Top Comments: the Record Store revival edition

A one-day attempt to re-capture my mis-spent youth, after the jump …….

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I visit the NY metro area for the extended Thanksgiving holidays. And after dinner at the home of my sister in New Jersey (and a day-trip to Manhattan on Friday), it was off to my native Long Island for the Saturday of that weekend, to meet-up with five old chums. Originally I had made this essay’s title about re-capturing our youth …. but realizing that the last part of our day was the most significant.

After arriving via rail to the town where we will hold our annual Birthday Bash in December (for three old chums with birthdays during Christmas week) we settled upon the menu at this year’s restaurant choice.

Then it was off to our weather-permitting hike — and we always try to find a hiking trail with water and maybe some interesting sights. It was there we met-up with some of my old chums, trying to re-capture our youth (some forty years later) for a group of six geezers aged 57-63.

And we got off to a good start. The Sweetbriar Nature Center in the town of Smithtown did not exist from when I came-of-age there … and was worth the wait. Weather was good, nice scenic hiking trails, water … and lots of rescue animals in cages, being nursed back to health. Plus ….. a deer walking up to me and … licking my pants (…. perhaps, I suppose, the pants needed some salt).

And then …. one of our old friends is a mechanic (railroad and automotive) and his second car is a late 1980’s model he keeps humming. Alas, with the key engaged in the ignition, he managed to lock himself out … and was unable to pry-open the old-style window to unlock the door. His wife came down with the spare key, but by then: the battery was drained, necessitating a jump start. It merely delayed us, but that was something that would easily have happened to us as twenty-somethings … (just didn’t imagine it happening, as we approach 2018).

Yours truly (right) & others

After a stop at yet another old friend’s house, who is a caregiver to his aging and ailing mother (and we spoke to her briefly) — we set-out on the next stage of the journey: the reincarnation of our favorite old record store from the past.

Bruce Berg was everything a record store owner should be. He was friendly, knew his customer’s names, could make recommendations and — in addition to the latest best-sellers and major acts — had a decent blues, jazz, classical, folk and other genres section. My mother stopped in for gifts a few times and (as was her wont) could never recall his name … but always spoke highly of him. Bruce once told me that selling three copies of the album Fragile by the band Yes …. would finance his inventory of jazz, such as the Gil Evans Orchestra plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix… and other less commercial recordings. Plus, a bulletin board you could tack notes to … and Bruce would even relay messages to other people.

It was 1973 and Bruce Berg, then 26, figured it was time to grow up. After five years of traveling the country in a VW camper, he went from doing odd jobs and selling 8-tracks on the side of the road to getting married and signing a lease on a storefront. “I saw there was a store for rent and I took it,” recalled Berg. “It was $250 a month and I had $1,000 to my name. I put out a few 8-track tapes and a couple of stereos … and I opened the door”.

Do you have any trouble visualizing this chap traveling the USA in a VW camper?

 Bruce Berg (circa mid-70’s)

And here is the humble abode he ran — along with his trusted aide-de-camp James “Nipo” Antonucci and others — for thirty-six years, before closing it in 2010 and retiring to Charleston, South Carolina.

  Record Stop (deli next door) circa 1980’s

Earlier this year, his son Jeff has re-opened the store in a different town (Patchogue) near the commuter rail station — with this local write-up:

Music posters. T-shirts. Turntables. And wall-to-wall vinyl records and CDs. We’re also talking 30,000 vinyl records and another 30,000 CDs — just in the retail space.

Bruce & Jeff Berg at a grand re-opening

No, not his father’s record store …. more like The Next Generation.

With today’s digital downloads, plus Amazon and big-box stores (without any knowledgeable, friendly clerks to assist you) … I thought the old record store was way past the endangered species list … and headed for extinction. But like his father’s store — the new shop is also a meet-up place for area musicians, too.  

CD’s in the racks against the wall

And when there was talk of a “vinyl comeback” …. I assumed it would be limited to DJ’s who used them for sound effects … or those who could afford state-of-the-art audio systems (who have long believed that the sound obtained by such high-end equipment was superior to CD’s and the like). Instead, as Jeff tells it: the demand for vinyl records is largely being driven by curious young people:

“They’ve heard of it, but they never actually had a record,” he said. “The 20-year-olds, they’ve never seen one. They don’t know how to use a record player; I have to teach them.”

“People older than 60, they’re not getting into vinyl at this point in their lives,” Berg said. “They’ve already sold or gave away their [records] when they moved three times and now they’re done. But they don’t know how to use iPhones, so they’re using CDs.”

  Hell-bent for vinyl (records)

Just as with the car trouble: it was a labor-of-love to get there.

First, there was the town’s annual Holiday Parade— with police and fire vehicles carrying Santa and his helpers — that not only caused a detour but much difficulty finding a parking spot. Then, we found that Siri and other mobile devices had differing addresses and directions for the shop, making for quite a long walk. After asking for directions, we finally made it.

The night manager (Kap Akirema) greeted us warmly … and then when we told him we were FOB’s (Friends of Bruce) and Nipo, he gave us a mini-tour of the place and even a free $3 swag bag. Best of all: he told us that business was great (foot traffic even better than expected, with “I didn’t know places like this existed!”), that Jeff has signed a lease extension .. and Kap took this photo of us.

   Shhhh ….. night manager gave us $3 bags …. free (yours truly 3rd from left)

Here’s hoping that places like this will make it … and I certainly wish that such a revival of stores comes to your town. (P.S. — there were never any Record Stop clerks like Jack Black in High Fidelity).

After a bite to eat (at a place that Kap recommended) it was time to head home. I don’t know if we re-captured our youth (or not) … either way, it was rewarding.

Let’s close with an instrumental from an album I bought at the old Record Stop — from the leader of the Stax Records house band Booker T and the MG’s.

x xYouTube Video

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Now, on to Top Comments:

From cminus:

In the diary by ExpatGirl about the destruction being wrought by today’s GOP— I nominate unduna's comment elaborating on 'look to the helpers' — a superb antidote to despair.

And O/T: Wee Mama's excellent diary — about how to send TC recommendations— has one serious flaw: right at the top, it says "the address is", after which there is actually, sadly, no address.

From gizmo59:

In DoctorWho's liveblog on the tax bill vote in the Senate — jwinIL14 starts a thread ... with hilarious contributions by robk331, NorthCountryNY, and Old Left Good Left.

And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........

In the front-page story about one of Roy Moore’s lickspittles having been convicted of trying to obstruct an investigation into claims that his son sexually molested children (including erasing a tape) — pierre9045 felt the additional step taken was excessive.

TOP PHOTOS November 29th, 2017 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)

And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:

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