Record Store Tales

#1059: Dear D

RECORD STORE TALES #1059: Dear D

 

Nine years ago, after the explosive finale of Record Store Tales where I revealed why I quit for the very first time, the fallout was pretty epic.  I had to end two friendships over it.  One of them sent me an email about it all, that I never read until today.  I was searching through my old email address, looking for unpublished Record Store Tales that I could use for something.  Boy did I find one.

The sender said that I wasn’t allowed to use his email for story content, so I’ll paraphrase.

This former Record Store employee seemed to be primarily upset about the fact that I wasn’t cool with the Record Store demanding that I keep my personal cell phone on 24/7.  I spoke to a lawyer; they can’t do that.  It’s funny how upset these guys were about that.  “Oh, your boss that you hated always kept her cell phone on 24/7.”  Yeah.  Because it was her work phone.  She didn’t pay for it.  She had to keep it on.  It was for work.  My phone was for getting lost on road trips into the GTA.  Came in handy a lot for that.

This sender also engaged in some one-upmanship.  “Oh if you think you had it bad, you should see what I see in my current field of work.”

Never was a competition, dude.  Although he seemed to like to make it one in a lot of his past comments.

“Oh wow, you had an alarm company call you at night?  I had one call me three times in one night.”

That kind of thing.  Competitive.

He loses all credibility by referring to Spoogecakes’ legendary hateful comment as as “constructive feedback”.  You be the judge.  Seriously?  Biased much?  No grip on reality?  If I had been the one to send that “feedback”, you’d be singing a different tune, Bub.

My nine-year belated response:

 

Hi D!  Long time no chat.  It appears that nine years ago, you sent me this email that I never read.  I stumbled upon it just now.

I can’t help but notice that both you and your buddy ignored the fact that my cell phone was my own personal phone, nothing to do with the Store, paid for by me, for my own personal use.  As you know, an employer can’t suddenly demand that you keep a personal cell phone on 24/7.  If I did not tell anyone that I had a cell phone, nobody could have called it, and nothing could have been done about it.  It would have been my personal secret.  The manager of our biggest store, Joe, did not have a cell phone at all, as you well know.  Why was that OK for him, but I had to leave my personal phone on 24/7?

You know all this because you’re an expert on such matters.  You didn’t have to consult a lawyer on such things, like I did.

It’s funny that both of you ignored that unethical behaviour from our old boss.  Wouldn’t have anything to do with her being your friend, would it?  She was at your wedding, as I recall.  Both you and your buddy’s weddings, in fact.  You wouldn’t have a bias here, would you?

Hope you’re well,

Mike

“Write a letter, you’ll feel better”

#1058: I Love It Loud

RECORD STORE TALES #1058: I Love It Loud

Lately, after Grab A Stack of Rock on Friday nights, my wife and I have enjoyed watching old 80s music videos.  I’m not sure the program she watches – I’m not a TV guy – but they always have a lot of old videos that I remember from childhood, along with a bunch that I don’t.  Conversation ensues for a few solid hours, and it’s often the highlight of my week.

“Tears Are Falling” by Kiss is one video that runs semi-regularly.  I explained to my wife that I was 13 years old when that video came out, just discovering girls, and hot for the one in the Kiss video.  Then on will come an old Scorpions video, or Motley, or Priest, or Ozzy.  I’d laugh at all these images I used to take so seriously, and think were so cool!  But the songs…they still rock!

Skid Row, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi…all these definitive bands for my teen years.

On comes “I Can’t Drive 55” by Sammy Hagar and I’m splitting my sides, laughing in memories.  There is one specific shot.  The courtroom scene.  The judge is stamping “REVOKED” on Sammy’s driver’s license, in a big close up shot.  All you can see is two fingers on the stamp, it’s so close up.  My friend Allen Runstetler thought the two fingers looked like a bum.

“Is he stamping his license with his ass?”

Gotta laugh.  Wouldn’t put it past an 80s music video to do that, but it was just a hand!

They play a lot of Kix videos on Friday nights.  I was never a big Kix fan.  They actually play a lot of bands that I never got into, especially from 1990-91-92.  I was getting tired of hard rock and seeking heavier sounds like Testament.  Danger Danger and the like?  Just couldn’t get into ’em.  I wanted bands with stellar musicianship and less-silly lyrics by then.  A lot of the music I listened to wasn’t exactly respected in musicians’ circles, but could still play circles around the competition.  Winger had Reb Beach and Rod Morgenstein.  Mr. Big had Paul Gilbert and Common Knowledge.  Even Poison joined the upper echelon in 1993 with a stellar album featuring Richie Kotzen on guitar.  I wanted music that at least had a little bit of integrity.  I wasn’t hearing that so much in Danger Danger.

