24 August 2024

More Notes From Summer 2024


I survived Bear Country and lived to flea market another day...


We've been working on the railroad!













Keep it classy, Allentown.















We last ate this soup matzoh long ago





Some vinyl from the flea markets....





55 Years Ago: Woodstock


eBay Score: The Beatles (1968) AKA The White Album • 8 Track Cassettes With Slipcase • My love of The Beatles’ White Album started in childhood at my grandparents’ house (where I spent a great deal of time) and yes, I first heard it on 8 track. One of my aunts or perhaps my uncle must have left their double 8 track set behind when they moved out and I remember putting it on the Sears stereo system in a corner of the living room, plugging in the giant leathery headphones with the coiled black cord, placing them on my head and sitting back in a plaid overstuffed chair to listen closely. It was here and also on the stereo in the bedroom that my two aunts shared that I first heard my aunts’ and uncle’s vinyl copies of David Bowie’s Young Americans and Changes One LPs, The Beatles’ Hey Jude compilation album and my Mom’s copy of The Monkees’ Headquarters. All of those albums are now housed in my own collection but somehow the 8 tracks of The White Album got lost along the way. Amid all the other rock and pop records and tapes that were present, I also had my grandparents’ 8 track tapes by The Carpenters, Neil Diamond and countless easy listening and pop LPs of the 1960s to listen to at my leisure. This wild mix of sounds and styles certainly shaped my sensibilities well into adulthood. I’ve said this many times before and I’ll say it again… One of the greatest privileges of my life has been the fact that as a child I was simply left alone with all of these records and tapes, machines to play them on and the time and space to take them in with fresh ears so I could discover these sounds for myself. Much can be said of the sprawling, multi-textured nature of The White Album and I’ve certainly enjoyed it in its original vinyl, cassette, and remastered deluxe CD and MP3 iterations countless times over the years but I’m very happy to finally have it in my 8 track collection because that’s how I first experienced this colossal behemoth of diverse songs. PS: I absolutely LOVED Revolution 9 as a little kid even though it scared me a bit and I still love it today. Number 9… Number 9… Number 9…




More eBay Scores:
Laugh-In LP and The Squeeze Your Bippy Game (1968)


Two More eBay Scores:
1907 Hotel Astor Roof postcard (above)
1960 Times Square snapshot (below)



Many thanks to my friend Dave W. for these two 
vintage paint by number sets from the 1940s and 1950s...








Never ignore an angel number.


Many thanks to my friend Kelly for this Debbie Harry doll...
and for this Lichtenstein style Debbie t-shirt from a few years ago. 















Moving slowly towards another season...