Darkening the City

An imagined darkened Manhattan, 1981.

(Escape from New York)

The real thing, 2012.

(Hurricane Sandy)

Dead Record Stores

This blog has been on a musical theme for a while. I will steer it back into some mummified pop culture, while staying on the same topic. Here are two dead music stores in central Illinois. Both were located in low-income urban neighborhoods, and both served more than LPs or CDs.

Washington’s was essentially a community center, with a café and a video rental store along with music sales. In its last days Top Cat was selling used odds and ends as well as old vinyl. These were interesting hybrids of home-spun entrepreneurialism and corporate product retailing. Both are gone, and most folks in the neighborhoods are downloading mp3s, if of course they have a computer, internet account, and iPod.

Alive and dead, our local culture matters.

Podcast for October

We have uploaded a new podcast at Mixcloud. "Certain Contexts for the Use of Modified Bone Tools" features artists such as :Zoviet*France:, Mnemonists, Jeff Greinke, as well as a few selected audio artifacts. 40 minutes of music for October. Hope you enjoy....