This is what happens when I turn off the spellchecker.

----- Original Message -----
From: jchasin@nyc.rr.com
Date: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 11:19 am
Subject: Record Stores
To: audities@smoe.org

> I think of record stores the way I think of the radio or 45 RPM 
> records-- through a haze of nostalgia, as something I used to 
> associate with music consumption in an earlier time.  I haven't 
> really 
> listened to the radio (outside of looking for weather and traffic 
> news) since circa 1990.  And at this point I have no use for 
> record 
> stores.  I used to love browsing in a good one as much as the next 
> fella; every time I was in San Franicisco i'd make a point o 
> hitting 
> the Tower there on Bay Street.  But the Internet has rendered 
> record 
> retail wholly redundant in my opinion. It is easy to see how 
> online 
> merchants have changed the game-- if I want the new (and import 
> only) 
> Silos record, or the Michael Carpenter SOOP 2, It would be silly 
> to go 
> trawling the bins at Virgin when I can place an order at Not Lame 
> from 
> the comfort of my home (and know they'll have the titles in 
> stock.)  
> But too, the availability of news about music that the Internet 
> has 
> wrought has totally changed my purcha
> se dynamic.  I discover more new records on this list in a month, 
> for 
> example, than I would browsing physical stores in a year.  Once, 
> record stores were a place where I discovered things; but now, the 
> free and abundant flow of information onnline has totally negated 
> the 
> value of the record store as a place of discovery.  By the time I 
> stumble over a release at a retailer, I've already read about it 
> here, 
> or received an email from Notlame, or had it recommended by 
> Amazon.  
> The magic of discovery that was so much a part of record shopping 
> is 
> totally gone for me.
> 
> In the first half of the 90s, I was on a Willie Dixon binge; I 
> bought 
> every record I could find that he was on (his own, Chuck Berry, 
> Muddy 
> Waters, Bo Doddley, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, and on and on...) 
> I 
> remember findin obscure releases in stores-- a recording of 
> session 
> work, at the aforementioned Tower in San Fran; a vinyl copy of 
> Willie 
> in the studio with some of his obscure old cronies, at Second 
> Coming 
> in the Village.  But now, having exhausted Google, Amazon, eBay 
> etc. 
> in looking for his discography, I am confident that there are no 
> surprises lurking out there for me in the bins.  
> 
> So while I still wander into, say, the Tower on West 4th Street, 
> or 
> the Borders at 57th and Park, more often than not I leave with a 
> couple of magazines and no new music.  But hey, if I read about 
> anything good in my new copy of Paste or Magnet or Harp, I can 
> always 
> go online and order it.
> 
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