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

thought it might be entertaining to some. first thing i've written since i stopped writing. it's rant-y.

if it is NOT entertaining to you, though, don't sue me!

disclaimer: i do not hate all boomer. JUST most of the boomer who come in my store. haha!

https://medium.com/@scottseward68/open-for-business-confessions-of-a-used-record-dealer-in-new-england-42985dbca372

That’s great! Write more, I wanna hear more about your dad

really enjoying this scott

I appreciated the nuanced analysis of boomer cohorts and the specificity of the hateful examples, much more persuasive than undifferentiated boomer bashing

He says, “So, how does this work when you buy stuff?” “Do you plug into some database or something…” And I said, “Yes, I am a robot and I plug into my database.” And I said it in the voice of a robot!

LOL

I liked this, but I for one, actually miss Connecticut (for the proximity to more interesting places, haha).

I reposted this to FB and Discord. Good stuff.

nice little blog you have here

i used to have a blog! its still out there...i'd be afraid to look at it. though some of it is probably okay.

i have to say that i actually showed this weeks ago to an ilxor whose opinion i think highly of and they liked it and that's how i got the confidence to share. thank you to them if they read this. i do miss the outlet. of writing. i'm just glad you guys haven't gotten sick of my blab on here in general. i feel like i've been blabbing for months.

lovely piece, Scott. Thanks!

He says, “So, how does this work when you buy stuff?” “Do you plug into some database or something…” And I said, “Yes, I am a robot and I plug into my database.” And I said it in the voice of a robot!

I hope you made jerky robotic arm movements when you said it.

Nice piece Scott, I had two irl lols... you're a good writer...

This is greatness. I will share it out more properly tomorrow!

Keep on blabbing, that was great.

absolutely loved this

Very good. I like your writing style, with the runs of short sentences and the digressions you weave in and out of.

My feeling is that it’s a type of person, and it gets worse with age, so it peaks at the age of the men you have repeatedly run into, but I see the very same traits in people in their thirties and forties, and then it must be that they get amplified later.

But the particular reference points for men of that boomer age NOW – The Band, Eric Clapton and so on, maybe even playing the guitar themselves and owning a collection of guitars and amps, and all the fussing over hi-fi stereo equipment – make it especially annoying. I’m approaching that age myself, but I’ve never liked Eric Clapton or blues rock of any kind. I just don’t like it, perhaps because it was just before my time. I was once in various bands with someone about ten years older than me, and it was constant talk about the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Sorry, not interested, not then, not now. To be fair, he was a proper musician, not a dilettante with ten guitars, though he probably did own ten. I would also never go in a shop and start talking to the owner in that way. It wouldn’t occur to me to do something like that. I don’t like dogs either, or babies for that matter.

My wife is American, so I mentioned that I’d read your blog post and asked her if she’d ever been to Hartford, Connecticut. She said yes, and she doesn’t like it.

Great stuff bud. The struggle is real.

The bit about boomers and blues music just made me LOL on the train.

Omg a blog! In 2024!!

Very enjoyable, Scott.

"an LSD-soaked episode of Happy Days with an Eric Clapton soundtrack"!

Amazing. Thank you for sharing with us Scott.

First and last grafs esp. strong, catch a wave (oops boomer music ref), and as someone who worked in music product stores for many years, I know exactly where you're coming from (strike more boomer talk). Chuck Eddy, Frank Kogan, Lucy Sante (boomers all) are among those currently digging this on gmail thread, and Lucy knows your brother's store, is amazed, no maybe (oops).
Boomer rant is predictable, but there are a lot of people who are predictable in just that way, and yes every fucking one of them visits record stores.

Pickin' on the blues? Mr. Seward has been known to post favorable comments on I Love Music's renowned Do You Blues? thread.

Great essay Scott. It's being shared by about a dozen friends on social media right now lol.

Not even all of them ilxors!

great stuff scott, really enjoyable read! i encounter this variety of boomer at the farmers market where they try to break hundred dollar bills for a single bunch of cilantro and get the peach guy to deliver a sermon on fall growing patterns while buying zero peaches
HATE THEM

I'm happy you guys like it! It inspires me to continue. Old life in this gen X dog. And I don't hate dogs i promise! maybe just ask before you come in and let it run around everywhere. and please don't put your hot coffee cup on top of the records while you look at records. the records are not a table.

very happy, don, that you guys are enjoying it as well. tell frank i say hi and i hope he is well. that's awesome that lucy likes it. i am a big fan. cheers to all!

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.

nice

Thanks for sharing this Scott. I've enjoyed reading all of the entries so far, but this was my favorite. Hope you keep 'em coming in one form or another.

Thank you! They have been good for me and I'm glad people have enjoyed them.

