Record Store Tales

VIDEO: Vinyl, CDs, DVDs, and Cassettes! Mike and Aaron (and Aaron’s Dad) Return to Toronto 2024! (RST #1134)

RECORD STORE TALES #1134:  Vinyl, CDs, DVDs, and cassettes! Mike and Aaron (and Aaron’s Dad) Return to Toronto 2024!

 

For the first time since 2018, we returned to Toronto.

Aaron and his dad picked me up in Kitchener around 10:00 AM.  Of course, I made them pose for a drone photo before we left!  BMV in Toronto opened at noon, so we had plenty of time, and conversation was good.  The weather was cool, breezy and sunny.  It was the perfect day.  In fact it may have been the most perfect weather we ever had for a Toronto excursion.

I gifted Aaron a copy of Tim Durling’s Y&T book, Down For the Count, and Aaron gifted me two T-shirts, two CDs, and one Hot Wheels.  You will see these in the video that I spent the day filming.

“I’ve never seen somebody so excited for video editing!” remarked Aaron.  Of course!  When you had a day like we had, you can’t help but be eager to show it to the world!  I spent 2.5 editing it on Monday night.  The video tells the whole story.  We strolled the streets of Kensington Market, and we sifted through the aisles and aisles of CDs.  We only planned on hitting two stores:  our regulars, BMV and Sonic Boom.  We had a bonus stop at Paradisc Bound (first visit since 2012).  We scored at every single store!

“We’re going to do best at BMV,” predicted Aaron, who was correct, but we didn’t do poorly anywhere.  BMV won for prices and used CD selection.  Sonic Boom, unfortunately, has started pricing certain discs according to Discogs highs.  An old copy of Iron Maiden’s No Prayer for the Dying was jacked up because the cover art changed on the remastered editions.  An out of print Helix Get Up! EP was going for a ridiculous $40 on CD, even though all the songs are duplicated on the Power of Rock and Roll album.  Used cassettes, the kind that people used to dump in Thunder Bay landfills, were sometimes $10 each — same as they sold for when they were brand new.  A Razor album was $200 on used CD.  These are things they never jacked up back in 2018 when I was last there.  Something has changed, and it wasn’t cool.  Ultimately I did pay a lot of money for two used CDs at Sonic Boom.  Ultimately I decided I wanted them, even though I was paying way too much.

BMV was just awesome.  I scored eleven CDs and four records there, for a total of $107.  Some were things I was trying for the first time, others were albums I needed to help complete some collections of certain bands.  (One record was a gift that shall not be appearing here, for obvious reasons.)  We lost track of time easily.  I have no idea how long we were in BMV, but long enough to find what we wanted and then some.  Of note:  Their old 3-for$10 bin has changed.  It is now simple $2.99 each.  Perfect!

Aaron’s dad was exploring Toronto on his own, but was waiting for us when we met up for lunch at Pauper’s Pub.  There are so many great places to eat in our little area of Toronto, but we hit the Pauper’s Pub every single year.  That’s an endorsement.  Service was great and so was the food.  I had some blackened salmon, and unlike many places, it wasn’t dry and tasteless.  It was tender and loaded with flavourful roasted veggies.

We made our way through the sights and smells of Kensington on our way to Sonic Boom.  There, a giant Arkells display took up the front window.  The band played there two weeks prior, selling copies of their new 7″ single “Big Feelings”, which was sold out in one day and not in stock.  In fact they only had one Arkells left in stock, period.

We did well enough at Sonic Boom, though the store is becoming more…corporate?  “Like a bigger Sunrise Records,” said Aaron.  Lots of Reaction figures, Funko Pops, socks, and other assorted accessories.  We were not there for those things.  Reaction figures are $30 a pop now and prohibitively expensive, even though they had Phil Lynott, Cliff Burton, Lemmy, the Beastie Boys and more.  When we come to Toronto, we focus on the real deal:  the music.  I bought two “holy grail” items albeit overpriced, that I was hoping to find in Toronto but didn’t expect to.

I grabbed a Mango Pepsi to wet the whistle as we walked back to the car, meeting up with Aaron’s dad along the way.  He was a little bit behind so we had to kill 15 minutes.  Paradisc Bound was right there, and they had a record that I had been wanting since I first started in music retail back in 1994.  It was right there in front of me.  It was meant to be!  For $15, I added one final score to my tally.  The funny thing was, I had just been talking about this record with Jex Russell last week…and there it was.  Elvis truly is everywhere.  (That’s a clue, though you will see the record in the video.)

