Amoeba Music Store @ Sunset Blvd Hollywood, LA

Right by the Arclight Theater is Amoeba Music, an awesome music store chain that sells old and unique Vinyl, CD's, DVD's and Videos that you just can't find anymore, (or records stores for that matter)....

When you walk inside, you realize something....It's become a strange, bizarre world; a world where almost all music purchases are done on the internet, no more bustling crowds around long, elongated rows filling the room with the clanging sound of plastic, CD anti-theft protection cases, (for those who are older - the clanging of plastic tape cases, for those even older than that - the soft swift breeze of air coming from flipping vinyl jackets, and those older than that - the echoes that emanate from pressing a metal horn to your ear, you geezer-Your're OLD)!

I'm just reminiscing about the days I would spend afternoons in the record store, pining over which album I would buy (which was sometimes a BIG gamble, cuz you couldn't samples the tracks like now-hey I guess buying on iTunes does have its advantages) and then running back home popping it into the tape deck and listen to it for hours on end.....

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To some, it's a warehouse of music....to others.....it's junk

It's so much fun to walk in and peruse all the albums that you remember having when you were a kid, all the 80's stuff, like Spandau Ballet and The Fixx, and then it's really great to see right next to it Lady Gaga and The Black Keys; there's almost a cult following for Vinyl keeping it alive.  Rick and I are in the process of purchasing a Record player to add to our sound system, and then collect all the greatest albums that we can remember-there's nothing like the sound of it!!

So I remember occasionally why I'm there; there's this one album that I gave away. Back when I was working at an Architectural office in NYC, I had a project manager, Patricia Miyamoto who I adored and we had a very close relationship... Anyways when she left to go to London, she asked for this album and I gave it her.  And every so often I remember loving it a lot, so this time I was determined to find it here.

It's Malcolm McClaren's, 'Paris' a narrative tribute to Parisian music that is a real mood enhancer.  I'm so glad that we found it - it was just like old times; I couldn't wait to take it home, rip off the unusually strong plastic covering that it's encased in and throw it into the player and listen away the afternoon...