Carl Cravens @CarlCravens@mastodon.xyz

@mwlucas Wait, there are rats at the Patronizer chats?
_checks wallet for spare cash_

So now I need to give these a listen... maybe I was premature in considering them all bad just because I'd never heard of them.

But first I need to give them a bath... some of these are the dirtiest records I've seen.

singles:
Jump 'n the Saddle Band, The Curly Shuffle
(a novelty song from 1984, honoring the 3 Stooges...
#15 on the Billboard chart)

Lionel Richie, Truly
(his first solo single, a #1 Billboard hit)

Conway Twitty, This Time I've Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me
(a #1 country hit)

For those keeping score:

Donovan's Greatest Hits
(Mellow Yellow guy, album certified platinum and hit #4 on Billboard's album chart)

Graham Parker, The Mona Lisa's Sister
(Rolling Stone ranks this in the top 100 albums of the 1980's)

John Klemmer, Touch (saxophonist with 31 albums with him as lead, nearly that many with him supporting)

Voyage, Fly Away
(French disco/pop band, album hit #1 on dance charts)

So I tried a vintage record club. 6 records/mo for $30. Got to pick some broad categories... so I picked 80's new wave/rock/pop, classic rock, and 70s/80s rock/pop singles.
I knew I'd get mostly unpopular records. I didn't expect to not even recognize a single LP artist. I did get Conway Twitty (not rock/pop) and Lionel Richie singles, and a best-of the guy who did Mellow Yellow... but I didn't know the artist.

For $30, I can get 2-4 records I know I want, so that was a failed experiment.

I was very young when I encountered The Beatles, when someone gave me _Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band_. Having never heard of them, I thought "Sgt Pepper's..." was the name of the band and _Beatles_ was the name of the record. I mean, the song says, "We're Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," what was I supposed to think?

@craigmaloney Very true. It's very confusing to the newcomer.

@LilFluff @craigmaloney I saw that, and others. I could see it working, if it doesn't leave residue. But does it work any better than a soft brush, dish soap and the kitchen sink sprayer for getting stuff out of the grooves? I have no idea.

I think the largest amount of superstition in the vinyl community is around how to clean a record.

@fribbledom This is one of the most frustrating things... valid email addresses are complicated to parse for, but there are recipes already solving the problem. Maybe you miss weird edge cases, but + is a super common character and important to a lot of people's workflow. (Specifically, to create unique email addresses for tracking who is giving out your email to third-parties.)

Another bit of resume advice to young people: the hiring manager reading your resume may have old eyes. Don't use a tiny font to fit it all on one page... I really hate trying to read it when you do that, and it doesn't make me inclined to call you.

I hadn't really thought how much I've become used to "pausing" music... tapes, CD, digital, they all easily pause the music without thinking about it. A record? I'm leaving the needle suspended above spinning record while I leave my desk. That feels uncomfortable.

I need to hook up my speakers so I can get up from my chair without stopping the music. Right now, I feel putting on a record is a commitment to staying in my chair until the side is over.

Peter Gabriel clearly wasn't thinking about future collectors when he insisted on naming his first four solo albums "Peter Gabriel".

@craigmaloney Thanks, systemd! I knew I could count on you to do the right thing.

@art Can't have another because you burned the roof of your mouth and the blister is stopping you?

When it came to having a second kid, this was basically my thought process as well...

https://thedevilspanties.com/archives/14234

(not about Satanic underwear, honest)