The drive home was a little stoppy-starty, as Toronto traffic is.  It took us one hour to get back up to Highway 401, and another hour back to Kitchener.  Aaron and his dad drove two more hours back to Owen Sound…and they wouldn’t let me pay for lunch!  Nice guys, those two.  Aaron had to work Monday morning, too!

If you want to see every single thing we scored, check out the video.  Can’t wait to return!

#1133: Mike and Aaron Return to Toronto – Today!

RECORD STORE TALES #1133: Mike and Aaron Return to Toronto – Today!

It has been a long, strange last few years, hasn’t it?

Aaron and I went record hunting in Toronto almost annually, for years, ever since 2012.  The goal was to buy music.  Lots, and lots of music.  Records, CDs, whatever.  We always did very well, and I began documenting everything for YouTube.  The video series has proven to be very popular.  But Aaron and I haven’t been to Toronto since 2018.  Why?

2018 was our annus horibilis.  Jen was sick.  Cancer.  She survived.  Her mother did not.  The only reason I went to Toronto with Aaron that summer was because “Mum” insisted.  “Go with your friend,” she told me.  Within six months of Jen beating cancer, we lost “Mum”.  I loved her mom.  I don’t say that lightly.  We were very close.  Because Jen is the kind of person who can sleep in until noon given the chance, her mom and I would patiently sit together, drinking coffee and watching old movies.  Our favourite topic to discuss was, of course, Jen!  Jen didn’t like this too much.  She hated when we talked about her!  God, I miss her mom.

2019 was the summer we spoiled ourselves, and I elected not to go to Toronto that year.  Jen and I celebrated our 11th anniversary, since we missed our 10th in a hospital waiting room.  In 2019 I got fat, grew my hair long, and spent as much time at the cottage as I could.  Since 2018 was the year without a summer, I vowed to take advantage of every minute from that moment on.

We all know was happened in 2020, which dragged on into 2021…

I became something of a hermit during this time.  Most of my friends would tell you they don’t see me often.  The one I’ve seen the most is Rob Daniels.  (Watch this space for a video!)  I haven’t seen Meat in over two years…Scott Peddle I saw last year…same with Max the Axe.  What friends have I seen?  Not many.  I’m an introvert by nature, and if the pandemic did any damage to me, it was to give me an excuse to burrow into my little hole and not come out.  And so I haven’t gone to Toronto with Aaron since then.  I did have lunch with him in Port Elgin last summer, but our record shopping excursions remained on hold.

It takes a lot of mental energy for me to force myself out the door and to be social, but Aaron really makes this easy.  He does all the driving.  He’s pleasant company.  So is his dad, Wayne, who also comes with us to Toronto.

So, today, Aaron and I return to Toronto with Wayne.  We’ll be hitting up BMV first in the morning.  Then Pauper’s Pub in the afternoon, followed by the finale at Sonic Boom.  I am not bringing a list.  I’m winging it.  I am waiting to be surprised and ready to be spontaneous.

Wish us luck.  Mike and Aaron are returning to Toronto!

 

#1132: Youth Gone Not-So-Wild

RECORD STORE TALES #1132: Youth Gone Not-So-Wild

I love admitting to my past musical sins.  Perhaps others will learn from my mistakes.

I was in grade 11, a mere 16 years old, when the music video for “Youth Gone Wild” hit the airwaves.  Skid Row were the latest thing, a band promoted by Jon Bon Jovi himself, from his home state of New Jersey.  We didn’t know yet that the lead singer, Sebastian Bach, identified as a Canadian.  He grew up in Peterborough Ontario, just on the other side of Toronto.  In fact, I didn’t know that I already had something of Bach in my music video collection.  I had a brief clip of him, with teased up hair, in a prior band called Madame X.  This band was led by Maxine Petrucci, sister of Roxy Petrucci from Vixen.  They featured a young Sebastian Bach and Mark “Bam Bam” McConnell whom Bach would play with in VO5.   I wasn’t into any of those bands.  I was pretty hard-headed about what I liked and disliked.

In Spring 1989, I first encountered “Youth Gone Wild” on the Pepsi Power Hour.  It could have been Michael Williams hosting, but whoever it was, they hyped up this new band called Skid Row.  I liked getting in on new bands from the ground floor.  Made them easier to collect when you started at the start.  At that point, I wasn’t even sure how many albums Judas Priest actually had.  I was intrigued enough to hit “record” on my VCR as the music video began.  I caught the opening “Ba-boom!” of drums, and sat back to watch.

