Category: records

The first place we went to (Graywhale) still had a line out the door at 2:30 and we just turned right around. I was feeling discouraged, but Doc reminded me that the other record store I wanted to visit (Randy’s) had an ice cream place next door and why don’t we just go and get ice cream and check it out? (What a gem he is.)

After an affogato break, we walked right in to Randy’s and I found the jazz and soul albums I wanted, plus a couple used ones. At the register, I asked if they’d already sold out of the R. Carlos Nakai Navajo flute release, and got a very long look from the cashier.

“No,” he said, “We didn’t even get that in. We all thought it was a weird release. But I can special order it for you? Gets here Thursday.”

So I special ordered the weird release like the weird old lady I am and took all my records home to listen to them. The end!

Vinyl records are currently 90% of my personality and now I’m doing the [undiagnosed but let’s be honest here] autism spectrum trait of “go EXTREMELY deep on a hobby.”

Salt Lake City has a newer listening bar that only plays vinyl; they held a “Sunday Service” on Easter of jazz and soul. Their Instagram showed the playlist for the afternoon so of course I had to recreate it on Apple Music so I could hear all these rare tracks. (Here’s the link.)

 

And if really niche jazz albums weren’t enough to get into, there’s even more niche international releases. Vietnamese pre-1975 soul, anyone??

We didn’t get a hike in Sunday, but we did see both our families and I finished my Big 2026 Vinyl Project. Everybody got a bath; then if they had paper sleeves, they got a bonus round-bottom anti-static sleeve, and if they were missing a sleeve, they got an archival one. (The goal is to keep them all dust-free.)

Then I organized them within an inch of their lives:

Does this look as cool as a messy cabinet of vinyl? No, but my brain short-circuits when I have to look through a hundred titles to find what I’m thinking of. Plus I got to use my label maker! A lot! Because those tabbed dividers are labeled on both sides, because what if you look at the records from different angles? You still need to know how they’re organized!

Anyway, this was a fun project and I’m really enjoying listening to everything now. I may not have a huge collection (yet) but I like it.

I got my turntable in 2017 (thanks, blog archives!) but it lived in the big open kitchen/living room area and I never listened to records as much as I wanted, probably because that space was full of noise and other activities (and a kitty that would MEOW if he didn’t like the record).

Now that the records and turntable are downstairs in the sewing lair, I’m listening to something nearly every day. I have a lot more records, too, and I just got another haul of used ones. Clearly it was time for a record cleaning system:

This is the “HumminGuru EZ Vinyl Record Washer” and I got it vs the SpinClean because it comes with its own drying rack. (Of course there are options for every aspect of every hobby. You can also spend five figures on a cleaning machine, some of which require their own plumbing.)

The HumminGuru works great, though:

Even the records without visible filth are getting a bath, and they sound so CLEAN–no hiss or pops. It’s also been fun to handle everything. Most of the used ones I’ve gotten are classical, and other than the dirt they’re in beautiful shape. I like to think who had them before me and how often they listened.