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

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.

yesterday was a big step for me. as i wrote on the antidepressant thread:

i feel hopeful. i feel like i want to be closer to people again!. its nuts. i was at the store all day by myself yesterday because maria was working a record show at wesleyan and i talked to people all day and had a really good time. awesome writer/rock crit icon/poet karen schoemer came in and we had a nice talk about writing and stuff. people like her inspire me so much. she has a band with friends of mine. i felt engaged and not weird or brittle like i'd been feeling for fucking ever. i realized how detrimental hiding in the back of the store for the last year or more and having maria out front has become. i never wanted to see anyone. it just perpetuated my depression.
the biggest miracle was Sunday afternoon. i went to a house party/show at my friend beverly's house and her awesome band Stella Kola played and other cool people played and then...i read! some of my stuff. in public! with a microphone! in front of, like, 20 people. for about 25 minutes. and people really liked it and i liked it and i was in a garage and the weather was nice and there were dogs and little kids and maria near me. and i wasn't drinking or anything and i felt fine and happy to be with friends who i never see because i never ever leave the house. i asked Beverly if i could read too. about a week ago. i knew that would make it so that i had to go. but i didn't dread it or stress about it. i had a very long and stressful and emotional week last week too. family death. my uncle's memorial and my sad beautiful cousins. my birthday that always makes me feel sad for unknown reasons. just thoughts of family. the people i love who are gone. my mom. my sister. i also worked a ton physically. so much that it hurt. but i got through it all. its not a black cloud covering me or following me. its something i just worked through.
i'm really ready for more of this. i really was working so hard to make myself better on my own for years and it wasn't working. its hard for me to ask for help. i'm so glad i did though. next stop...therapy.

― scott seward, Monday, October 7, 2024 4:36 AM (twelve hours ago

Rat on, hang in there!

good luck! that sounds promising!

thanks, friends.

oh and i know you guys like stats. here's my Medium numbers:

External referrals
95%

email, IM, and direct

858

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534

twitter.com

530

ilxor.com

352

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108

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70

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31

losslessbored.com

7

mail.google.com

4

getpocket.com

2

All other external referrals

5

i feel hopeful. i feel like i want to be closer to people again!. its nuts. i was at the store all day by myself yesterday because maria was working a record show at wesleyan and i talked to people all day and had a really good time. awesome writer/rock crit icon/poet karen schoemer came in and we had a nice talk about writing and stuff. people like her inspire me so much. she has a band with friends of mine. i felt engaged and not weird or brittle like i'd been feeling for fucking ever. i realized how detrimental hiding in the back of the store for the last year or more and having maria out front has become. i never wanted to see anyone. it just perpetuated my depression.
the biggest miracle was Sunday afternoon. i went to a house party/show at my friend beverly's house and her awesome band Stella Kola played and other cool people played and then...i read! some of my stuff. in public! with a microphone! in front of, like, 20 people. for about 25 minutes. and people really liked it and i liked it and i was in a garage and the weather was nice and there were dogs and little kids and maria near me. and i wasn't drinking or anything and i felt fine and happy to be with friends who i never see because i never ever leave the house. i asked Beverly if i could read too. about a week ago. i knew that would make it so that i had to go. but i didn't dread it or stress about it. i had a very long and stressful and emotional week last week too. family death. my uncle's memorial and my sad beautiful cousins. my birthday that always makes me feel sad for unknown reasons. just thoughts of family. the people i love who are gone. my mom. my sister. i also worked a ton physically. so much that it hurt. but i got through it all. its not a black cloud covering me or following me. its something i just worked through.
i'm really ready for more of this. i really was working so hard to make myself better on my own for years and it wasn't working. its hard for me to ask for help. i'm so glad i did though. next stop...therapy.

― scott seward

god i'm so glad to hear that scott. you deserve all the good things.

more if you need more. 2nd installment of ol' crankypuss. sharing here first.

https://medium.com/p/9706ea4f45eb

oh but feel free to share elsewhere if you want.

Awesome

And even better, because so edutaining for me, is your first Taylor Swift (1989) listening experience, with so much stuff about her music and the 80s that I didn't know or had forgotten (Basia!)

I don't know if images from Bluesky posts will load or not...

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qqmdcy4tomfothvkdtkw2boc/bafkreid7dqa4b4mpawnvdtyq5djgvbbvtzgekyao4n7t3zlpl6nn4xueoq@jpeg

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.

my third installment:

https://medium.com/p/977aa410e43b

fantastic, thanks

You're wrong about Cruzados, but that's OK. I remember my dad took me to one of those horrifying old Village record stores once, a place called House Of Oldies, I think. He was looking for an album that had one side by one doo-wop group and another side by another, it was called The Checkers Meet The Diamonds or something like that. Anyway, the guy who ran it was basically Willem Dafoe as Nosferatu and the place looked like it had been stocked by ripping off the roof and pouring the records in by the craneload. Total insanity, but of course Dafoe knew exactly where everything was. He didn't have the album my dad wanted.

lol House of Oldies was the worst!

loved this, a world away from my own experience in Sydney and yet totally relatable and familiar - when I was waz a teenager the city was absolutely heaving with scungy old record shops and bookshops run by weirdos - now there are a handful of genteel vinyl outlets and not one single second-hand book store, which feels like a pretty solid indicator of culture death - my contemporary experience of the city is largely feeling nostalgic for a time when it wasn’t a generic Vibrant Retail Experience

Greatness once again!

So much fun to read,thanks Scott

They built their own realities amidst the chaos surrounding them! What a cool trick

great stuff. super intrigued by these scary Village record stores/garbage dumps, sounds insanely fun in 2025z

Enjoyed the j&r call out
Bought the original king crimson run in gatefold CD versions there back in the day