Um, this episode of VH1 Classic's The Alternative has to be the worst I have seen. Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Soul Asylum, and Tori fuckin' Amos covering “Smells Like Teen Spirit”...?! Needless to say, I had to come upstairs to complain about it.
In what Newsweek [in my head] calls "...a glorious triumph of consumerism," my housemates and I had a great day yesterday. We hit Poe's grave at the First Presbyterian Church and then the Poe house/museum. The house was pretty neat with its miscellaneous Poe artifacts and impossibly steep staircases, but there wasn't much to it. Funny that it's referred to as the “Poe House”—the neighborhood that surrounds it is apparently bad enough to have warranted a serious warning from the cop who was stationed outside on the street.
From there, it was shop shop shop. We were in B'more from about 2PM to almost midnight, so I won't go into details. Here are some highlights:
+ Normal's. What an awesome place. They have a ton of used books and a decent load of used vinyl (and a few used and new CDs). I found just about every early Cocteau Twins EP along with some other cool 80's stuff. Will have to return to continue exploring.
+ Hampden. This place gets better each time I visit. They have a nice little hip section there on “The Avenue.” There is Atomic Books, of course, but also two new-to-me record stores: Own Guru (a modest selection of used vinyl and goofy shopkeep) and the True Vine (hip, eclectic, small-ish, with room for live shows). From these fine shops, I purchased a number a fine things, including but not limited to: the Minipops book, a book (2004) of Bill Hicks' letters and writings I didn't even know about, both the Found and Dirty Found books, a new issue of Eightball(!), and a $4 Cure record.
+ Sound Garden. Things were bought and sold. I got a bunch of CDs and the Arrested Development first season DVDs.
Ay. Time for sleep. I'll post a smattering of pictures from the trip sometime soon. Most of them were lame, but there's a few good 'uns in there.
2 comments:
Hmm, I usually like The Alternative. I actually have my TiVo set to record episodes of it (which gets a little much) but I find myself wishing there was a radio station. However, I'd take a pass on Tori Amos and the like.
I was in Atomic Books recently on a visit up to B'more -- that was a cool store. I ran across a book on how to kill zombies, which was hilarious.
Normal's -- that sounds cool and like a place where I might be able to find some of that stuff that's out of print that I always find myself looking for... of course, I don't end up wandering around B'more that often...
Oh, don't get me wrong; I usually like it, too. It's like watching 120 Minutes when I was 14, except with nostalgia. This particular episode was just sub-par.
Yeah, Atomic is really neat. Lots of cool stuff there. You can probably find some of the things they carry online somewhere, but it's so much more fun to browse around and I haven't found anything comparable here in DC. Besides, it is always a good idea to support the mom'n'pops and independently-owned shops out there.
If you're a book nerd, you should definitely go to Normal's. Seriously. I'm sure you would find something there to make the trip worth your while.
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