As the music videos come and go, I feel like I’m in highschool again.  Especially when they play “Sleeping My Day Away” by D-A-D!

“Oh my God Jen!  I was sitting in Bob Schipper’s basement when this video played on the Power Hour for the first time!” I marveled.  “Bob was obsessed with the two-string bass that they had!”  And together we’d rock out.  In 1989 with Bob, and in 2023 with Jen.  Fists still pumping.

When Jen and I first met, she didn’t know any of these songs.  She didn’t think she’d even like many of these songs.  Now she knows most of ’em by heart.  I’d like to consider that a job well done.  I’ll talk, and talk, and tell my stories, and for some reason, she loves it!  I’ll take that as a life win.

#1057: “To Each Their Own!” – The P*ss Blanket Story

RECORD STORE TALES #1057: “To Each Their Own!” – The Piss Blanket Story

Guilty as charged.  I was filming a dumpster diver.

I was leaving for work Friday morning when I saw this guy picking through the bottles in recycling, as they often do.  He was soon joined by a second guy, and they tore through the recycling looking for anything of value.  When the second guy jumped into the dumpster, I couldn’t resist.  The bad part of me wanted a video, so I shot a little bit of video and then pocketed my phone again.

I watched as the guy found a box with a deep fryer in it, but then my jaw dropped as I saw him liberate a large, white blanket….

[continued in video]

As I drove off, I saw the two guys riding the bikes, with the one fellow clutching the piss blanket holding his precious deep fryer.

Weird Friday.

#1056: Spring Metal on the Other Side of Winter

RECORD STORE TALES #1056: Spring Metal on the Other Side of Winter

I think many people share my sentiment that this winter was absolutely brutal.

Since ages past, it has always been a celebration when the sun emerges warmly after a long, cold winter.  Memories flooding back.  So many memories.

1986.  On the back porch at the cottage, playing “Turbo Lover” and “Locked In”, freshly recorded in mono from MuchMusic, from the brand new Judas Priest album Turbo.   I was probably told to turn it down….

1987.  On my bike.  I had received The Final Countdown by Europe for Easter.  It was difficult for me to get into; different from what I was used to.  I remember cruising down Carson Ave on my bike with that album in my head.  Best track for me:  “Cherokee”.  I loved the keyboard hook and the chorus.

1988.  I was given Skyscraper by David Lee Roth for Easter.  It became a “warm weather album” that spring, played many times weekly in a Walkman while riding a bike or strolling through the neighbourhood looking for girls.  (Not that I ever found any.)  Memories of setting up my ghetto blaster on the front porch, with Skyscraper serenading the street.  That cassette wore out rapidly.  It was one my first CD re-buys a couple years down the road (spring ’91).

1989.  Trying to look cool, and practicing my guitar on the front patio for the world to see.  I was never any good, but I am sure that “Mary Had A Little Lamb” really delivered the spring-like vibes I was laying down.  In my earphones were things like New Jersey by Bon Jovi, House Of Lords’ self-titled debut, Quiet Riot’s latest with Paul Shortino on lead vocals.  Amazingly though, 1987’s Hysteria by Def Leppard was still in my Walkman.  The album had incredibly long legs.  I was hoping for one more single, which never came to be.  I picked “Love and Affection” as my favourite in ’89.  Then, I had some new buys!  We had just joined Columbia House.  I split the membership with my sister and picked up these treasures that rocked my whole spring:

  1. Leatherwolf – Leatherwolf
  2. Motley Crue – Girls, Girls, Girls
  3. Hurricane – Over the Edge
  4. Stryper – To Hell With the Devil
  5. Stryper – In God We Trust
  6. White Lion – Pride
  7. Sammy Hagar – VOA

Shortly after the first seven, I added Triumph Stages to the list, which carried on rocking me into the summer of 1989.  That year was one of the most critical in my life as a music fan, and the spring motherlode from Columbia House had a lot to do with it.

1990.  I was now working at the local grocery store, Zehrs.  Short-haired and geekier than ever, I was really getting in Black Sabbath.  Pushing the shopping carts in long lines, singing “Sweet Leaf”, but having no idea what it was about.  When I declared it as my favourite Black Sabbath song, people reacted strangely and I didn’t know why.  I guess they thought I was into the pot!  I thought the “Leaf” of the song was a girl named Leaf.

1991.  The end of highschool loomed…I felt very free.  Very excited about the future.  The future of hard rock.  Little did I know!  I was listening to a lot of the new Mr. Big that spring, an album called Lean Into It.  I thought they had really refined their sound.  I had also taken the dive into indi rock, and Raw M.E.A.T was absolutely one of my favourite CDs that spring.

