you guys can read this if you want. i like you guys.

All this talk about the blues reminded me of this Onion classic https://www.theonion.com/affluent-white-man-enjoys-causes-the-blues-1819565488

Hurrah! Yes many friends on FB and elsewhere have all loved it. Rightly.

They are bemused by just about everything that regular people do. It’s as if they can’t believe that people still do things.

I can't tell you how often I bump into this attitude, scott. Thanks for writing and keep at it.

Enjoyed this! Sharing with a friend who has a record store in (removed identifying detail).

shared with a friend who is opening a store later this summer

I miss old people who were old, too. The other side of the generation chasm. Grandmas who liked Lawrence Welk and Liberace.

I was chatting with a boomer neighbor on the street, who is still actively working in the law. Had a trip to Philly, was sharing an Uber with "a job I never heard of before, an Influencer"

the influencer was super chatty British guy, asked the driver to take him to the best Philly Cheese Steak.

The driver, small talking, let it be known he was a member of the Stylistics. At which point the influencer went nuts and took all sorts of photos.

When my friend got out later, he said "I feel weird tipping you, you may have more money than me?"

The Stylistic had to explain that other than oldies tours to Japan, he has no income from music.

Kinda surprised any blues/r'n'b/r'n'r fan wasn't aware that most musicians like that never got anything from their hits, but I shouldn’t be!

Great article, Scott. I sent it to a friend of mine. Your sense of humor and writing reminds me of him.

it's funny, maria is out in front now most of the week while i'm in back pricing and putting things on Discogs and she now gets all those people who used to drive me crazy. she tells me about them. which means that i get to utter my favorite phrase: "welcome to my world". 15 straight years of people coming in and telling you that they heard that records were coming back. and for 15 years those people never bought a record. she got a real live one last week. one of the usual suspects comes in and tells her - and he was telling her not asking her or trying to start a conversation: *PEOPLE DON'T LISTEN TO RECORDS ANYMORE*. and she nicely says oh yeah people actually do....and then he says *THERE IS NOTHING TO PLAY THEM ON ANYMORE*. *YOU CAN'T GET TURNTABLES ANYMORE*. and she says actually you can....and he says *YOUNG PEOPLE DON'T LISTEN TO THEM ANYMORE*. and she says actually young people do listen to records. and then he says *YOUNG PEOPLE DON'T GO TO SEE LIVE MUSIC ANYMORE*. and she says no i think young people do go see live music. and then he says.......WELL GOOD LUCK WITH ALL THIS. and leaves.
you don't get that at Walgreens or CVS.

thanks! and thank you all again. i'll just keep thanking you all.

ilx has always been very supportive. it has meant a lot to me.

i don't know if i ever mentioned this but waaaaaaay back before i started posting here i heard about ilx from frank kogan in an e-mail and of course i searched for my name when i heard that people talked about rock critics here and someone said something like yeah i don't know about SS and someone else said something like *he's the perfect critic for other critics* and i was like hell yeah! i'm good with that. fuck normal people. i didn't want to write for them. haha! this was probably 2003? it might have been geeta. anyway, that inspired me for real. i didn't even know if anyone liked what i was doing other than chuck - and frank and don - and they were all obviously crazy. in a good way. things like that kept me inspired to do it.

I read this as a sequel to the chapter in Marooned: the latest instalment of a bemused picaresque through the world of work - grocery store employee, custodian, record-store owner...

one of my very favorite movies. free on Youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w1FoHxjv0k

Yeah this was great. I like rants when they are funny.

Makes me wonder what the stereotypical annoying Gen-X record store visitor will be like once the torch is passed.

gen x record dads generally just look really depressed and like they had way too many IPAs the night before. they rarely give me shit. they rarely speak!

https://riotfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Portlandia_801A_BandReunion_MPX-1920x1080_R1.jpg

gen x record dads generally just look really depressed and like they had way too many IPAs the night before. they rarely give me shit. they rarely speak!

I have never been in your shop but it feels good to be seen!

Enjoyed your blog. I miss blogs.

lovely late development is gen x moms coming in by themselves and browsing and buying. also mostly silently. just more women in general now and its such a relief from the non-stop dude parade.

re: "i used to have a blog" - yeah i know, i rediscovered & read it quite recently, it's still there & it's still great

oh wow thanks! i just looked at it for the first time in years. it feels archaeological.

seeing women in large numbers in record stores is totally a new (welcome) experience for me as well.

