’m listening to every LP in my collection and culling the ones that are expendable. I’ve been at it about a week and a half now and I’ve made considerable progress, keeping well ahead of my goal of listening to 10 records a day. The first thing I had to do was replace my turntable. It’s been acting wonky for a while - speeding up and slowing down - but now it only plays at 45 rpm no matter what speed it’s set at. It would speed my task considerably just to leave it but I don’t want everything sounding like The Chipmunks.

This is my discard pile - 38 records so far (that’s Kristy & Jimmy McNichol on top). The British Invasion hasn’t fared well: Herman’s Hermits, Dave Clark 5, Jonathan and David - all gone (though The Beatles remain unscathed). Surprisingly most of ABBA is on its way out too. This may not be a shock to some, but I found their albums mechanical, lifeless things. I kept a couple of greatest hits compilations for sentimental reasons, as well their Spanish album which is the one I enjoyed the most.

Here’s what I’m keeping:

I’ve done the first two “cells.” They used to be full, like the ones below them (each cell holds about 75 records when full). At this rate I shouldn’t have any problem finding space for all the records on the floor. I’m a bit surprised I’ve culled so many records so far. I think maybe the first section (vocal groups) is the most expendable and I won’t be discarding so many when I get to other sections, like male and female vocals or soundtracks. We’ll see.

I’ve also been documenting all my records. At the end of this I’ll have a nice, searchable database of my collection. Yay me!

souvenirs of venice

ice cream weather

No records this week.

In related news: I’ve decided to cull the herd.

I’m going to go through all the records on the shelves and try to “edit” my collection a little - enough to get all those records off the floor, I hope.

I’ve also decided to listen to all my records. I figure if I listen to 10 a day it shouldn’t take me more than a year and a half. After two days I’ve already fallen behind - I’ve only listened to 5 sides (out of 6) of Concert For Bangladesh.

Many garage sales have music - a radio or boombox playing - but I don’t think I’ve been to a g’sale that had a dj before. Alex was spinning vinyl on a pair of Stanton turntables (covered in attractive woodgrain mactac) on a system he bought complete at a pawn shop. He’s not a professional dj but he does the occasional gig around town (he’s going to be at the Sugarbowl). Apparently he has a small but eclectic record collection. The music was mighty fine, as was the coffee from that big chrome perk. Sadly, no records for sale.

The next sale I went to - an estate sale in an old two story house - had plenty of records. Unfortunately they were of the Mrs. Mills singalong variety. Altogether I went to about half a dozen garage sales on Saturday. I didn’t buy anything but all were entertaining in their way. I also hit a few thrift stores at the end of the day. Since I know Value Village executives regularly scour my blog for marketing advice, I’ll offer this:

DON’T STACK YOUR RECORDS. It’s not good for them and it makes them very difficult to look through.

Yesterday while I was waiting for my prescriptions to be filled I slipped across the street to the Salvation Army store. There were almost no records (where did they all go? Surely no one bought all those religious records and Reader’s Digest box sets), but there was a nice selection of quirky, fairly recent CDs. At $1.99 per, they’re the same price as LPs at Goodwill and Value Village so I can see myself buying more thrift store CDs as the number of LPs I’m interested in continues to dwindle.

1. Jane Siberry: Shushan the Palace (Hymns of Earth)

I love Jane - so flaky, so insanely talented and creative. Maybe you know by now that she changed her name to Issa and divested herself of most of her possessions (are you there Madonna? That’s reinventing yourself). This 2003 album is Siberry’s last under her old name. A Christmas album of sorts, though I didn’t realize it until I read it somewhere. No Santa or chestnuts roasting on an open fire - instead hymns by Handel, Bach, Mendelssohn, Rossetti, Holst and others. I love Jane’s soaring voice and her slow, wobbly vibrato. After two listens, Jesus Christ The Apple Tree is the track that sticks in my memory: simple and lovely.

Bonus! It’s autographed. If that signature was any more stylized it would be a straight line.

Links: Website, MySpace

2. Various: Christmas Songs

I’ve been searching for this Nettwerk Christmas compilation for years because I need Meryn Cadell’s The Cat Carol for a disc of depressing Christmas tunes I’m putting together for my friends. It may well be the worst tear-jerker of a Christmas song ever: A cat is forgotten outdoors in a blizzard on Christmas Eve. A mouse creeps by, lost in the snow, almost frozen. The cat digs a hole in a snowdrift and curls up with the mouse, keeping it from the cold. Santa comes along and finds the cat frozen to death. He discovers the mouse still alive in the cat’s warm fur. Reindeer weep. Santa commemorates the cat’s sacrifice by turning her into a constellation.

Now I love Meryn Cadell, but I was appalled by this song the first time I heard it on the radio. It’s everything she’s not: mawkish, sentimental, cheap. I think I may be the only person in the world who feels this way - this song is much loved and requested.

Cadell is another peron who has radically reinvented herself; she kept the name but changed genders.

Links: The Cat Carol, blog

3. Aimee Mann: The Forgotten Arm

Aimee Mann is not someone I’ve listened to much (I saw Magnolia, that’s about it). I bought this CD because the packaging is so beautiful (you can do that when CDs are two bucks). Digipacs rule! The booklet looks like a pulp novel from the 40s or 50s with the lyrics of each song laid out like chapters. The gorgeous illustrations are by Owen Smith. It’s a concept album - a musical “novella” about a troubled couple who meet, fall in love and take a road trip across America.

click to enlarge

Also, I was thinking I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas sounded like it might be right for my depressing Christmas comp. Aimee has a Christmas CD (who doesn’t?) but it looks too upbeat for my purposes.

Links: Aimee Mann. Owen Smith, more Owen Smith

All the cool kids are getting vintage trailers. In the last year gaenor&tracy and jill&carl both bought Bolers and just yesterday christine&claude took delivery of their Lil Loafer.

Bolers are sweet little ultra light fiberglass trailers that were manufactured in Canada in the 60s and 70s. They’ve become very popular lately - and pricy as a result, though bargains can still be had.

gaenor&tracy’s 1976 Boler is still without an “offical” name but they’re considering Niblet, Peep, and Citronella. They’ve taken it on several camping excursions - as far as Vancouver Island - and this summer they’ll be going to Arizon and California. jill&carl haven’t been out in their 1971 Boler yet because it still needs some work.

Christine shows off the “Silver Bullet.” Aristocrat built the Lil Loafer in Idaho in the late 50s/early 60s. This one seems to have been used by Idaho law enforcement.

Not ultra light, smells like a musty basement right now, but cute as button (a button with aluminum siding).

The icebox is just that - a box you put ice in, not an electric fridge.

Links:

Bolerama

BolerRV

Lil Loafer wiki

Not vintage, but sweet!

Nothing says festive like balloons.

Sexy, saggy sixties sectional.

Souvenir of Saskatchewan:

Scores:

If you can’t have your baba’s food, eating at Uncle Ed’s runs a close second.

Gaenor with Combo Plate No. 9: smoked pork chop, perogies, cabbage rolls, perishke (cheese buns) and nalysnyky (cheese crepes).

Tracy and Combo No. 7: meatballs with mushroom sauce and all the rest.

Combo No. 1: Mundare sausage plate.

Tricks with money.

Sir Wilfred Laurier: sad

happy

K-J Bowl: 12 lanes, 5 pins.

This is one of the rare posts on this blog that’s actually about bowling.

Gaenor operates the futuristic score-keeping electronic brain.

Strike!