R.I.P. Sam the Record Man

Yesterday I heard the news that Sam the Record Man would be closing it's doors at the end of June. Sam the Record Man, for those of you not familiar with it, is the cavernous record store in downtown Toronto, on Yonge Street at Gould. Because of Sam's giant "spinning records" facade, it has become something of a Toronto landmark.

This afternoon CBC radio had a call in show about the closing of Sam the Record Man with a bunch of nostalgic people telling their Sam the Record Man stories. I have two Sam the Record Man stories. My first was when I was 11 or 12 years old and stood in line in the alley behind Sam’s for three hours (in the hot sun surrounded by stinky garbage) to buy Corey Hart concert tickets, and somehow ended up with the crappiest seats in the whole CNE Grandstand! My other story was in 1985 when I went to the Sam's Boxing Day sale and bought Love and Rockets’ first single (Ball of Confusion) which INCLUDED A POSTER (for $0.99!) and a Falco “Rock Me Amadeus” 12 inch for $1.99. Precious memories!!


It reminds me of a blog entry that Alan McGee wrote about record stores in March – Do We Still Need Record Shops?

Also, right now Jian Ghomeshi is interviewing Terry McBride who is the head of Nettwerk Records, started the Lilith Fair with Sarah Mclachlan, and takes responsibility for Avril Lavigne’s career. He made the point (which is funny because it was something that I was thinking about this morning) that Avril Lavigne’s newest single has sold 5 million copies, compared to Arcade Fire, who have ~maybe~ sold 1 million copies of their last album. Mass-market pop crap still wins out, in spite of the huge amount of media and word of mouth about Arcade Fire. Like McGee, he is very much in favour of music downloading.

Girl Talk

Those of you who know me, know that my musical taste is pretty conservative, in a typical middle class urbanite kinda way. I like bands who play straight up rock/pop music: usually four or five piece bands composed of cute/skinny 25 year old guys. To me the Strokes are a great band, the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie, Tokyo Police Club, etc. etc. I also like angsty singer/songwriters like Jeff Buckley and Elliot Smith (both so angsty that they are both now dead); some straight up commercial pop music like Destiny's Child or Christina Aguilera, who appeal to my inner gay guy; and of course, tons of older bands - everything from 60s classic rock like Led Zeppelin and the Doors, 70s punk music, New Wave, goth, and so on.
Last week Erin on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown introduced me to the pageblank blog in her excellent post about summer songs. pageblank belongs to a guy named Matthew in Toronto who writes about the same kind of stuff I do, but in a much more interesting and insightful way. I spent most of Friday scanning through his archives (I was hungover, of course). Last October he wrote about an artist called Girl Talk who had played a show at that time at the Spin Gallery here in Toronto. Girl Talk is Pittsburgh dj Greg Gillis who uses a laptop to create these really awesome music collages out of pop music samples from all eras. He would sort of get lumped into the mash up genre, but I was never a huge fan of mash ups, and I love his stuff. He has a few of his songs posted on his myspace, and there are others available to download on other sites. Pitchfork did a great interview about him here last August, and he just played a set at Coachella this spring, so I am probably a little late to this party, but if you haven't heard his stuff, it's definitely worth checking it out. Anyway, could this mean that I am becoming a person who is into dj's and "dance" music? Probably not.
Finally, here are some pics of Scarlett Johansson from the new Louis Vuitton campaign that I found on the Perez Hilton blog. The shoes....the bag.....argh.....why couldn't I have been born with money? And how amazing does she look? Great photos.

Almost the Long Weekend....

The long weekend is almost here and I have never needed a break more than I do now. I will be spending it on Manitoulin Island with the roommate and the roommate's romantic device. I love roadtrips and I love lazing around a lake, so this should be fun.
Jerry Falwell is dead....one right wing bigot down....

Here is an exerpt from Anderson Cooper's interview with Christopher Hitchens on CNN last night:

COOPER: Christopher, I'm not sure if you believe in heaven, but, if you do, do you think Jerry Falwell is in it?

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "VANITY FAIR": No. And I think it's a pity there isn't a hell for him to go to.

COOPER: What is it about him that brings up such vitriol?

HITCHENS: The empty life of this ugly little charlatan proves only one thing, that you can get away with the most extraordinary offenses to morality and to truth in this country if you will just get yourself called reverend. Who would, even at your network, have invited on such a little toad to tell us that the attacks of September the 11th were the result of our sinfulness and were God's punishment if they hadn't got some kind of clerical qualification?
People like that should be out in the street, shouting and hollering with a cardboard sign and selling pencils from a cup. The whole consideration of this -- of this horrible little person is offensive to very, very many of us who have some regard for truth and for morality, and who think that ethics do not require that lies be told to children by evil old men, that we're -- we're not told that people who believe like Falwell will be snatched up into heaven, where I'm glad to see he skipped the rapture, just found on the floor of his office, while the rest of us go to hell.

