It's not a good time for the CD collector. In the past decade record stores that I used to go to either went bankrupt, closed up or got bought out by FYE and then closed up. It's getting to be a record wasteland when you drive an hour to the Waterloo and hitting the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores only to find that they been picked clean and the only thing you have is all the Montavoni's, Johnny Mathis and countless forgotten gospel acts. And CD's Plus may as well be CD's minus since I have a bigger collection than what they have for sale. And have been there so long that the cd title on the jewel case has been bleached clean by the sun. DVD's seem to the rage and even they are getting kicked to the side by Blu Ray.
Certainly the pawnshops have quit selling cds, except for that small corner which had the same titles from the last time I was there.....two years ago. The Goodwills up in that area stay open till 9, unlike ours which closes at 6 on Saturdays, 5 on Sundays but again unless your trying to complete your Statler Brothers collection, simply nothing to speak of. St. Vincent De Paul has a very big vinyl collection.....collection of crap that is. Although I still enjoy going to see what I can find, there's a big stink in the air, a cross between waffles and pee, and after a while I need to get outside for a spell of fresh air before going back in there and trying to sort through scratched up vinyl and 45s, and finding nothing outside of a Brian Wilson promo or Mylon Lefebre's 1970 single for Cotillion which I didn't buy, due to annoying black woman yacking on a damn cellphone while her hubby is sorting through old tapes and wishing too that she would go fucking away and take her yacking elsewhere. Cellphones are a gift from Hell, makes people that don't have them and want quiet a living hell, while she's yacking up a storm. Another guy pops up and found a decent Donald Byrd jazz album. But as for myself, I buy nothing and move on down the road.
Tried to find Mohair Pair, that Cedar Falls music store that sells vinyl but didn't find it. Was getting annoyed and hungry and after a half assed attempt going into Cedar Falls, went back on University back to some mexican place I saw next to Mister Money and thinking that might be a place to go eat. Big mistake, the service was slow and although she was good enough to get me a second Pepsi, I had to go to the can. Came back, and my table was already bussed and what remain of my food was gone. So I waited for 15 minites for somebody to explain, they bought out some chips and water but was getting livid and it was time to me to go before I made a scene and made the news the wrong way. They did take 10 percent off and they apologized for that but I left them no tip and made it clear that this was the first and last time I would patronize their place and wished them luck. The name of the place escapes me but if your in the area around Mr. Money on Leo Rooff Expressway, I would advise you not to go there. My friend Mark sez you're better off, they probably used the leftovers for brunch the next day. Told him I think they call it the Mexican Surprise.....
Waterloo frustrates me everytime I go there. I call it the mini Des Moines since most of the music record stores are now history and nobody drives worth a shit there. I remember back in 66, when we lived there, Mom had an accident to which some dumbfuck driver hit our Galaxie and I went flying and put a dent in the heater vent. Of course had to deal with some fucking idiot turning in front of me outside of the Independence Wal Mart and he got the number one and the horn. They used to have two CD Warehouse stores to which both are no longer around, The Co Op closed up shop and of course FYE which shut the Crossroads store down two years ago. So what remains is the hard to find Mohair Pear and if there's a next time I'll go seek it out but that's a waste of 125 miles on the car that could have been put to better use, namely Madison.
I used to live in Waterloo as a child, first couple years we lived on the west side on Huntington Road and it used to be a field but now Greenhill Blvd goes through it and Waterloo West High School is there. After a half year in Nevada, moved back there on Ridgeway and don't remember much there outside of the rental house they had an old radio i used to listen to the AM station there. Couple things stood out. I went to Black Hawk and after kindergarten, I took a extraordinary walk that lead me all the way down to the old Wells Store where College Square Mall is at and for a 5 year old, that was a very long trek and I made the news that night being lost. Of course I was just about on the way home to which they found me, I got hugs and then spanks for doing such a stupid thing like that. The other event was the 1968 Charles City tornado that happened in May. I remember having a big belly ache that day and it felt like one of those days that something was going to happen and it did and we went to the basement. They seem to get more tornados up there in that area, while down here we get floods. Pick your poison indeed.
So I usually go up to Waterloo for nostagia reasons. Remembering my first grade school sweetheart Donna Hess, we did some kind of dance recital and she had the sweatiest hands when we held hands. Think I saw her at Crossroads in 1981 when Marion won the 3A Football Title, she was dressed in farmer's clothes but had a haircut that suggested she may have been lesbian. Ridgeway Drive remains as busy as ever. Outside of a couple familar faces in my gradeschool pictures, the names have faded away from memory like print on a title of a unwanted cd that has been sitting too long at CDs Plus.
But after getting supper taken away from the mexican place I left Waterloo once again disgusted, tired, annoyed and should have just went to Independence for Mexican. At least they wait till your done. And didn't have anything to show for outside of Jefferson Airplane's Bark CD. So, it looks like that it will be a while before I ever return to that place.
Another disappointing trip to the wasteland again.