While I wasn’t blown away, I kept recording.  The key was the singer.  If the singer sucked, I’d usually hit “stop” and rewind back to where I was.  The singer passed the test:  he didn’t suck.  I kept recording.

After about a minute, I pressed the “stop” button, and lamented that this new band wasn’t for me.  What happened?  What did Skid Row do to turn me off so quickly?

I can admit this.  I’ve always been open about the fact that I was very image-driven as a teenager.  We all were!  With the exception of maybe George Balazs, all the neighborhood kids were into image to some degree or another.  I was probably driven by image more than the average kid, consuming magazines and music videos by the metric tonne.  So, what exactly was wrong with Skid Row?

I’ll tell ya, folks.  It was serious.

The bass player had a chain going from his nose to his ear.

I just could not.  I couldn’t put a poster on my wall with some band that had a bass player with a chain that went from his nose to his ear!  No way, no f’n way.

I pressed rewind, and prepared to record the next video over Skid Row.

That summer, the glorious, legendary summer of ’89, I went with Warrant.  I bought their debut album sight-unseen, based on a blurb in the Columbia House catalogue.  Warrant were the selection of the month.  “What the hell,” I thought, and checked the box to order it immediately.

Meanwhile, Bob Schipper and the girl I liked, named Tammy, were really into Skid Row.  They knew all about my issues with the nose chain.  They got under my skin about it a bit, but I wouldn’t bend on Skid Row.

“18 and Life” was the next single, a dark power ballad that was easy for me to ignore.  “I Remember You” was harder to pass on.  It was the perfect acoustic ballad for 1989.  You had the nostalgic lyrics, which Bob and I both connected with.  Somehow, we knew that 1989 was the absolute pinnacle.  We knew this would be the summer to beat!  Bon Jovi and Def Leppard were still on the charts.  Aerosmith and Motley Crue had new singles out with albums incoming.  We walked around singing “Summer of ’69” by Bryan Adams, except we changed the words to “Summer of ’89”.  We just knew.  “Got my first real six string…” we sang.  And we both had our own fairly new guitars that we could barely play.

“I Remember You” was a massive hit, and still I resisted.

“Because of the nose chain?” Bob Schipper questioned me.

Absolutely because of the nose chain!

I stood firm for two years.  Bob Schipper went to college, and Tammy was long distance and not meant to last.  I felt a bit like an island by the time 1991 rolled around.  I felt alone.  My best friend was gone, I had no girlfriend, and most of my school friends went their own ways.  I was a loner like I’d never been in my life before.  Music was my companion, and my beloved rock magazines were my library.

That’s how Skid Row eventually got me.  Sebastian Bach had a good friend in Drew Masters, who published the excellent M.E.A.T Magazine out of Toronto.  Drew’s praise for the forthcoming second Skid Row album, Slave to the Grind, was unrelenting.  He caught my ear.  I was looking for heavier music in my life, not satisfied with Priest’s Painkiller as one of the heaviest albums I owned.  I wanted more rock, and I wanted it heavy.

The other thing that got me was the collector’s itch.  When I found out that Slave to the Grind was released in two versions with different exclusive songs, I was triggered.  I had to have both.

“I’ll make a tape, and put both songs on my version!”  It was a pretty cool idea.

Costco had Slave to the Grind in stock.  They had the full-on version with “Get the Fuck Out”, the song that was excluded from the more store-friendly version.  Columbia House stocked the tame version, which had a completely different song called “Beggars Day”.  I bought the CD from Costco, the vinyl from Columbia House, and suddenly I was the only guy in town who had the full set.  I made my cassette with joy, recreating the Skid Row logo on the spine, and writing the song titles in with red ink.

“Get the Fuck Out” was track 6, side one.  “Beggars Day” was track 7, side one.  I still have them in that order in my mp3 files today.

Sure, there was an audible change in sound when the tape source went from CD to vinyl, but I couldn’t afford two CD copies.  Little did I know how cool it would be later on to have an original vinyl copy of Slave to the Grind.

I loved the album.  I loved all three of the ballads.  The production was sharp.  There were excellent deep cuts:  “The Threat”, “Livin’ on a Chain Gang”, and “Riot Act” were all as great as any of the singles.  Furthermore, the singer had taken it to new heights of intensity and excellence.

I let Skid Row into my heart that day.  It was a good decision.  Skid Row accompanied me through times good and bad, lonely and angry.  They were my companion through it all, and they’re still pretty good.  It was meant to be!

