Junkshop In The Mall

I thought about going to Madison this month but with Daylight Savings Time coming to an end, I really don't see the need to go up there and not get time to jog alongside Lake Monona.  I made a comment about it on FB last night about Mad City Sounds Good To Me, but when the morning came up, it was cloudy, windy and cold so I junked the idea.  And went to Iowa City before going to work.

Tom who lives down there told me about a place in the mall that had Cd's stacked to the skies and it was in Sycamore Mall.  In this day and age CD's places are getting hard to find and the thrift stores have the junk that nobody wants, crap from the 90's rappers, bad country etc.  So when I got there, I didn't expect a whole lot to see and yes the place had plenty of cds but the majority were crap or the CD's were scratched beyond belief but I did picked up Banjo & Sullivan, a Easy Rider S/T and Diplomats Of Solid Sound from 2004.  I did find a Louis Jordan 45 too.  Spent a hour and half sorting and scrounging around but it was fun just the fact of seeing what I can find for scratchy 45s and wishing that whoeever had them should have taken better care of them.  Can't tell you the name of this place but if you're a hoarder and want some more stuff to clutter up your house, here tis.

I couldn't find my copy of Children Of The Future by Steve Miller Band but Record Collector had a CD of that so I picked it up.  Kirk had some free 45s of note: picked up On The Way Home By Buffalo Springfield and In The Summertime by Mungo Jerry and Playmate Of The Year from the Sunsets (written by Gary Usher).

The gutted out buildings from the Bruggel's fire of last month is still visible although the new hi rise seemed to escape it, but the adjoining building next to it on the other street got burned out too judging by what's used to be a roof on top of it.   It is also hard to believe that it was 20 years ago that some whacked out gook by the name of Gang Li, went on a shooting spree, killing 4 teachers and administrators and one student before killing himself. More history about it can be read here.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Iowa_shooting  

I donno.  It seems like the record stores that I all know will be gone within 5 years.   Best Buy and Wal Mart are not to be trusted.  Thought the Coralville BB had the Dirt Drifters CD that Robert Christgau was raving about but they didn't and neither did any Wally Worlds.  Only The Cedar Rapids BB had it.  If you wanted a copy of Smile by The Beach Boys, CR didn't have the 2 CD set but had the whole Sessions box set for 140 dollars and somebody snagged that up.  Coralville had the 2 CD set but I didn't buy it.  I figured I'll just put it down on the want list and maybe get that for Christmas from the family (hint hint).  Used to be we had 10 decent music stores in town and nowadays all we have is 10 stores but you have to fucking drive to get there.  What's left of my future of music remains at the thrift stores or the dollar bins at Half Priced Books.  Hell, I don't think I'll be around in five years way things are going.  You never know.

Hell I don't know.