Well, heck

Just went to the local Borders, which is in the last three days of its existence, and loaded up on 13 CDs and 9 books for right around $50, including the new Gang of Four and the newest Paul Weller, in addition to a bunch of other stuff I'd never gotten around to getting yet.

However, I grabbed and bought a disc that I thought was this:



But was actually this:



Oh well, at least that 22-20s disc isn't too bad. But those two albums need to not have nearly identical covers. Serves me right for not looking at it more closely, though.

For anyone bored out of their mind enough to read it, here's the complete list of my Borders death march haul:

CDs:
Paul Weller - Wake Up the Nation
Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress
The Hundred in the Hands
The Charlatans - Who We Touch
22-20s - Shake/Shiver/Moan
The Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath
Gang of 4 - Content
White Lies - Ritual
Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love
Crowded House - Intriguer
Lisa Stansfield - Swing
The Big Pink - A History of Love (which I already had digitally, but was nice to get a physical copy of)
Girls - Album

Books:
The Classic Pin-Up Art of Jack Cole
Kristin Hersh - Rat Girl (for 75 cents!)
Josh Frank - In Heaven Everything is Fine - The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theater
Michelle Goldberg - The Means of Reproduction (Sex, Power and the Future of the World)
Christopher Robbins - Apples Are From Kazakhstan
Steven Johnson - The Invention of Air
Michael B Oren - Power Faith & Fantasy, America and the Middle East since 1776
Lucy Moore - Anything Goes, A Biography of the Roaring 20s
Karen Abbot - American Rose, The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee

Think I'll hit another couple of Borders in the area over the weekend and see what's left at them, also. Maybe that Sloan album will be somewhere.



Post Edited (09-09-11 21:59)

You were double-crossed!

In my opinion, Reno, your mistake was your gain. (Which is not to say you shouldn't pick up the Sloan CD when you get a chance.)

Forgot you'd written an entry for them, Delvin. I definitely have liked what I've heard from it.

If there were any Borders left in my area I'd be hitting them (did manage to grab GO4 and PW, among others, at the ones here before they closed). Not that it was where I usually went for music, but it was one of the few newsstands that carried mags like Record Collector, Wire, Nude (the art/culture mag), Tiki News, etc. (esp. since Tower and Virgin closed). Not to mention the occasional clearance score like the pink Clash book.
RIP Borders, believe it or not you will be missed.

BTW anyone have any other "covers-that-look-so-much-alike-you'd-be-confused" to share?

Went to Borders myself today. The store already was picked pretty clean; heck, my living room has more CDs in it than the store did. But I still managed to buy:

Dengue Fever - Venus on Earth
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
The Smithereens - 2011
Decade in the Sun: The Best of Stereophonics

Plus four books, including Andrew Earles' Hüsker Dü bio and Michael Azzerad's Our Band Could Be Your Life, all for about $35.

One of my fellow scavengers was a young woman with obviously good taste, judging from the CDs she snapped up. I started recommending titles to her, and she to me ... and then I came across a copy of Shake/Shiver/Moan. I handed it to her and told her, "You may not leave this store without purchasing this. I won't let you." She laughed, then listened to my description of the music, and decided to buy it.

Went to a couple more Borders today and managed to score:

Mew - No More Stories
The Lonely Forest - Arrows
Liars - Sisterworld
John Mellencamp - No Better Than This
Carissa's Weird - They'll Only Miss You When You're Gone
Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Nellie McKay - Home, Sweet Mobile Home

As well as about 15 more books, including that fairly new biography of Evel Knievel, all for right around $60. God knows when the hell I'm going to have time to read all the damn things that I've bought in the last two days.

Will probably hit one more Borders tomorrow (on my way down to the Popeye Picnic in Chester, Illinois, to admire the newly unveiled statue of Cole Oyl, one of Olive Oyl's brothers), then it's goodbye forever to the Borders chain.

I did the first round of Borders closings about 6 months ago and I racked up some crazy deals on books (a lot of Colombian fiction), but I didn't find much in the way of music.

These posts have led me to consider checking out what's left at the Borders locations around Atlanta, but I'm pretty sure I won't.

My local Borders reduced their CD space by 75% the 18 months before they closed. They reduced the Literary Fiction section by the same amount. It seems like they quit on us before we quit on them.

It could have been worse.



vs.



But you all knew that.

Popeye Picnic? Damn. Chester, Illinois has cornered surrealism in a way that Philly never will. All we got is the Rocky statue and the Fringe festival.

