Never use a cruelty when a joke will do in its place

My trip up to Bellingham necessitated a trip to Everyday Music, which yeilded these finds:

Bob James - H
Steve Perry - Street Talk
The Alan Parsons Project - Stereotomy
Pretenders - Pretenders & Pretenders II
Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill
Carly Simon - No Secrets
Nilsson - The Point
Atlanta Rhythm Section - Are You Ready! [sic]
Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life
The Monkees - Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
Sade - Diamond Life
Power - Rock..."Direct-To-Disc" [sic]
Dionne Warwick - Dionne Warwick's Golden Hits Part One
Rusty Warren - Banned In Boston
Aretha Franklin - Aretha's Gold
Rolling Stones - Made In The Shade
Percussion In A Tribute To Glenn Miller
Percussion In A Tribute To Lawrence Welk
The Gamelan of Bali

Price paid: less than $9.00

Other recent purchases:

Weather Report - Mr. Gone
A Hawk And A Hacksaw - Darkness At Noon
Godspeed You Black Emperor! - f# a# infinity
Serge Gainsbourg - Les Selections du Cinema de Gainsbourg EP
Bottomless Pit - Hammer Of The Gods & Congress EP
The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
godheadSilo - Skyward In Triumph
Al Di Meola - Scenario & Land Of The Midnight Sun
Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
Lisa Whelchel - All Because Of You¹
Herbie Mann - Stone Flute
New Order - Brotherhood
Jim Nabors - The Heart-Touching Magic of Jim Nabors²
Aldo Nova - Aldo Nova
Billy Squier - Emotions In Motion
Kenny G - Kenny G³
Debbie Reynolds - Do It Debbie's Way⁴
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Greatest Hits
Randy Newman - Little Criminals
O.C. Smith - La La Peace Song
Frank Kalil & Jay Taylor - My Plumber Doesn't Make House Calls!
Dual Race - Keep Your Crossover
Loggins & Messina - Loggins & Messina
Christina Milian - It's About Time
Muzzle - Betty Pickup⁵
Bob James - Touchdown
Hairy Butter - Hairy Butter
Melanie - The Four Sides of Melanie
Bill Cosby - The Best of Bill Cosby
Rick Derringer - All American Boy
Isaac Hayes - Don't Let Go
George Michael - Father Figure 12"
The Black Stallion soundtrack
The Wiz soundtrack
Hang 'Em High soundtrack
Zorba The Greek soundtrack
Juliet Of The Spirits soundtrack
The Voice Of The Silver Bells⁶
Environments (New Concepts In Stereo Sounds)
Bicentennial Ethnic Song Festival of Seattle⁷
The Best of the Big Bands





¹Yep, the chick from The Facts Of Life. The 'You' in the title refers to the Big Man Upstairs.
²This is among the more frightening records I've purchased lately.
³The Kennsters first solo album. Produced by Meco Menardo, the guy who did disco versions of John Williams compositions in the 70s.
⁴It's an excercise album. Oy vey.
⁵Clear vinyl. Both KNS and ASOW shared a bill with these guys. I later played in Megasapien with the drummer; the singer lives in my apartment building.
⁶Every track is a recording of a different music box.
⁷Sealed copy! Dates from May, 1976.

I need a turntable. I have a metric shitton of LPs with nothing to play them on save for my dinky little Fisher Price relic from childhood. (Actually I got it at Value Village five years ago. Whatevs.)

I walked from Cellophane Square on the Ave yesterday with about 40 albums. Grand Funk, Billy Cobham, Maynard Ferguson, George Benson, Sergio Mendes, the Tom Jones record that Unwound defaced on Fake Train, all sorts of good shit. Also got Teach-Yourself-French and Teach-Yourself-Mandarin sets. And I Am Not Ashamed by the Liberated Wailing Wall, the musical arm of Jews For Jesus. Two different albums (by diferent artists) have versions of the themes from Summer of '42 and Shaft (which I didn't realize until I got home).

All this greatness, and nothing good to play 'em on. I've thought about getting one of those Ion turntables with the USB port, so I could rip all my vinyl onto my computer, but they seem to get mixed reviews, and some packages charge you for the recording software, which I already downloaded for free.

Anyone have a model that they really like?