I haven't actually worked in a store in a long, long time, but I feel like the big generational record-store dad shift was that any given Boomer would presume they understood records more than a younger person behind the counter, as though they'd walked into a store selling their personal childhood possessions and might be asked to explain or sign a few, whereas Gen Xers tend to presume the opposite and desperately want the worker to validate them as cool and knowledgeable

^^^ It me

As a gen x woman lifelong record shopper and former store employee, I very much want to be left alone to make my choices. I 100% don't want to boast about my knowledge nor do I seek the validation of the person behind the counter. Also resent being lumped together based on reproductive choices. Not all women are moms! But I like this essay regardless.

oh gosh i didn't mean to lump everyone together. i meant actual moms. but there are all kinds of gen x women who come in. we have a big queer woman population here of every age too and queer moms and non-moms alike also make up a good portion of our buyers. thank the heavens.

and non-binary people. and the like. lots of younger queer folks. they didn't used to be such a big part of our customer-base. a lot of things have changed in general here since the pandemic. people moved to the country. all kinds of people. which is an awesome by-product of a terrible thing.

i WAS kinda lumping sad gen x dads together though. i basically meant people who reminded me of myself. slow. world-weary. heavy sighs. maybe not so quick to look at the records underneath because it means bending.

still requesting that someone who worked in record/CD stores in the late 90s-early 00s write a treatise on capitalism and planned obsolescence as viewed through CD and video anti-theft technology

because that shit was an unbelievable scam

i WAS kinda lumping sad gen x dads together though. i basically meant people who reminded me of myself. slow. world-weary. heavy sighs. maybe not so quick to look at the records underneath because it means bending.

still requesting that someone who worked in record/CD stores in the late 90s-early 00s write a treatise on capitalism and planned obsolescence as viewed through CD and video anti-theft technology

because that shit was an unbelievable scam

Should have been a link there. But I meant stuff like CD-Text, cd-i, Compact Disc + Graphics, etc.

my usual record store MO is to not say a word except hello because I worked retail for years and mostly just wanted to not talk to customers at all. although if I came into your store I'd probably at least cop to being an ILXor. otherwise that would be entrapment.

omg, please do!. i had an ilxor come in and they were paying for stuff and they only told me as they were leaving. i mean you don't want to miss out on your friend and family discount. or just come in and say hi. no need to buy anything. like i've said before, i've met dozens of people from here and i've enjoyed talking to all of them. even matos!

So I first saw skot's Medium maximal comeback when Chuck sent the link around, in reply to that xpost gmail thread incl. him Frank Lucy S, Mark S & others, which I started (subject line: Sunday Supplement: Chubby Checker Influenced By Moon) with this link to skotpost from 20 years ago, which starts w dorm revelations (not that kind) hosted by historic Dan Bunnybrains in historic Danbury CT, incl. Chubby Checker's musical connections to Jimi Hendrix, producer-wise and more---good read! And I still gotta catch up with this music: https://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com/2004/02/

a different - longer? - version of that ended up in Ugly Things magazine way back when. i was the first person - as far as i know - to write about that album. still never officially rereleased but word is Chubby hates it.

Mark S on that oftmentioned gmail thread:

I attended EMP in 2007 in Seattle and Scott gave the best (or anyway most memorable because funniest) paper, about death metal I believe (I am not an expert on all the metals, plus it was 17 years ago). Did he write it up? I hope so but don’t know. Afterward he and Maria headed a party to go get (I think) pizza and he was lovely and I talked a great deal to Maria, whom very much likewise.

Mark, here's Scott's EMP paper (on folk metal, actually) -- the top (which I guess means final) post on his old blog, from a decade ago. It is indeed hilarious.

don, i'm gonna have to hire you as my publicist! haha! god, 2007 was several lifetimes ago. saw so many ILXors. it was such a treat to spend time with Mark S. he is such a great person to hang out with. Spent quality time with him and Simon Reynolds and went to a party at Matos manor. that was the first time i had ever spoken in public! i was on a panel with Erik Davis - a real writer! - and before i went on he said to me "you're gonna be great". i have no idea how he could know that. but he is kinda mystical.

