Another visit to the Funk Yard.  Photos of the surroundings, the absurdities, and the purchases.

See Visit I for the backstory.

Since I had started listening to popular music and purchasing and accumulating my own collection of CD’s, I had been fascinated by my parents turntable and record collection.  How these huge pieces of floppy plastic held music, I wasn’t sure of, but I neither knew how my collection of compact discs worked and that wasn’t the reason I bought them.

My initial inclination to free my folk’s record player from its dusty coffin, buried in the basement, was most likely due to hip-hop’s rebirth of the turntable into an instrument.  My opportunity to reincarnate my parents record player was foiled by my father’s concern.  ”You’ll ruin the motor!”  Or, “Those needles cost $90!”  That being said, the turntable was promptly put back into storage.

Now my record player is back out, I must build my collection.  I love Cousin’s new set up.  The first room, which used to be only 45’s has the new arrivals.  It still has the 45’s, but they’re crammed against the wall.

I’m not so into 45’s.  I like how some can have unreleased songs or different versions, but I don’t like having only two songs to listen to.

I love listening to albums while I search through the boxes.  I usually put on something that I’m on the fence about buying.  If I can listen to all of one side, I’ll buy it for sure.  Cousin’s has a pretty neat set up for their player.  Its pretty simple, but it sounds good.

There is this turntable for sale.  Its the coolest one I’ve ever seen:

It plays them vertically!  It seems like It’d be tricky to use, but I’d love to have that sitting in my room on top of one of my bookshelves.

The Absurd:

This was probably my favorite Star Trek flick.  It was historical to me to see Bones running through a hospital, yelling about how barbaric the modern medicine was.

I have no idea who the Chickenman is, nor do I know if he is the most fantastic crime-fighter the world has ever known.

I almost bought:

I love almost any LP that isn’t and has nothing to do with music.  Especially LP’s like this Abbot and Costello one.  Their like slices of americana from a more interesting time.  I don’t know why I passed Abbot and Costello up.

I bought:

• Duke Ellington and his Orchestra - Newport 1958
• Count Basie - Basie’s Beat
• The Definitive Pearl Bailey
• Eddie Peabody - Man with the Banjo
• Duke Ellington and his Orchestra - Yale Concert
• Led Zepplin - Physical Graffiti

I’m not exactly sure why I like vinyl so much.  There’s a number of reasons, really.  The searching, the finding, the holding, the participation, the art…  All of which keep my collection growing and my turntable spinning.