78 Collectors: Why are they so weird?

i don't know if he ended up getting a vasectomy, but he was roundly pilloried for trying to get his friends to pay for it.

it's pretty weird
i guess that means he is officially weird, like other 78 collectors

yes!

That birdsong comp he did last year is WILD.

yeah, he also did the comp of all laughing records!

i just buy whatever he releases (on bandcamp, usually), it's almost always gold.

yeah, i'm a fan of that approach -- i probably wouldn't buy a fancy physical collection of laughing songs, but $4 on bandcamp is worth it.

i made a Vocalian playlist. 142 songs. roughly 1925 to 1935.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqITlO71C61yE3UW4WAf_96-dqfX_0Zsj

uh, Vocalion. i can't spell.

78 collectors: still weird.

https://www.facebook.com/100000638567220/posts/2813960045301920?sfns=mo

keep the king of weird 78 collectors in your thoughts

Received “Do Not Sell At Any Price” from Mrs HD for Xmas. Really looking forward to it — I like Petrusich’s writing & I like record collecting so it should be a good day’s read.

8 tracks were better?!

It was a good book! I ploughed through it in a day. It got quite interesting toward the end where she began to examine how the tastes of white men had basically shaped the narrative around early 20th century recorded music, what was worth saving & what was worth pursuing to the obsessive degree that collectors of rustic music do... and then it just kind of petered out after a quick detour into the Epirotic Vival (“revival” is too strong a word for something that didn’t have much of a first life). It was a bit frustrating in that way; I’d have liked her journey to have got there by about Chapter 4 and then take us somewhere else, but she’d already clearly spent a lot of money & time on the project & .... how many rabbit holes can you fall down before you have to call time? Well worth a read, esp for those of us who ponder the question posed by the thread title. Sequel, please.

Joe Bussard
59m ·
Hello everyone,
It is disappointing that we have to be posting this. Unfortunately, it has been made extremely obvious that we can no longer leave the planning of visits to Joe’s record room up to him or his guests.
Joe is on hospice care, as of last week. We are unsure how much time he has left, but we are caring for him at home so he is able to spend his remaining time as comfortable as possible and around his records.
While we are happy to have people visit and keep him company, the usual day long trips to Joe’s are over. And this is not the choice of my grandfather - unfortunately, he is never going to understand the severity of this situation or the risks associated with having groups of strangers in his room for 6+ hours a day. So, as his caretakers, this is the decision that is being made and the new rules in place. He simply cannot be entertaining visitors for hours, up and down the stairs, or exerting all his energy with multiple guests.
If you would like to visit Joe, please contact us via FB message or you can email me (em✧✧✧.anderson✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧). Anyone who visits needs to show proof of a negative COVID test within the last 24 hours. If you have any chance of exposure, please be respectful and do not visit. Visits will be limited to two hours and two people. If anyone chooses to not follow these requests, or speaks directly with Joe to plan a visit and does not consult with me or my mom (Joe’s daughter), you will be asked to leave our house immediately.
We thank you for understanding and respecting our wishes during this time. While Joe would love to have dozens of people in our home for hours a day, it simply is not safe for him and we need to put these restrictions in place for his well-being.

:(

Oh no!

Joe Bussard 78 record collector RIP.

Who will get his collection?

This old long read on Bussard by writer Eddie Dean for Washington City Paper was a fascinating take on Bussard and his musical views and approach to life

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/274356/desperate-man-blues/

RIP.

a couple months ago i talked with somebody who visited joe over the summer. i'm guessing he must have gotten in before his family took over scheduling visits. joe sold him a (cracked) blind lemon jefferson record for $20 -- wow! this kid was like 18 and so stoked on it.

he's a legend for the record cleaning video alone.

i loathe to speculate on what his family is dealing with re: his collection

i imagine the dust to digital guys are working with the family

Am now on the hunt for Annette Hanshaw records. The most charming and disarming of the pre-war pop-jazz honky chanteuses.

https://consequence.net/2023/08/internet-archive-lawsuit/

Major record labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Capitol have filed a copyright lawsuit against the Internet Archive and its founder Brewster Kahle over the “Great 78 Project,” an initiative aimed to preserve and provide free access to pre-1972 musical works from artists like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong.

In the suit filed Friday (August 11th), the labels claim that the project — which Internet Archive describes as a hub for “the preservation, research and discovery of 78rpm records” — violates copyright laws, and argues that by “transferring copies of those files to members of the public, Internet Archive has reproduced and distributed without authorization Plaintiffs’ protected sound recordings.”

https://great78.archive.org/

in other news, new r crumb yoga mat just dropped

https://cdn.platformart.com/original_images/a119a596-1581-4568-a757-a6818bb52cb2.RCRUMB_YOGAMAT_unrolling_animation_1.gif

https://www.platformart.com/artworks/r-crumb/shape-up-yoga-mat