Borders is going the way of the woolly mammoths. Barnes & Noble is hanging in there, but The Big Rock Dude in the Sky knows, that's no place for a real music lover to shop.

I do visit one of the B&Ns in this town, though; it's right on my way home from work. One of my oldest friends works in its music department. As long as I've known this guy, he's worked in music stores; he's introduced me to some wonderful music over the past 30 years. But I always feel guilty when I visit him at B&N. He makes his living at this store, and he knows damn well that I won't be buying anything; prices on CDs at B&N are too high, and the selection stinks.

Yeah, I had Cole and Castor confused. Every year the town of Chester unveils a new statue of a Thimble Theater character during the annual Popeye Picnic - Elzie Segar, the creator of Popeye, was from Chester and most of the characters were based on local residents.

Popeye was based on the town drunk, an old riverboat captain - a friend of mine from high school was distantly related to said drunk, but he never played up that part of it too much. He just liked to inform people that he was related to Popeye - which didn't really work out as a pickup line for him the way I think he expected it to.

Anyhow, this year they unveiled the Cole Oyl statue - he joined Popeye, Wimpy, Bluto, Castor Oyl, the Sea Hag and Olive Oyl, who has Swee'Pea and Eugene the Jeep with her. Next year I believe Poopdeck Pappy gets his statue, then the year after that it's Alice the Goon.

Illinois is pretty saturated with comic statues - Chester has all the Popeye characters, then Metropolis has the huge Superman statue, and up in Naperville they have statues of Dick Tracy, the Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.

We're truly blessed here in the Prairie State.

Cole Oyl was Olive's dad. Her brother was Castor Oyl. And their mom was Nana Oyl. (At least that's what I remember from the Popeye movie with Robin Williams.)

> He just liked to inform people that he was related to Popeye — which didn't really work out
> as a pickup line for him the way I think he expected it to.

Ohhh man ... Reno, I laughed so hard when I read that, I had tears at the corners of my eyes! I never imagined any guy would claim a relationship to a cartoon character, in the hopes that it'd help him pick up girls.

Seriously, though, getting back to Chester: I can't believe Alice the Goon has been shut out for this long. Jeez, I thought it was bad that Cheap Trick isn't in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but to hear about this ...! Something's rotten in the state of Illinois, I tell ya.

There are a couple of vendors who whip up a few spinach related eats, like spanakopita, etc., but mostly it's just carnival food - barbecue stands and funnel cakes, etc.

Speaking of Cheap Trick and statues, there's a Cheap Trick themed statue of a sock monkey in Rockford.

Illinois is truly a land of wonders.

So, Reno, do they serve spinach at the Popeye Picnic? Or do they get corporate sponsorship, and serve fried chicken?

A Cheap Trick-themed statue of a sock monkey??

Wow. Buddy Holly has a statue in Lubbock. There's the Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux. Elvis probably has a number of statues around the world. (Not the Elvis who's still alive and making music; the other guy. I don't blame you if you made that mistake too.)

Phil Lynott has a statue in Dublin. Rory Gallagher has a statue in his home town in Scotland. Shit, there's even a Billy Fury statue in Liverpool; can any of you even name a song by Billy Fury, off the top of your head? I can't! James Brown lived to see his statue unveiled in Augusta. A Chuck Berry statue recently was dedicated in St. Louis, and Chuck's still alive.

But what standing tribute does the town of Rockford, Illinois install to honor its greatest musical sons? A sock monkey statue! Now ain't that some shit!

Chester, Illinois is definitely on my list, though. Next time my wife & I drive down south for a visit, we'll pass through there and check out the Popeye statues. That sounds like a must-see.

I actually got better deals when they closed the store in OKC and moved the remaining inventory down to Norman. They had Criterion DVD's for almost 75% off, and when I paid the 5 bucks to upgrade my Borders' membership, they wound up about 80-90% off. I almost felt sorry for them. Bought the first four Ramones CD's new for 3 bucks apiece. (Oklahoma's heatwave and my electric bill ruined any chances of taking advantage of the going out of business sale).

I'll actually miss the Norman Borders. It once was a great place to hear live music and had a fantastic cheap selection. Then the corporate offices decided to raise all their prices and carry a bunch of discount stuff and ruined it. The Borders story is a tale of corporate stupidity run amok. The only bright side is that the local record stores will increase their business.

A signficant closure this side of the pond. Some say it's Australia's first independent record store.
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