Sunday, November 4, 2012

Last Bargain Hunt In Madison Observations

Wrapping up another final trip to Madison before the snow flies, the cold is already there.  In the two days temps didn't go over 45 degrees and I didn't bring enough long sleeved shirts to stay warm.  In terms of bargains found, this trip didn't offer much.  Pawn America still had two long crammed shelves of crappy CDs and the only things of note was Eagles Long Road Out Of Eden, a Rhino Monkees Pool It and a Canadian version of Uncle Charlie And His Dog by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.  Trying to sort through it all while the radio station played the Kill Me Now crapfest Take On Me by A Ha I should get points for surviving shit music and shit music still played 27 years after the expiration date to boot (now I got the fucking song in my head so time to cue something up).

http://www.wortfm.org/

As always I had this radio station up when I wasn't playing the CD player.  The DJ was dumb as owlshit but he played the 27 minute track by Neil Young Driftin' Back off the new Psychedelic Pill CD to which I thought the guy from Mad City Music X was playing it.  Listening to that in a public setting made me realize how long and tedious it can be, it would be worked better at 15 minutes thereabouts, it goes on too long since I think Neil and Crazy Horse were riding the groove mistakes and all but it passed away without mention when I was playing Angry Birds the other night.  You know fucking well Cumulus Radio would fire the DJ if he attempted to play Driftin Back, since it cuts into commercial time and those overplayed Sheryl Crow and that Pink song that I fucking hate.

Another record store closing, The Exclusive Company on State Street after 24 years got their lease terminated so I'm sure another food chain or another bar will take it's place.  Certainly will miss that nice orange neon glow that decorated the windows of (say it with me one last time) The Exclusive Company.  Alas the last buy was a crappy dollar cd of Billy Burnette 1994 country flop Coming Home and Pardon My Blooper plus Garland Jefferys Rock And Roll Adult.   They'll be opened till the end of December.

For some reason the other music stores didn't have much to offer to this time around, I didn't buy anything from the usually reliable Strictly Discs, the so so Ian Hunter Rant and Legendary Hearts/Lou Reed from Mad City Music X and passed on the new Aerosmith Music From Another Dimension that was offered before the release date.  This was supposed to be the comeback album with Jack Douglas producing but a closer look revealed that the odious Marti Fredricksen gets his grubby hands on the crappy ballads, one featuring Miss Rock and Roll herself Carrie Underwood, to which I just put it back,  I don't think it's worth the 12 bucks and 78 minutes to sort through a washed up band trying to get back into radio by pandering to the Cumulus Clear Channel stations and we all know this won't get any airplay.  Another guy who should pack it up is John Cale, took a listen to his latest and didn't find anything of note to ever hear again.  Thanks to the Strictly Disc' listening station I listened to about 5 tracks and gave up.   Plus Cale looks even more creepy than Gary Glitter too.  Ian Hunter is right, rock and roll is a young man's game although Hunter defied the odds and made one of his best albums this year with When I'm President.

Speaking of which, another sweep through Mad City by Obama and the other guy before the election and police were roadblocking parts of the downtown area to get ready for POTUS Obama and Bruce Springsteen on Monday Morning which would have been a bigger bitch to get through State Street.  But since I parked in the vicinity of Mad City Music X and Lake Monona, I find it easier to park the car and walk across Monona Terrace to State Street and not deal with traffic trying to find a parking spot downtown.   For all the left wing hatred of Scott Walker, I find to have no trouble to go walking into the Capitol building  to mosey around the area and walk up the stairs to look down on the main floor.  I have spent more time in the Wisconsin Capitol than Des Moines, plus it's such a peaceful area to sit back and meditate for a few before using the restroom and down to State Street and Ian's Pizza.  Since the Badgers weren't playing football this week, State Street on Friday night was kinda quiet although it did picked up a lot the next night.  To which I sat down and had a Schlitz Tall Boy and watched a bit of the Hawkeyes/Hoosiers game to which the Hawks took the lead and time for me to head out.  I figured they would blow it and they did.  It was the first beer that I had since going to Oatman Arizona a few years ago. I don't drink that much but I always like those old beers of yesterdays that tastes like old moldy sox.  Good old Schlitz.  Then it was down to the Chocolate Shoppe for a nice chocolate malt, made with real Wisconsin milk. Heavy stuff  and bad for you. But if you want nutrition, eat carrots.  Very pricey but worth every 4.57.


When I started doing the Mad City trips in 1994, I noticed that State Street was losing its hippie cred even back then but they had plenty of music stores and book stores and I hardly went anywhere else till discovering Half Priced Books. With the Exclusive Company becoming the thing of the past, only B Sides Records remains from the original stores that I frequent. CD Warehouse, CD's Plus, two or three others all gone. Speaking of Half Priced Books, I did find some 45s of note but the one thing I have noticed that all of the HP Bookstores that I went to this year, had a more in depth collection of old country 45s so I wonder if they have been dividing up all across the stores, from Madison to CR to Arizona.  For Cd bargains, I didn't find much.  Except X Wild Gift.

The Best Buy stores in Madison were hit and miss, the West Madison store had the same that we had here in Cedar Rapids but the East Best Buy had the Traveling Wilbury's box set for 10 bucks, a steal if you want it all.  They also had a much better selection of Frank Zappa CDs unlike the West store and CR to which I picked up Lumpy Gravy and We're Only In It For The Money.   Spending the night, The Microtel Inn was full so I went to Red Roof Inn to which I was pretty much greeting some old looking hag that kept coming to the door when I went out getting things out of the car.  Who knows she was waiting for, maybe cheating on her hubby or whatnot.  Thank God she was gone the next morning.

The west side of Madison by the mall have a lot more empty stores.  The old Pedro's Mexican Villa that was next to the old and forgotten Exclusive Company is no longer there but they have other areas in Mad City to go to.  In the old Frugal Muse in that strip mall area was a Newberry Comic book store.  KFC closed their store next to Goodwill off the Beltway freeway as well. Since KFC doesn't do the pot pies, I haven't been back since in any of their stores.

For sightseeing, there was Mineral Point and Crazy Larry's Antique Store and Flea Market to which they had some old vintage beer bottles of old time beers from the 40s still unopened. Including a original Blatz Beer from the 40s although I have no intention of buying that and sample what 75 year old beer would taste like. Anyway, owner had a nice little doggie who wanted to play but had to tell him no on the chocolate M&Ms that I bought.

With daylight savings time over, the Madison bargain hunts was a last chance to bask in the 5 o clock sunlight before darkness takes over.  We didn't find the big finds, no big Pink Floyd Animals or Wish You Were Here in the dollar bins at Pawn America but it was a nice escape from it all.  

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