#1131: Foxes & Fireworks: Five New Things This Weekend at the Lake

RECORD STORE TALES #1131: Foxes & Fireworks
Five New Things This Weekend at the Lake

After 52 years, it’s not always easy coming up with new experiences to have at the lake.  Sometimes it’s a fortuitous mixture of planning and luck.  I am always conscious  that every second at the lake counts.  Unfortunately, my energy isn’t what it was.  I don’t remember having so many naps back in those days.  I just remember going, and going, and going!  Gosh, when Peter Cavan used to come up to the cottage for a weekend, we’d go from one activity to another without taking a break.  We’d go from badminton to throwing around a football, to playing a video game to making a stir fry for dinner.  Then we’d be in the car to buy some fireworks.  We like it easier these days.

New thing #1:  Road tunes

Our weekend began on Thursday evening for the first spin of Arkells’ new album Disco Loadout Volume One on the road.  It was a singalong success from start to finish, but it only took us as far as Listowel.  For the rest of the trip, we played the Moody Blues Long Distance Voyager.  Another success.  It is always a pleasure to try new tunes for the road.  I am happy to report that both albums did very well, and voices were raised.

We settled in quickly for a quiet weekend.  Well, quiet for the moment.  I inaugurated the weekend with some Deep Purple on the porch.  This was done to celebrate Rock Daydream Nation’s excellent Deep Purple Stormbringer episode, which I was a part of.  The episode was well received and I had a blast doing it.  Of course, Friday night was Grab A Stack of Rock which I always love doing from the lake.  There’s only one issue with doing anything on the porch involving a computer.

As another hallmark of my increasing age, my back hurts plenty after a day of rocking out and a night of live streaming from the porch.  Writing?  Extremely difficult.  The deck chairs are very comfortable there, but only for leaning back.  For working with a keyboard and a screen, they are not so practical.  Not to mention, we just have these small glass deck tables to put my laptop on.  I’ve used a number of laptop stands, but none offered the height, position and stability that I needed to easy my aching back.  There must be a solution.  Enter:  Amazon.

New thing #2:  Amazon calling

I heard through the grapevine that Amazon were now delivering to the cottage, though sometimes they have problems finding the addresses.  Some of these places are not on GPS.  However, let’s give it a shot.  I picked a new desk that I thought would work on my front porch, and had it delivered straight to the cottage.

Much to my surprise, it worked!  The delivery truck backed into the driveway at 3:00 in the afternoon, and I went outside to find a cardboard box on the deck, waiting for me!

The game has changed.  With Amazon now offering next-day delivery to the cottage, imagine what things I will waste my money on when I’m bored!  When we were kids staving off boredom, we were limited to whatever toys and cassette tapes the local stores had to offer.  Not anymore!

Now, time to set up the desk!

New thing #3:  I have a desk on the front deck now

The desk was easy enough to assemble, though the included tools were no match for my dad’s ratcheting screwdriver.  It would have taken me an hour or more if I used the wimpy little screwdriver that came in the box.  Soon, I had my desk set up, and adjusted for maximum comfort.  The game has been changed.

I could spent all day typing now.  It was like I had my own little porch nook, surrounded by coffee, lego, potato chips and CDs.

With this new desk, I should be able to do more writing and more video editing than ever before.  If I want to!  That’s the key to remember.  The cottage is for relaxing.  I must remember to do what feels right, instead of pressuring myself to “produce”.  That said, it was great broadcasting Grab A Stack of Rock with such comfort.

I did want to produce a video short this weekend, and that was semi-successful.

New thing #4:  Slow-motion fireworks

My mom and dad left us some Roman candles from the May 24 long weekend.  Though not as practical as fountains, they would do for my attempt to get some slow motion video of fireworks.

The first one didn’t give me any footage.  The problem is the firework is mostly pauses between bursts of colour.  It’s hard to hit record at the exact right time to capture anything, and even at super slow-mo, it’s hard to get more than five seconds of footage.  Next time we’ll try a fountain, but for this experiment, I was able to get two videos up on Youtube.

I love it when a plan comes together!

The last new thing that happened was complete serendipity.

On the Saturday night, Jen and I went down to the beach after finishing our delicious ribeye steak dinner.  It was after sunset, but the glow of the sun lingers for hours, and you don’t need a flashlight at the beach during twilight.  I got up to have a pee in the bushes, and after doing my business, I sang a little song and turned around.  That’s what I saw him.

The fox was heading straight towards me.  He had a gait unlike a dog.  He was unmistakable.  With absolutely no fear of humans, he walked with intent right past both of us, and on down the beach.