It's Cannes Film Festival season again. There is a neat looking Canadian animated (with marionettes) film called Madame Tutli-Putli being screened this year. It looks very beautiful and strange.












And finally, I just started reading Crime and Punishment, of all things. Usually I find books this old (mid-1800s) very difficult to get through, but this is amazing!
Have a great weekend my friends! More next week....

Another Amy Winehouse Post

Sorry about the constant posts about Amy Winehouse, but I just walked past her on Queen Street, so I felt compelled to blog about it. She seemed to be window shopping with her boyfriend around Queen and Spadina as I was making my way home from work. Her boyfriend must be along for the ride this tour because I have seen his picture on the celebrity blogs that I read which is how I recognized him. Anyways, I didn't say anything to them, but my heart did begin to race and my eyes almost popped out of my head. Pretty much the same reaction as when I saw Chris Martin from Coldplay in the Market a year or two ago. Other than that, I was cool!! (yeah, I know, I'm a total geek!)

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse is on the cover of Now Magazine this week looking positively fabulous. She is in Toronto this week for a couple of sold out shows at the Mod Club. I tried to get tickets for this months ago and found that it was impossible. Sigh. Hopefully she'll come back soon and play a somewhat larger venue.

I am in the mood for a good concert. I missed the Killers last week unfortunately. I just heard that Interpol will be back in Toronto this summer, so I may try to check that out. Also, the White Stripes are playing the Molson Ampitheatre. And look at this listing: cyndi lauper, erasure, debbie harry, dresden dolls, the gossip and the cliks True Colors benefit, Molson Amphitheatre (955 Lakeshore West), 6 pm, $42.50-$95.50. How awesome is that lineup?! Cyndi Lauper was my first concert ever when I was ten! I went with my dad and little brother.

Celebrity Gossip, etc.

As much as I hate to comment on celebrity gossip I have to say this - holy crap, Paris Hilton is going to jail! Crazy! Apparently she has been sentenced for 45 days for driving while her license was suspended for a DUI. The judge seemed to be especially unimpressed by her "play dumb" strategy in court. Let's see if she actually serves her sentence - somehow I doubt it. Also, a "Cocaine Kate" style video has been released showing a blurry Lindsay Lohan doing coke. Has the world gone mad?!!!
This weekend le roommate and I went to a costume party dressed in drag. I was David Bowie and he was Annie Lennox. I will try to post some pictures when I get them. I didn't make a very good Bowie to be honest, but Tyler insisted that I made for a hot guy!!!
On Sunday we watched the movie The Queen. It seemed like the kind of movie that you would have to be sixty years old to enjoy, but actually I thought it was pretty good.
I just finished the Augusten Burroughs book Sellevision which was pretty funny. This was his first book of fiction I have read. Now I am working on The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I am a fan of her aritcles that appear regularly in the New York Review of Books, but I have never read any of her books. This is a memoir about her husband's death, which took place at the same time as her daughter was in a coma in the hospital. This is also something that I would have thought would appeal to older readers, but it had been recommended by so many people that I decided to give it a try. So far it's really good.

Ok, I'm back now!

Hey kids....sorry about the shortage of posts for the past couple of weeks. For a variety of reasons, I haven't really been inspired to write very much lately. But I'm back, I think!
For the first time in ages, the music blog/record label buddyhead has updated here: http://buddyhead.com/gossip/
Now even the guys at buddyhead are the first to admit that buddyhead is so 1999, but I still find it amusing. It's not as good as it was back in the day (when they would publish Fred Durst's home phone number and encourage people to call him and tell him what a douchebag he is, and many other zany hijinks) but it's still pretty funny and they still have pretty good taste in bands.
What's everybody up to this summer? I am planning a little trip with the roommate and friend to Manitoulin Island for the May 24 weekend. And really, what could be more Canadian than that? Also, I have an overwhelming urge to visit New York City, especially appealing since the American dollar is practically on par with the Canadian dollar these days. How fun would that be?
Let's see.....the blonde girls in Amazing Race are in the top three, hurray! I am also caught up in Survivor (totally lame, but it's a force of habit), America's Next Top Model, and Project Catwalk (British Project Runway). Yes, I still have an unnatural and unhealthy love of reality tv.
Anywho, that's about it for now. I will try to think of something more interesting to post about soon.
xxx andrea