Fall is here! Ah! This is a beautiful season here in the Nor'east. Where did that Summer go, though? It feels as if we never even had one!
This is the time of year for so many fun things like trips to the country to see the changing leaves, pumpkins and Halloween! I love doing the old cemetery crawls at this time of year and visiting the Haunted Ringwood Manor. I'll be going there soon to walk the woodland path to the old family cemetery with Vaggio.
I have been CRAZY busy and I completely finished the music room, taking much of Labor Day weekend to do that. I am thoroughly enjoying it and having things all organized and easily accessible. I have also created a brand new forum called the Atomic Vinyl Zombie Lounge (a gathering place for ravenous record fiends) and we are having a great time with that! All my record fanatic friends are going wild there and it's really great to share all our collections, players and fun finds with each other! We learn alot from each other too! Special Halloween hugs out to my 'Inner Circle' members Cris, Raymond, Joe, Miles, Bryan, & Lloyd. They were all the first Ravenous Record Fiends that I met and I created this forum for them. Love you all!
This month the Thomas Edison Museum is reopening after a 5 year renovation and I can't wait to get over there. We have planned to go there the 11th as that is the Grand Re-Opening weekend. The day before is the big Wayne record show so that will be a really fun weekend. Also this month is the Chiller Theater Expo which is another thing I can't wait for. Independant radio station WFMU is also hosting a record show in NYC which I am hoping Skeet will take me to as well!
I recently weeded and cleaned out the gardens and cleaned all around the cat's graves to get them all ready for their Winter grave blankets. Soon I'll be heading to Manno's Farms for my pumpkins and Mums for the front porch! My landscaper, neighbor and friend David has already bedecked his front lawn with fun Halloween stuff and it's really FEELING Halloween as it's gotten super cold here, very fast!
This cold weather already has me looking toward this years Yule tree and I think, this year it will be a pink one. I have accumulated a ton of beautiful vintage ornaments in my antiquing travels over the last couple of years and most recently I found some more great fabulous 30's, 40's, 50's pieces from a little Italian lady at a flea market in Paterson. I also long to get my vintage trunk of antique cookie cutters out and start that whole process! We are also planning a CD swap of our collections of Christmas music and I am hoping that that piece of crap Crosley gets me through that successfully!
I've been reading the book Vinyl Junkies by Brett Milano and I am just loving it! If you haven't yet read this, I highly recommend it! In the book Milano says that collecting is a form of addiction and that avid collectors may have a deficiency of Serotonin which is the enzyme that controls worries. He says people with Serotonin deficiencies are more driven to compulsions, including the compulsion to collect...so THAT'S what's wrong with me!! Ha!
I continue to hit my fave record haunts Platter World and Record King, spending many a lunch hour with Craig and finding fabulous stuff. Also, recently opened again in a new location, Music Connection right here in town where I have been digging through the back room filled with vinyl. Craig's also gonna take a look at my little RCA player and help me get it working right again! THANKS & HUGS, Craig! Do you have any more copies of that Finnish Dance craze that's 'sweeping the nation'??
I was recently rummaging around my mother's attic, which was hot as an oven, dirty and dusty as hell and not very well lit. To top it all off, I had on shorts and flip flips. I wasn't exactly dressed for the task! I did, however, find some fun stuff including fabulous 16" Wish-Niks (one of which makes an appearance in the Groovy Kind of Love video) and a mint talking view master in it's original box. I also found a magical suitcase chock full of my Grandmother's pictures which we had a blast going through. My uncle Har looked like Buddy Holly polishing his cowboy boots!
We love to talk music. We also love to talk retro and one day, somehow, we got on the topic of H.R.Pufnstuf and Zoom. Remember those shows? Joe sent me a huge file of Pufnstuf stuff including MP3's and photos. OH! I hadn't seen Witchie-Poo in years and she was my favorite character! That was SO fun and a true blast from the past. I hadn't seen or heard any of that stuff in over 40 years!!
I've been selling fun stuff on Ebay and since I've started going through my original vinyl collection which has been on shelves in the closet for 18 years I'll be selling off some of those as well. There's roughly 1000 Lp's in there so it will be a long and painstaking process.
I've gotten a ton of new machines including that FABULOUS Grundig and an Eames era Voice of Music that is in mint cosmetic condition, but needs total innard restoration. The turntable works to perfection as does the record changer but the electrical wiring needs to be redone. It crackled, smoked and burned the first time I fired it up. Also have 2 bakelite RCA's both in need of cleaning & lubing and then there's the Pro Newcomb that Bryan is restoring for me. Can't WAIT to hear that one! I have some magical goodies for you Bryan, for fixing that for me!!
I really do love my music room and it feels pretty good to be semi-retired from the studio for now. I need to relax a bit (although I never seem to) and think about what my next venture may be. Something a little easier on myself, I think. I need to just kick back a little now. I have another test I have to endure on Monday (the Carotid Artery test) so hopefully that will be it and I can forget about Dr's for a couple of months. My Doc prescribes the high blood pressure med in 90 day supplies so that means I should only have to go back quarterly after this...My Doc is also an avid photographer and wanders around NYC photographing people. He said, looking at my ink, that he'd love to photograph me because I look interesting and complex.
I recently got the Nauck's Vintage Record Auction catalog for the next auction and have gone through it highlighting the things I want to bid on. This auction closes November 7th and if you are a regular customer, you get this catalog automatically. If not you need to buy it, but SO worth it. You can also see the bid list online on his website Nauck's Vinatge Record Auction These auctions are superior and he holds a couple per year.
I think that's about all for this month! I am looking forward to Autumn but am hoping it doesn't stay as cold as it is now! Yikes! Grab your brew and meet me in the lounge!
This month's music is Psychic Voodoo Doll by the one & only Deadbolt and can be found on the Halloween Hootenanny CD. I have that FABULOUS Deadbolt picture disc as well that you can see on my You Tube.
Happy, safe, magical Autumn to you all.
Ah, the Rhythm of Life!
