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You are here: Home / Archives for record albums

Finds: Books and Records

September 19, 2016 at 9:00 am by Claudia

That photo yesterday. The  photo. I don’t know if you remember from the many times I’ve told our story in the past, but Don had been sitting in that exact place on the sofa, catching my eye and smiling at me, whenever I entered the living room of Kathy’s cottage. This happened several times. So I finally bit the bullet and walked over to him. I assume I introduced myself. I ended up sitting next to him and we started a conversation that hasn’t ended.

I’m not sure when Rick entered the picture. Was he there before I walked over to the sofa? Or did he come along later and join in? That part I’m a bit foggy about.

A few of my friends have remarked on our body language. Definitely in sync. And if you look at my eyes, you can tell I’m already smitten.

I love that picture. It will soon be framed, I promise.

Alright, on to yesterday. We were out and about and stopped at our favorite antique center – the one where I could do some major damage quite easily. I didn’t do that, of course, but I did find some unexpected treasures.

A long time ago, I wrote on this blog about my desire to collect vintage Nancy Drews. This was prompted by my discovery of a vintage Nancy Drew with a cover illustration by Russell H. Tandy; the best, in my humble opinion, of all the cover illustrators. He designed the covers from 1930 – 1949 and was a friend of Edward Stratemeyer, the actual author of the Nancy Drew books.

Look what I found yesterday:

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Two of them! They were in the middle of a stack of books in one of the booths. Only $8 each, which is a steal, and in pretty good condition, with normal cover wear. Needless to say, I’m thrilled. This makes 3 Nancy Drews and we all know that equals a collection!

Gosh, I love the vintage look of his illustrations and the vivid colors.  I also love the font used for “Nancy Drew Mystery Stories.” I grew up reading the standard fifties and sixties books with the yellow spines and I know a lot of people collect them, but once I saw Tandy’s work, I was a goner.

In a recent conversation, Don mentioned that he had read all the Hardy Boys books when he was a kid, so, you guessed it…I am determined to collect them for him. I found one yesterday.

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And here they are on the shelf:

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They sit in the middle of a shelf full of childhood favorites, including books that belonged to my mother and my father.

I also found two record albums.

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I own both of these, but they are…class? anyone? anyone?….yes! In the shed. Though the cover of Tapestry looks worn, the actual record is in great shape.

And then we stuffed our faces at a local restaurant and I ate too much, so we took a trail walk to counteract the calories.

Today, I take the car in for an inspection and some scheduled maintenance. I hate sitting in that waiting room, but it’s raining today, so I just might get stuck there. If the rain lets up, I’ll walk to Barnes & Noble.

Happy Monday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

 

 

Filed Under: books, collecting, record albums 55 Comments

Lovely. Simply Lovely.

December 26, 2015 at 8:52 am by Claudia

Goodness. A perfect Christmas. As Don said late in the day, ‘on our terms’ – which is to say we did it with some modifications that seemed right to us this year for any number of reasons. And it felt relaxed and easy and peaceful and…right.

12-26 coffeecake

We started with some quiet time. Then Christmas Coffee Cake (and coffee, of course.) Oh heavens, it was yummy. And lucky for us, there’s some left over for today and tomorrow!

I mentioned before that we knew what we were giving each other. We purchased it about a week or so ago.

Back story: A long time ago, I had hundreds of vinyl records. I had a turntable and a receiver and great speakers. Then CDs came along and I went over to ‘the other side.’ Years of moves and not enough space for all the albums and storage in not very good conditions has resulted in warped and damaged records to my eternal regret. When we moved to the cottage, we gave away the turntable – which wasn’t working all that well – and the rest of the audio equipment.

What were we thinking?

There is a vinyl resurgence going on, which I find incredibly heartening. New vinyl records are being manufactured (though they’re pretty pricey) and vintage vinyl is very popular. We live near a college town that has two used record shops.

One day, when I was out and about, I saw a turntable and speakers for sale at a good price – at Barnes & Noble, in fact – and an idea came to me. I knew Don missed playing LPs as well, so when I suggested that might be our present to each other, he jumped on it.

The surprises were in the albums we chose for each other. The assignment was to find four albums that we thought our mate would love (I cheated and found five.)

12-26 deskturntable

The other speaker is on the piano. The speakers are wonderful – such great sound quality! We already had quite a bit of vintage vinyl around the house, but here is what we chose for each other:

For Don from me:

Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits – vintage
The Eagles Greatest Hits – vintage
Gordon Lightfoot – new re-issue of Sundown
Warren Zevon Envoy – vintage
Neil Young Harvest – vintage

For me from Don:

Joni Mitchell Court and Spark – vintage
Frank Sinatra Swing Along with Me – vintage
Mel Tormé Live at the Crescendo – vintage
Van Morrison Common One – vintage

For both of us: Stravinsky The Rite of Spring – vintage

It’s such fun picking out records for Don! And might I add, Don’s choices for me were spot on.

12-26 husband and mel

We spent all afternoon listening to records. We have lots and lots of CDs but there is indeed a difference in the sound of an LP. LPs have a warmer, more intimate sound. I much prefer them. CDs, being digital, are almost perfect in their separation of sounds, but I don’t think that’s the way we actually hear sounds when we’re listening to live music. I found I was missing the warmth of a vinyl record. I even like hearing the occasional pop as the record spins away on the turntable. It’s comforting, reassuring. There’s also something about holding a record in your hand, looking at the cover art, reading the liner notes – all of which you can do with a CD, but on a much smaller scale. Holding an album is a whole other experience.