New thing #5:  I finally captured the fox on camera

I’ve been trying for four years now, and I finally got him.  The pictures don’t do him justice, but you’re never expecting the fox until he’s right there in front of you.  I named this one Eric Caravello.

We didn’t even get into the Lego, the steaks, the fish fry!  That will eventually make it into the cottage video.

A wonderful weekend of firsts.  Maybe the next weekend will just be old favourites!

 

 

#1130: If I Had A Million Dollars? A Top Five List

RECORD STORE TALES #1130: If I Had A Million Dollars? A Top Five List

 

If I had a million dollarsWell, I’d buy you a fur coatBut not a real fur coat, that’s cruelAnd if I had a million dollarsIf I had a million dollarsWell, I’d buy you an exotic petYep, like a llama or an emu

 

Fur coats?  Exotic pets?  No thank you!  If I had a million dollars, I’ll tell ya exactly what I’d buy!

 

1. AV Designhaus Derenville VPM 2010-1

There goes half my money in one shot ($650,000)!  What do I get for my money? A belt-driven turntable on a Corian chassis, that rests on four feet that are supported and balanced through an air suspension system. Has an ethernet connection, and a HD-TV camera that monitors the diamond stylus.  Why?  To watch it on a high resolution monitor and make necessary adjustments. It would probably take two engineers to set up and test; I certainly couldn’t do it myself!  I doubt there is much you could do to improve the sound of a vinyl record that this turntable doesn’t already have packed in.

2. Vintage 1982 Nakamichi Dragon 3 Head Autoreverse Cassette Recorder

This one will cost me another $10,000 Canadian, but some consider it the Rolls Royce of tape decks. If you ever wanted to make a tape sound almost as good as a CD, this is the way to do it. It requires tuning, maintenance, and knowledge. But money is no object in this exercise, so why not? Dare I say why not? It’s a sleek, beautiful looking beast of 80s esthetics.  Just look at all those buttons and LEDs!  Might be more work than it’s worth, but the sound you can get from a high-quality blank tape and this machine are better than what my ears can discern anyway.

3. PS Audio FR30 speakers

$40,000 for the pair. Then I’d need the amplifiers and Paul McGowan himself to set it all up.  I’d also need to move into a bigger house.  They require a large, neutral listening space.  Which I’d like to have anyway!  By all accounts, these speakers (when set up correctly) provide a very real sounding experience, as if you’re in the room with the musicians.  The low end is supposedly amazing, aided by eight passive radiators.  Plus, don’t they just look gorgeous?

4. Iron Maiden – Best of the Beast vinyl (1996)

Needed for just a handful of tracks!  A live version of “Revelations”, and technically the Soundhouse Tapes EP.  In the condition I want it, it’ll cost me upwards of $1000.  Wish I bought it for $300 new when I had the chance back in 1997.  It’ll sound as good as CD, over my new AV Designhaus Derenville VPM turntable and PS Audio speakers!

5. Marantz SA-10

May as well grab a new CD transport while I’m at it!  This Super Audio player boasts a high-end DAC, and will play files from FLAC to MP3 via a USB stick.  It won’t connect easily with your iPhone, which means nothing to me anyway.  I’ve always wanted a Super Audio player, so why not go with the best?   This will set me back about a grand, and I’ll probably never use most of its features.  But that’s what dreaming is all about!

There you go.  500 words on what I could do with a spare million bucks just kicking around.  What would you buy?  Keep it fun – this is a fantasy exercise, so no need for serious answers.  Drop your comment below!

 

#1129: Summer’s Here and the Time Is Right

Last summer was different.  I felt like I had something to prove.  I lost the co-host that was responsible for the lion’s share of my views, and I wanted to pivot back to music.  Grab A Stack of Rock was envisioned as an “easy” show, where I didn’t have to do any prep or homework.  I was ready to work hard again and I think we did that.  We brought back lists and deep dives and the show was so much better for it.

This year is a little different in another way, which is my old co-hosts are occupied.  Harrison is busy focusing on his health.  Other co-hosts have their own shows now.  Others still are focusing on family.  I can’t blame them for that.  In a way, my show has been a bit like the Alice Cooper backing band.  Just as he launched the careers of Kip Winger and many more, my show has launched others into the Youtube-sphere.  That show out of Thunder Bay Ontario wouldn’t exist without my rocket boosters.  With that in mind, I think this summer will be something of a slowdown.

This week we’re back at the cottage with John Clauser and Metal Roger.  It’ll be their first cottage show.