Good place to end this trip down memory land:  happy memories, all of them!  I wonder what will be dominating the car stereo with the windows down this spring?

#1055: Alone Again

RECORD STORE TALES #1055: Alone Again

I think I’ve felt alone most of my life.  Alone inside my head.  Sometimes creating worlds of imagination, sometimes overthinking the world around me.  I guess not much has changed in that regard.

Eventually you come to crave that alone feeling, even when you would be better off out with friends.  Just because that alone feeling is what is safe and comfortable to you.  It’s a situation you can control.

I suppose this lonely feeling began in grade school, where I did not fit in and had few kids that I would consider truly friends.  We were not “friends” because we liked one another, we were “friends” because we were in the same grade at school.  It was a case of proximity and temporal coincidence and nothing more.  Those kids — Kevin Kirby, Ian Johnson, Kenny Lawrence — they were not my friends.  We might have spent time together, but by the end of the 8th grade they had sided with the bullies and expelled from my life.

My friends from my neighbourhood were the real deal.  But we weren’t in school together.  We were separated most of the time.  And so for just about all of grade school, I felt alone.  Hearing conversations I was not a part of, wishing I was in on others’ jokes, or longing to be picked first for something.  Anything.  It was not meant to be for me.

As I got older and friends moved on with work, school, and families, I spent a lot of time in my room listening to music.  Though it is not something I do anymore, and kind of wish I did, I used to lay on the bed, playing an album for the first time, and reading the lyrics along line by line.  Studying them, trying to penetrate the meaning.  Squinting the eyes to read the tiny print on the inside of a cassette J-card.

Though I’m not alone today, and have not been for 17 years, it’s startling sometimes how easily I can slip back into that mindset.  It can happen in the car or on the couch.  I retreat into my head, and those feelings of isolation creep back like the tide.  I remember loving and hating the Rush song “Subdivisions”.  A great song, with a phat synth riff that echoes in the head for days.  But the lyrics hit a little too close to him.  “Be cool or be cast out.”  Was that my fate, to be cast out every time I tried?  Only when it stopped mattering if people were cool or not did I finally feel like I was no longer alone.

Sometimes retreating into those lonely spaces one more time can result in helpful introspection.  Other times, it just brings me down.  The constant has always been the music.  Music has always been there.  If it’s not in my ears, it’s always in my head.  I can hear songs in my mind when I need them.  The songs of my life’s soundtrack will always be there to accompany my smiles and tears.

#1054: The Darkest Winter

RECORD STORE TALES #1054: The Darkest Winter

I think I’m going to go ahead and declare winter “over”.  In Canada that can be a rather meaningless gesture, but I’m going to do it anyway.  So let’s talk about mental health during the winter of 2022-23.

Winter started mild.  Most importantly though, I had this plan, see….

Well you know what they say about plans.

It was a simple plan, and it did work for the first part of the winter.  Because I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, winter can be the most difficult time of year for me.  Winter in Canada can be unpleasant.  Dark, wet, cold, often all three at once.  The nights are long.  The days are spent in an office.  When I arrived at work, it was still dark.  When I left for home, it was already dark.  This takes its toll.  So what was the plan, then?  The plan was to try and see winter through new eyes.  My American friend MarriedandHeels has never experienced winter.  I thought it would be fun to share images and videos of things she doesn’t see every day, like giant icicles, road salt, snowbanks and all the rest of it.  For a time, it worked.  The novelty of it was really fun.  Some of these snowbanks were mountains!  Her reactions were entertaining (especially to the idea of road salt).  However, as the months dragged it, this wore itself out on me.  Every day seemed like a repeat of the last.  The snow lingered and lingered on, accumulating and dominating the images.

Things started to go to hell.  Everyone in my family except my dad has had Covid, including my 98 year old grandmother.

Oh, my grandmother.

She took ill early this year.  We thought was was gone, twice.  I wrote her eulogy!  I came home from work early and wrote a eulogy…and she keeps hanging on.  I have grieved her twice this year already!  But she is currently doing well.

My sister has been sick, my mom has been sick, my dad is feeling the years take their toll on his body.

I’ve been sick twice, once with stomach ailments and once with Covid.  Same with Jen, but she’s had a much longer dance with Lady ‘Rona.  The isolation also takes its toll.

I would say I fell apart a couple times this winter.  Two people thought I should see a psychiatrist and get put on happy pills.  I have tried happy pills before and they do not work for me.  They wreak havoc on my stomach and I prefer to do this without prescriptions.  MarriedandHeels expressed her concern that I had fallen into a depression, and I agreed with her.