Fortunately for us, our favorite local record shop is run by a guy who listens to every album he sells and there are ratings as to the quality of the album. Everything we brought home was in great condition – even the Mel Tormé album recorded in 1954. It was as if he was in the room with us.

12-26 turntable

I see a couple of Scoutie hairs have already made their way to the new turntable.

Speaking of which:

12-26 scootie

Someone, who slept through the exchange of gifts but roused herself for record listening, got lots of soft treats from Santa and Mom and Dad. She was quite happy. (Pssst! She has a birthday coming up on January 4th. She is, at this moment: Sixteen Going on Seventeen. Another musical reference.)

Dinner was delicious. Don made the Stuffed Portobello mushrooms again, with some steamed broccoli. And I made Cloud Biscuits. Pumpkin Pie for dessert.

A lovely day, with a candle burning all day long in honor of my father.

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope your day was a happy one. In fact, whatever you celebrate or don’t celebrate, I hope your day was filled with peace and joy.

Happy Saturday.

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Filed Under: Christmas, Don, gifts, record albums, record stores, Scout 58 Comments

Saturday Fun: Record Store Day

April 22, 2014 at 8:39 am by Claudia

On Saturday, my husband informed me that it was Record Store Day and to honor the day, he wanted to visit two of our local record shops. Count me in, I said.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know how I feel about record stores. In fact, I’ve written two posts about records and record stores; Things I Miss: Record Stores, and Things I Miss: Record Albums. I lament the loss of large record stores with new albums appearing every day; thumbing through the albums, reading the liner notes, discovering new albums and artists. Some of my best memories involve record stores. I had a huge collection of albums, most of which are now warped and unplayable after being stored for many years. Big mistake. Breaks my heart.

Don and I have been slowly buying vintage vinyl records. And new vinyl is increasingly becoming popular again, which gives me hope. I think there is a real difference in the sound of a vinyl record and a CD or MP3. The vinyl sounds more live, more exciting – less perfect in the best possible way.

It’s nice to be able to download music, of course. I do it myself. But where are the liner notes? Where is the artwork on the album cover? Where are the lyrics?

It’s not the same.

Interesting information: Musician Jack White, who has a store/studio in Nashville, is a big proponent of vinyl. He has a Record Booth in his store where you can record your own record! Don wants to do that. So do I! His store and studio are very cool and are decorated in a wonderfully retro style. In honor of Record Store Day, he recorded the world’s fastest record – recorded, pressed and distributed in under four hours.

Here are some photos of our day.

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Don, outside our favorite local record shop.

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I look so much like my mother in this photo.

Thumbing through the albums. Ahhh, I’ve missed this! That’s the owner in the background. He’s smart and funny and knowledgeable. Plus, he has a Record Store Cat named Watson who was sleeping on top of the albums that were just to the right of the group in this picture. Watson is inscrutable and clearly the lord of the manor.

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I include this simply because I seem to be wearing two pair of glasses. Interesting trick.

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Don with a Loudon Wainwright album. He ended up buying it.

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Oh, Joni. I have this album somewhere. Hours and hours of memories.

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I posted this on Facebook because it made me laugh. A spoken word album of correct pronunciations. Since I have spent years teaching this very subject, I remarked that I could have saved myself all the hours put into creating lesson plans and played the gosh-darned record instead.

tuesrecordstoreday3

Look what I found! A near mint condition soundtrack to my favorite movie. I have this album somewhere, but I know it isn’t in great shape. So I snapped this baby up and it is now living in Mockingbird Hill Cottage, along with an Earth, Wind and Fire album that I also purchased.

I dare you to stay in a bad mood when Earth, Wind and Fire is on the turntable.

Go ahead. Try it.

I dream of a big record store, full of thousands of albums, with music playing and all sorts of music to discover. But, in the meantime, I’m sure happy that these charming shops exist, with owners who love vinyl and want to share that love with everyone.

It’s Earth Day today. Let’s use this day (and every day) to urge our world leaders to finally do something about climate change before it is too late. Or we might just end up with an Earth that is uninhabitable.

And finally, I wrote about this yesterday but I’m not sure how many of you saw it, so I’m reposting:

On another note: Several of you who subscribe to this blog via email have mentioned that you have not been receiving recent posts. This is a Feedburner problem and it seems to be happening across the blogging world. The short answer: there’s nothing I can do about it but trust it will be sorted out eventually. Feedburner often has mysterious glitches. May I offer some easy, practical advice? Most readers subscribe to a blog via email because the blogger doesn’t post every day and they want to know when a new post is up. You know I post every day. Every Day. So, barring unforeseen circumstances, there will be a new post on this blog every morning. Why not simply bookmark the blog on your browser and click on it at some point during the day? Quite frankly, that’s how I read blogs. (The only blog I subscribe to is my own and that’s just to keep tabs on whether the email is working – and it has been working for me.) Bookmark it. You can rest assured that a new post will be up by 10 am every morning. Like clockwork.

Happy Tuesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Tagged With: record albums, record storesFiled Under: life, record albums, record stores 33 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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