What will the summer bring?  Fewer shows perhaps, but Grab A Stack of Rock will still continue, perhaps with a few different faces that we didn’t have last summer.  Some familiar ones as well.  Grant from the Rock Warehaus wants to hang out on the front porch again this summer.  I’m also thinking of doing a midnight outdoors show.  We’ll see what the summer has in store, but one thing I don’t need to do is prove anything to anyone.  We did that last year and we’re better off for it.

#1127: Walter – An Uncle Paul story

RECORD STORE TALES #1127: Walter – An Uncle Paul story

My Uncle Paul loved his “spot”.  It was a comfy armchair at the cottage, right next to the patio screen door, and right in front of the TV.  The phone was on an end table right next to it, and fridge was never far, with a fresh supply of cold beer.   It was cool, shaded, comfortable, and perfect.  On many days he’d prefer to sit there than come down to the beach, or playing cards.  Who could blame him?  Though we were often elsewhere while Uncle Paul did his thing, he was never alone.

He had Walter.

In reality, there was probably more than one Walter.  Chipmunks typically only live two to three years, yet Walter, in one form or another, returned to his screen door year after year, looking for peanuts.  There was also a second chipmunk that he named Fang.  Doctor Kathryn recalls, “the other chipmunk he fed, he named Fang. Fang had part of his ear missing, and looked really banged up!”  He probably ran afoul of a cat or Schnauzer.

We always had loads of chipmunks at the cottage.  They’re not a pest, but they’re timid and not very brave by nature.  If you left peanuts out (always shelled, unsalted), then you could gradually condition them to come closer and closer.  Still, many would cower afar, especially since there were Schnauzers about, and Schnauzers and chipmunks are natural sworn enemies.  This rivalry has been documented through history, most notably in the German children’s fable “The Chipmunk that Stole the Schnauzer’s Hat” (“Der Streifenhörnchen, der den Hut des Schnauzers Gestohlen“).

Through patience and time, Uncle Paul had trained little Walter the Chipmunk to come to his screen door and be rewarded with a peanut.   The little brown, black and white creature would approach tentatively with caution, grasp a peanut his two front paws, stuff it in his cheeks, and dart off!  He scampered across the deck, down to the ground and off into the unknown trees.  But he’d be back, minutes later, ready to stuff another peanut in his cheeks.  Uncle would always have an ample stash of nuts ready to serve.

This year, Jen and I have been visited by a new chipmunk friend on the front porch.  It’s our first summer there since Uncle Paul passed in November.  I’ve decided to name him Walter 2, in honour my uncle’s original friend.

I think uncle would like that.

#1126: Mail Shenanigans & Look at the Arkells’ Disco Loadout SIGNED CLEAR SPLATTER VINYL with Peter Kerr/Rock Daydream Nation [VIDEO]

RECORD STORE TALES #1126: Mail Shenanigans
& Look at the Arkells’ Disco Loadout signed clear splatter vinyl
with Peter Kerr/Rock Daydream Nation

Supplementals:

It has been a hell of a week.  There’s an untold story here; one that I have elected not to tell.  Let’s just say I’m out a lot of money, and other setbacks have caused me to take a step back from social media for a few days.  Just too much going on for me to deal with in a calm and cool manner.  Better to retreat into the shadows a bit.

As always, the Show Must Go On, and so I was determined to do my best on Friday May 17’s Arkells special on Grab A Stack of Rock.  It was the first show I’d done without a co-host (just a special guest) in a long while.  I felt unprepared despite a whole week of listening.  Things came together at the last minute, and all I needed was the new Arkells album, Disco Loadout Volume One, for the show to go right.  I planned to spend the afternoon listening to the CD and hoped to open up the autographed clear splatter vinyl live on the show.

The thing about going live is that it’s a double-edged sword.  The plus is you get the rush of live viewer feedback, and that sparks the show to be so much more exciting.  The negative is that when things go wrong, there’s nothing you can do about it.  That’s live for you.

My record was supposed to arrive on May 15.  It didn’t.  May 16 came and went.  Surely, it would be in my mailbox by May 17, the release date.  It had to be.

I arrived home from work early on Friday.  I raced with my heart pounding to the mailbox.  “It’ll be in there,” I reasoned to myself.  “Why wouldn’t it be?  It has to be.”

It wasn’t.

Furious, I went right to my computer and called up the tracking.

“Good news!” said Canada Post.  “Your parcel was delivered to your locked condo mailbox on May 16!”