2007 really was a million years ago, wasn't it? I met you in 2007 at the NYC reading for Marooned.

that was the same year!!?? holy toledo. that was fun. there were a lot of people there! and i read something weird that wasn't even from the book. jon williams was there. ian. i met nabisco and sang freud and unperson all in one night. jon lewis. laurel. ilx-time. and then my brother played at Cake Shop later that night. i never leave the house but when i do i like it to be memorable.

it's good! it's good writing! i love your writing. not just how much you know about music, how passionate you are about music, your _writing_, the way you _write_ about it.

-

some thoughts.

i've never been to connecticut. when i think about connecticut, i think about new haven pizza. i don't think i've ever been to connecticut. i've only eaten new haven pizza here in portland. it's the second most popular city in the us for new haven pizza, so i'm told. it's good pizza. better than st. louis pizza or altoona-style pizza.

i'm not so much bemused by what regular people do as the idea that there _are_ "regular people", people like your customers. i see signs of them. i went to a movie last night and there were some realtors trying to leverage their queerness for business in the most entitled, white, cringeworthy ways. they seemed to be appealing more to straight people who wanted to perform "allyship" by having a queer realtor. i guess that makes sense. most of the queer people i know aren't exactly ready to buy houses in portland.

time is weird to me. i've lived in the past for years and now i guess i'm "cutting edge" by virtue of being trans but i don't feel cutting edge. i feel extremely archaic. this is the only place i'm on the public internet. even when i talk about the present i talk about it in terms of the past, the way it _used to be_. i don't want to talk about my present. when i was young they said "those who say don't know, those who know don't say". i don't think it's true. i don't know _how_ to say. easier to talk about...

but i am old, i've always thought of myself as old. i mean i'm younger than you, scott, but "you're only as old as you feel". i've felt old, always. "boomer" = "old". i grew up with this weird, like... i wanted to be a boomer. i wished i had been there in the sixties, when things seemed exciting, things seem like they _mattered_, and now i guess for better or for worse things are exciting and i'm somehow caught up in it just by, like. existing. i worshipped these people, i wanted to be like these people, and now the idea of the "boomer" - because it's a _mindset_, not an age, one can be a boomer at any age. there are people who are younger than me who are boomers. i call myself a boomer, because to them boomer is a slur, like cis is a slur, and it's not the _word_, it's how we _use_ it, and we use it that way because of _how they act_. and they don't understand. they don't know. that's the bemusement, to me. it's not that they don't understand other people, it's this _clinical lack of insight_. they know not what they do.

my favorite thing about the term "generation x" is that it was coined to describe boomers. my "generation's" name is a boomer hand-me-down. it seems appropriate.

Dogs are big here. I don't know how it is elsewhere. "Emotional support animals". Animals won't fuck with you like people will, is I guess how it is. My QPP's roommate has an ESA. Flash bites me. I don't know why. I'm not hostile to Flash. People did "no dogs allowed" like in that Snoopy movie so I guess they came up with ESAs so they could have dogs around and like. Everybody _is_ an emotional wreck, everybody I know. People make all kinds of compromises but sometimes, you know how it is. People set "boundaries" in ways that make other people responsible for their shit. And sometimes people use ESAs like that. Not always. Sometimes. So stores have signs up now saying "If you got a seeing-eye dog, fine, but no fucking ESAs please." Sometimes in those precise words. I was at a bar Wednesday that had a sign out front saying "We survived a pandemic, we'll survive your shitty Yelp review". I kinda like that attitude. It's very East Coast. The West Coast isn't necessarily known as a "fuck you" kind of place, but more and more I got that old East Coast "fuck you" feeling. Maybe there's not that much difference between East and West like there used to be, maybe there never was. The Brahmins are now boomers with weed gummies and you have them on either coast.

Learning to fake emotion, I know that as a trauma thing. When someone is in an abuse situation. You don't get to be yourself. I was listening this morning, coincidentally, to _The Gouster_, from Bowie's "Who Can I Be Now?" The chameleon. Grew up queer with a schizophrenic brother.

(REDACTED):
I am a new person every day
It's called self improvement

Kate Cavatappi — Today at 8:52 AM:
or sometimes 4. Identity disturbance with markedly or persistently unstable self-image or sense of self

That's the thing. It's all about _them_, it's always all about _them_, and they don't understand what it's like for everybody else to have to put up with their bullshit without being able to hold them accountable, because they have all the power, always have. All their life. To me that's the difference between them and the people who are "mentally ill and/or addicted to drugs and/or depressed and/or desperate and/or chronically ill, and/or dying of terminal diseases", to be a "boomer" means not confronting any of that, believing that one's going to live until 150, believing that Your Generation ended racism and saved the world and that the people who hate you aren't treating you LIKE YOU DESERVE TO BE TREATED. But they never treat anybody else, you know. The way they think they _deserve to be treated_.