I'm going to see a therapist - or actually i think they are in-training to be a therapist - FOR THE FIRST TIME next week and I'm tempted to just print this one out and hand it to them at the end of our first meeting. Ha! What the hell would they think?

I knew I was in good hands when I looked this person up and saw that before their therapy career-path they were an actor who appeared on two episodes of American Horror Story. Perfect! This country kinda writes itself, doesn't it?

Any decent therapist would do their 'neutral-creeping-into-this the best you got?' face!

I really enjoyed reading this (if that's the right word). I've got a son who I know has an incredibly complex, traumatic inner life, the extent of which I've only sensed, and it's still rare to see this stuff written down and discussed. Keep them coming!

And I hope your journey towards some kind of peace continues. Best.

Thank you so much. The encouragement is very helpful. it really is.

All these pieces have been good, but that one was great. Glad to know you.

aww, thanks, phil. i was thinking the other day that the first truly autobiographical thing i ever wrote was for your book many many moons ago.

I loled at this:

My love for that stuff is the only reason I have been able to keep a store open for 16 years. It certainly isn’t the money or that guy who is possibly ten different guys who comes in and asks me if I have any Tool and then talks about Tool and then leaves only to come back again and again because some people, it turns out, are Tool or nothing kind of people. It’s the Tool way or the highway for these intrepid…tools.

and at the boring friends of your kids "who stare at you catatonically."

I loved this, scott, especially the way you avoided the moralism.

And without smoking, why bother drinking? It just made drinking sadder than usual.

To me it's the opposite. I see no point in smoking without drinkig. I can't smoke sober.

I'm going to see a therapist - or actually i think they are in-training to be a therapist - FOR THE FIRST TIME next week and I'm tempted to just print this one out and hand it to them at the end of our first meeting. Ha! What the hell would they think?

Great idea IMO

Scott, this is a great essay. Thank you for sharing. :)

xp it is a great idea. i just finished up a very personal writing project, probably the most sustained personal writing i've ever done, and i'm absolutely sending it to my therapist. (also i really loved this piece scott, and it helped me untangle some stuff in that very project)

Glad it was helpful, Ivy!

this is blowing me away. thank you for writing and sharing this.

This was a great read. I relate to a lot of this.

Thank You x 2 !!

Cigarette with coffee and a newspaper and rye toast and bacon and a hangover was the best thing ever. Thanks for the reminder. I don't even eat much bacon these days, as it's not as good without the full suite.

Agree about handing it to your therapist. Other than that: super-eloquent scary. O SHIT---you've come through so much, which I kinda knew but didn't---hang in there, Brother.

You’ve come a long way, baby

my person didn't want to read my thing. they were very artful about it and it made me guess that they have regulations about taking things from people. also...and i hadn't thought about this...i was basically giving them homework. i'm sure they have enough to do. i did mention that it was on medium.com if they were ever bored.

they asked if i had any goals that i would like to achieve from therapy and i said: this is kinda the goal. to talk to a real person in real life. and then i added: uh, and to exercise more. sure, exercise. that was just to sound more normal though.

also told them there would be no way i could be talking to them without the medicine i'd been taking. they were nice enough. but really any breathing person would have been fine. also, i didn't dissolve into a pool of tears. my number one fear. i couldn't really tell if them wearing a mask made it easier or harder for me.

i'm on an unpaid ilx sabbatical but i did want to share this new thing with you guys. and please feel free to share on the socials if you think some of your friends might like it. the newest issue of maggot brain magazine will have my long sad one in it. coming out now-ish. naked and unashamed. peace out. luv ya all.

https://medium.com/p/58410bff6c79

Great as always Scott

I've included a link in tomorrow's newsletter. Great stuff as always.

loved this, my favorite so far

Great one, Scott.
I could read your writing all day and night.
It kinda makes me miss working in a record store, even, despite how awful a lot of people are.\\

Great read, Scott! Thank You!

glad to see you've got a new one! if you read this i hope your sabbatical is going well. thinking of you.

Really enjoyable read, Scott. Take care!

I loved reading this

same

yeah!

If ILX had a Like button, I’d be smashing it hard.

^

Thanks for continuing to write these and share them Scott, always wonderful.

Quite so!

looking forward to a good read!!!

https://medium.com/p/2cb535160945

Thanks Scott.

Yeah I read this

this one hits hard: olfactory notes from the underground

thank you for sharing, please keep 'em coming

^

Great stuff! I think about smells a lot.

My fave so far: your nose, and all these other people (travel is broadening).

just beautiful writing

thanks for sharing Scott - really miss your contributions to this place but these pieces are outstanding

Thanks Skot <3

Great read. Thank you!

echoing everyone, love when you share these scott

A truly wonderful piece, once again.

Greatly enjoyed this. Thanks.