Umm, no it wasn’t!  I picked up the phone.  I searched for a phone number.  Do you know how hard it is to call Canada Post on the phone and get a human being on the phone?  I was completely unsuccessful.

I went ’round and ’round on phone menus for half an hour.  I called my local post office, only to go to voicemail after an agonisingly long wait.  I swore up and down, and let out a primal yell that would have frightened the upstairs neighbour, had he been home.

I called Encore Records, and fortunately they had CD copies of the album in stock.  I ran downtown, grabbed the album from them (and a few other discs as well).  I was greeted there by old pal Chris, and I want to thank Encore for saving the day.  Once home, I immediately played the album once-and-a-half times, and began my show prep.  (I also picked up three other discs – a 4 CD Faster Pussycast set, the new Beatles single “Now and Then“, and the new Ace Frehley 10,000 Volts.)

I wouldn’t be able to open the signed splatter vinyl live on the show, but I filed a report with Canada Post.  It was all I could do.  There were no other options available.  Showing a CD copy wouldn’t be as exciting, but at least I had it in hand and could read the credits while listening.

The show went incredibly well; far better than I expected.  This was due to special guest Nurse Kat and her enthusiasm, and to some excellent notes from D’Arcy Briggs.  I’m really happy and proud of the show we did together.  I’d never attempted to do a show on a new album, on the day of release before.  We were treading new ground in multiple ways, and while it almost didn’t work, it ended up being one of the best shows to date.  The passion for the music came through.

Two days later, there was a knock on the door.  A tall gentleman from down the hall had a parcel for me.  It had been delivered to his unit.

How this happened, I’ll never understand but someone at Canada Post wrote the number “103” on the parcel.  Even though my correct unit number was written clearly on the parcel where the address was, this scribbled “103” put my parcel in the tall man’s mailbox.  Fortunately he is one of the good ones, and not all of them are.  Just this week, an upstairs neighbour had an expensive Amazon parcel opened and stolen.  It’s not a good feeling to have mail thieves in our building, but I have been victim twice before.  I’m glad this wasn’t the third time.

Even though I didn’t get to unbox it live, Peter Kerr from Rock Daydream Nation was kind enough to join me for a quick look at a beautiful record.  It looks as great as it sounds.

And so the week of stress comes to a happy ending.  The other bit of good news is that the social media hiatus was a good idea.  I went on a writing bender like never before.  Expect loads of reviews this spring and summer.

Thank you to the guy down the hall, to Peter Kerr, to D’Arcy Briggs, and to Nurse Kat for turning this potential disaster story into one of triumph!

 

#1125: Purple Rain, Purple Sky – Five New Things at the Lake

RECORD STORE TALES #1125: Purple Rain, Purple Sky

“I want to do something new this weekend,” goes the eternal complaint. Even with Lake Huron in front of us, and a lush green paradise all around, sometimes I still moan about doing the same things every weekend.

There is so much you can do, but only a couple days to do it all.  It’s easy to fall into comfortable habits and just…relax.  However, the cottage is too special to just relax.  Surely, I’ve had some of the best sleeps of my life there, but you don’t want to sleep your day away, as easy as it can be.

As always, we started the trip on the front porch.  We always like to listen to music on our night of arrival, as the sun sets.  This time, we chose Prince’s Purple Rain, which I didn’t own last year.  This music was new to the cottage, and it was an absolutely incredible experience.  I danced around the porch to “Computer Blue”, but the sun was setting just as Prince began singing about the “Purple Rain”.  It was a surreal experience hearing Prince sing “Ooo, ooo, ooo,” as the orange and pink clouds slowly let the sun sink beneath the horizon.  It felt like Prince was there in the forest somewhere, just out of sight.

New thing #1 achieved:  “Purple Rain” at sunset.

We always like to experiment with food.  Believe it or not, we have not made homemade burgers at the lake in decades.  Why?  My dad used to hate cooking them, as they’d fall to pieces on the grill.  Not anymore.  Thanks to a tip from my good buddy Thuss, we now are making our own homemade burgers.  The secret:  Freeze them.  Once frozen, those patties stay together and do no break apart.  For our first batch, this was our successful blend:

  • Lean beef (Jen wanted extra lean but I said no)
  • Ground thick cut bacon
  • 1 egg
  • Bread Crumbs
  • Parmesan flakes
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Paprika
  • Chili flakes
  • Minced fresh garlic
  • Minced fresh onion
  • Ketchup
  • Mustard
  • Olive oil

I don’t know how much of that we could actually taste, but it was fun and the result was juicy and perfect.  And then next batch is already in the freezer waiting to be cooked up, with a new set of ingredients including local beef.