Kate Cavatappi — Today at 12:25 PM:
I've always tried to live by the "treat people as you want to be treated" kind of person. Unfortunately I used to kind of hate myself so that caused a lot of problems...

It's good to read your post. I was asking about it the other day here... Is it me? Is it only me who lives in this situation, who sees these people? Is it only Portland? And from what you say it's not. What you say makes me feel like desperate people are everywhere. It's just hard to talk about and acknowledge, without fear or shame, and so people don't want to talk about it.

It's that contrast. The boomers with all the records and the desperate people, and the former are the latter but with money.

-

we have a big queer woman population here of every age too and queer moms and non-moms alike also make up a good portion of our buyers. thank the heavens.

and non-binary people. and the like. lots of younger queer folks. they didn't used to be such a big part of our customer-base. a lot of things have changed in general here since the pandemic. people moved to the country. all kinds of people. which is an awesome by-product of a terrible thing.

i WAS kinda lumping sad gen x dads together though. i basically meant people who reminded me of myself. slow. world-weary. heavy sighs. maybe not so quick to look at the records underneath because it means bending.

― scott seward

i was never able to dad because gender dysphoria and all but slow, world-weary... again, that's the out of time thing, i always had these old man vibes... there's a picture of me from when i'm 20 where i'm look like a 50 year old chain-smoking golfer in 1971. but it's also interesting to know that, again. it's not just portland. the queer people. the pandemic babies. queerness has changed _so much_ over the course of the pandemic, and I don't know if it's coincidental or if the pandemic brought about a sea change.

for me the pandemic was... even more than trump, it's, what's the term? "stochastic incompetence"? stochastic incompetence changed my life.

-

i too really miss blogs. i had a blog between '20 and '22, a pandemic blog... it's the only way i can really write. i use ILX like a blog sometimes. i don't know what else to do, where else i can write that other human beings at least have a chance of reading. like i sad. i feel very out of time.

I read you, Kate! Thanks for the post! You can be who you are here. That's what I like about ILX. I don't have a lot of people I can talk to about a lot of things. In real life. I feel safe here! I also have therapist fear. I mean, I think it would benefit me. I could probably use a little of the ol' DBT. But I'm afraid to tell someone I don't know about my stuff. You know? Now I just wish i was starting a band so that i could call it Stochastic Incompetence.

hi scott! i too remember that seattle meet-up with great fondness, thank u for yr kind words :)

so long ago tho :(

But x many of us are still around! Not nec on ilx, but I hear things.

my thing that i posted here is in this. i still don't have a copy. i didn't even know it was out! my kinda editing situation. zero contact or involvement.

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/462392090_10162249770432137_731882273653155772_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=bd9a62&_nc_ohc=_Jxe01W1TUsQ7kNvgE0FH1W&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&_nc_gid=AEIfPkAFGK6UHUlacf0YIBJ&oh=00_AYD0a0iK6-3OZ9EcQHNj9q573DVm-LwTjJIQxDIHWoDT8Q&oe=6709CACB

I did get my copy of that, it was great to read it (again)!

thanks! i have to find a copy.

Not sure if you have a Barnes & Noble near you, but they usually carry Maggot Brain now, I've seen it there.

yeah, that's a good spot to check. they are sold out online at the third man store.

Hadn't seen this one yet---Lucy Sante cover girl on another recent issue, so obvs. you and MBV and Neshell in good co.

*M*eshell!

nice to be in a magazine with my friend andy zax. and yeti mike of course.

LOL

ha, yeah, i just saw that on Facebook.

pretty damn accurate...

If it was in Absurd Music Ideas, I got it from here.

hahaha yes I just saw that as well and sent it to my storeowner friend Callie

also very accurate...