But then things started to change.  The clocks went forward, giving more daylight during the leisure hours.  The snow started to finally melt.  The birds are returning.  And soon the snow tires will be off!  And that can only mean one thing.  Cottage season!

I’m starting to feel like myself again.

This has been without a doubt the most brutal winter since the winter of cancer, 2018.  Did you know it was actually the darkest winter in Ontario in 80 years?  That means it was the darkest winter most of us have ever experienced.

Winter took its toll, did its damage, but I won.  I am still standing and it is gone.

I won.

 

 

#1053: I Have Beaten Covid

RECORD STORE TALES #1053: I Have Beaten Covid

Well, my battle is over.  Jen’s still positive.

I stated in previous chapters, my battle was nothing.  I never got sick beyond a sore throat, and feeling really, really tired.  I do still have a recurring headache.  For those curious, this is my vaccination history:

  1. Pfizer
  2. Moderna
  3. Pfizer

Jen had the exact same combo as me, but she suffered a lot harder.  She’s on the upswing now, but her symptoms included sore throat, mild cough, lots of body pain, congestion and fatigue.  I believe I brought it into the house from work.

I wanted to write this Covid journal to keep people informed, let them know what Covid is like.  Fortunately this journal was a bit of a bust!  No complaints from me.

#1052: The Covid Chronicles Continue

RECORD STORE TALES #1052: The Covid Chronicles Continue

I’ve stopped testing.  Jen is still suffering pretty hard.

I worked from home for most of this week, which both sucked, and didn’t.  Because I didn’t have to do the usual stuff – shower, pack a lunch, drive, wait – I had a lot more free time at home and got some extra creative projects done in the mornings which I like to do.

I also explored un-ripped parts of my music collection, as seen below.  The “G” section was easy to access, and so I grabbed a stack of discs that I had not played in over 10 years.  Much much longer in some cases:

  • Peter Gabriel – Shaking the Tree – Sixteen Golden Greats
  • Marvin Gaye – The Very Best Of
  • Girl – Pure Greed
  • Giuffria – Silk & Steel
  • Roger Glover – Butterfly Ball
  • Glenn Gould – Goldberg Variations – 1955 version
  • Glenn Gould – Goldberg Variations – 1981 version
  • Glenn Gould – Beethoven/Liszt Symphony #6
  • Green Bullfrog Sessions

Rediscovering Glenn Gould was a delight; I especially like when you can hear him humming or singing along to his playing.  Green Bullfrog was funky and cool!  Blackmore really wailed and I could absolutely hear that it was Ian Paice on drums.  Butterfly Ball was surprising fun.  Giuffria was way, way, way more Journey-like than I remembered.  Sounds like they were really going for a Journey vibe, especially with David Glenn Eisley’s vocals.  Peter Gabriel and Marvin Gaye were fun re-visits with a lot of great songs.  But the real surprise was Girl, featuring Phil Lewis and Phil Collen.  I loved hearing Collen’s trademark shred, but Lewis is an underrated singer.  Girl was the favourite of this batch.  Sorry Beethoven.

Back to Covid.  Jen is suffering, not gonna lie.  I have zero symptoms, but this morning I did cough up some phlegm.  Kinda like you often do several days after a bad cold.  Except I never had the bad cold.

Jen’s experienced dizzy spells and general, all around malaise.  She wishes her nose would stop running.

I experienced a troll on the “Let’s Get Physical” Facebook group who commented that Covid wasn’t real, when I posted my Covid listening list.  I told him to “eat shit” and blocked him.

Just another day in Covid land.

 

#1051: Covid Chronicles 4

RECORD STORE TALES #1051: Covid Chronicles 4

Day Four

Back to work, and I am tired.  A couple hours of work are enough to make me feel it.  Legs are tired too.  Maybe because I’ve been on my back all week.  I have no cough, nothing wrong with my lungs…I got lucky.

Jen is less lucky.  She has the symptoms.  A bottle of Sprite tasted like fish to her.  And I feel bad because it was clearly me that brought it into the house.

I only go one place.  Work and back.  I’ve been nowhere else.

 

#1050: Covid Chronicles 3 – Sharing is Caring

RECORD STORE TALES #1048: Covid Chronicles 3 – Sharing is Caring

Day Three

Fatigued and restful, I did need more sleep.  What I did not need was to pass this Covid on to Jen.  Our pharmacist advised it was inevitable that I would, given our small living space.

She has a scratchy throat, a cough, and now her sense of taste has gone completely out of whack.  Sprite tastes like fish.

I am grateful that I have not gotten worse, but I feel terrible about this latest turn of events.