New thing #2 achieved:  Perfect homemade burgers on the grill.

But wait, there’s more!  Thanks to a new, deep cast iron frying pan, we also fried our own french fries.  No more oven baked fries, or air fries!  Only the real deal.  They were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and perfect all around.

New thing #3 achieved:  Golden brown french fries.

To quote ZZ Top:  I AM your burger man.

“My charcoal’s getting red hot,
Put your order in my hand,
Won’t you let me show you what I got,
Sizzling in the pan.”

I woke up on the Saturday morning as I often do, bright and early.  It was damp and cold with not a single human to be seen, myself excluded.  It’s a good time to spot wildlife.  There have been bears in the area, but I did not see one.  Instead, I saw a red canid coming up the path from the beach.  A fox?  I had not seen our local fox up there in at least a year.  This animal had the gait of a fox, but not the bushy red and white tail.  This animal had a thin, bony tail, and its frame was larger than a fox.

It was a coyote.  My first coyote sighting, ever.  I’ve heard them at night, but never seen one in the fur before.

New thing #4 achieved:  Coyote sighting!

I knew there was no way I’d be able to grab my phone in time.  I simply watched the confident, unafraid animal stroll down our little dirt road as if he was the only one in the world.

Of course, all of this would pale in comparison to the Aurora Borealis.  I’d never seen the Northern Lights before.  I did my best to describe the experience, but words and pictures do not capture the awe.  It felts as if we were all under a huge electric dome.  It is something I’ll never forget even if I never see it again.  It began suddenly and dimly, before the lights were all you could see anywhere, in every direction.  The lights reflected off the waters, and created beautiful patterns in the ripples.

New thing #5 achieved:  Aurora Borealis

New experiences are not always possible at the lake, nor are they always necessary.  Sometimes it’s enough to just sit on the porch and watch the days go by.  After 52 years of coming to the exact same location, to have so many new sights, sounds and flavours in one weekend was unexpected.

The cottage is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get!

 

#1124: Aurora Borealis

RECORD STORE TALES #1124: Aurora Borealis

52 years of coming to the cottage, since my very birth, and there are still new things to see.

I used to think I was too far south to ever see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).  Certainly it has never happened before.  However, we are heading into a Solar Maximum, which means a high point in the sun’s 11 year cycle of activity.  The sun’s magnetic field is a twisty turny-thing, and every 11 years, it gets twisted up into an increasingly excited state, and the sun ejects massive eruptions of particles into the surrounding space.  When our Earth eventually collides with the charged particles, they create brilliant shows of light in the sky.  There are both northern and southern borealis, and in northern Canada, people can see the lights easily.  Where I live in the southern tip, we never see the lights!

May 10, around 10:15 PM, the lights came to visit the shores of Lake Huron.

Jen and I headed down to the beach, as the Boston Bruins were getting mauled by the Florida Panthers.  I kept my eyes north, assuming that was where I would see the lights.  Disappointed, I shouted back at Jen, “There’s nothing yet.”

I noticed something as I looked back at her.  The sky was “hazy”,

“Is that it?” I asked Jen as I looked straight up.  There was a cloudy streak across the sky.

Then I looked south and saw the horizon glowing green.  The northern lights were not coming from the north!  They were all around us, in every direction, like a glowing curtain!  It was not at all what I expected to see.

The light show peaked for about 15 minutes, on a very cold night.  The lights shifted and changed, ever so slowly, so that you barely noticed.  You could stare at a band of green until it faded and was suddenly replaced by swirls of red.  The moon was a sharp crescent and it cut a hole through a band of green, as did a handful of bright stars.

Photographs and videos, of course, only tell part of the story, and only insofar as technology can capture.  The real colours and the subtle wispy cloudy bands we saw are lost in photos.

Directly overhead appeared to be the center of it all.  Radiating out from a central point were bands of cloudy white, like a celestial starfish.  Jen and I pondered this and wondered if the solar particles were hitting at that point.

I wish I had been listening to “Purple Rain” at that moment.  It did almost look like purple rain at times.

Jen and I had a moment on the previous night, listening to “Purple Rain” during sunset.  It was an uplifting, somewhat surreal moment to hear Prince soloing and singing over the sight of the glowing sky.  Imagine if we had it playing during the borealis!

The bone-chilling cold of the Kincardine night cut our visit short, but I can now say I’ve seen the Northern Lights.

Bucket list achieved.