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/465010191_10232073787321141_7410047390918988808_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=yP6O7zY-RWcQ7kNvgGK6b2q&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&_nc_gid=AceVzp9dKtEPWRpkMtmAWVo&oh=00_AYC8S42rY3_bzAnERk8pU4EnZE2L7J5v-iCxCGJ9_RNTUg&oe=67299C74

i will say this about inflation. since the pandemic, nobody has really bugged us about price. or tried to get stuff for way cheaper. i should really take advantage and jack my prices up even more but i just don't have the heart to.

I’ve been decreasing my prices! People have no dough. Decreasing them on normal stuff, that is. Collector-y shit just seems to keep climbing.

this month was a little alarming sales-wise. i blame the election.

scott i am in your neck of the woods and have been meaning to come say hello and throw some $ your way. are you generally at the store if it's open?

Alarming in a bad way?

no, alarming in a good way, obviously! haha, is there a good alarming?

LS, i am here until 4pm if you mean today. i'll be here tomorrow too. Sunday probably not unless i feel guilty and feel like i have to work. but maria is the sunday girl (as sung by blondie) generally.

duly noted - not today and not sure when i'll get there but maybe monday...

hurry up and wait

i will be here all day Monday. its just me here on Monday. playing terrible music. i felt bad that Maria didn't have two complete days off so i told her not to worry about coming in on Mondays and i already really regret it because its slow and i forget what being nice to people is like. but sometimes its nice to just play records and work. i'm usually in back now every other day.

i've got all the hits.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/465461975_10162316716212137_5484273787013156021_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=mPYd7cbPh4gQ7kNvgFi6MBB&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&_nc_gid=A_BiexvmzFDD1Tp0bT8zUIw&oh=00_AYAMQzHlHbRuw3rlRtyLlHROHON95wugIv0X4XTnsI_XBQ&oe=672AECC0

Do you have the 45 promo floppy disc version tho

I know very little about 1883!

Scott what kind of analysis do you do of sales to improve your business?

the back of that record is all Escher-y.

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/465231840_10162316716542137_146170566224900153_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=bd9a62&_nc_ohc=kJFI3QtiM8gQ7kNvgHF1JfN&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&_nc_gid=A3xHZAGCOt7V_obfXFZJgEl&oh=00_AYBEDFExbJW3Y23P3hqFOcPE6iQ8X4gjxoOm5hz4nJjpGg&oe=672AF211

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/465147287_10162316716757137_3825479211764755657_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=bd9a62&_nc_ohc=O4JcSJ8SKFcQ7kNvgGM3j6o&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&_nc_gid=ALeKEmrMZqfkLoS22YV2r8K&oh=00_AYB5m3majDrj7hyvPrWbX2Wy3woJp1LFxHl-RVH4Sewznw&oe=672B0759

a beautiful stylus wrecker

People threaten to sell their collections full of “rare” “gems” that are “near mint” and they do this for years. If I ever do get any of their stuff it’s almost always littered with beat up Jackson Browne records

Some years ago I was at a record store during a big sale, the kind of day where people spend lots of time carefully combing the shelves. A guy next to me was focused on dusty jackson browne CDs, best of comps and the like, which made me really curious. Even though I’m still stubbornly stuck on buying CDs, I wonder what people go to a record store to look for unremarkable Jackson Browne CDs? I mean, he’s probably just someone that never adjusted to downloading/streaming music and likes Jackson Browne just enough to pay $5 for a best of CD. Obviously people aren’t obliged to want rare and/or valuable stuff, but it was also a wonder that people still exist, attaching a certain kind of value to the depreciated residue of another era of music consumptions.

Anyways, the point is, since then “beat up Jackson Browne records” has become a kind of shorthand for certain kind of people at record stores that also match what you describe here.

https://i.imgur.com/AlU78Xp.jpeg

Scott do you have any vaporwave in the store ?

no. i haven't bought new records in awhile. i like vaporwave record covers. it would be cool to have a bunch of them. i was going to spend a bunch of money to get new records for the holidays and...i stopped myself! its so boring to buy. i always end up getting the same boring stuff. i might do just one big hipster order from forced exposure and be done with it for the year. i really don't care if i have classic rock reissues for people. people can just buy pink floyd records on amazon. i was pretty good about it too since the pandemic. its just more fun to buy stuff that's fun to me. wholesale prices for new vinyl though...i mean you think bacon costs a lot. we need trump in that white house to bring the price of aphex twin records down.
i buy wholesale books twice a year and that's fun for me. i really get into reading reviews of sci-fi novels to choose the right cheap remainders.