Tag Archives: Vinyl

Cleveland, Good Times, Photography, Random

What is this that you keep selling me, boy?

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The weather finally broke free of the evil cold chill the other day and boy did I take advantage of it.

I have an interesting work schedule so I have Thursdays and Fridays off.  That my friends is my weekend and I made damn sure I was out doing things the entire time.

On Thursday I did the typical cleaning of the house and jammed out to some good tunes while doing so.  I headed to Big Lots and picked up a receiver shelf I had my eye on for a while now so I could make my living room look less of a dorm room (I had 2 TV stands in there before – classy).

After putting the shelving unit together in one try I took my boys for a walk around the neighborhood and just soaked in the good weather.

That night I finally had the chance to meet up with Matt and pick up the records he so kindly purchased for me on Record Store Day while I was working.  As a special thank you I brought him a gift, something he was looking for…

The vinyls he scored for me were awesome and I could not wait to get home and listen to them.  I am not even sure if I am going to open a couple of them as they are collectors items for sure.

I also brought a box of old magazines and such from the 90’s I collected and later stored at my parent’s house.  Matt had a smile that looked like he was opening J-Day presents when he starting going through all the back issues.  I’ll let him explain why later.

After catching up for a bit and what not we headed to Angelo’s Pizza on Madison for some grub.  If you are ever in the mood for pizza and find yourself on the west side of Cleveland I think it would be in your best interest to stop at this joint.  We shared an amazing seafood pizza, which I might add intimidated me at first because I did not think it could be done.  I have a new favorite pizza now.  The crust alone is like eating breadsticks.  I am serious about to call off work right now and head out there for lunch…

Friday I was the landscaper of sorts and mowed my lawn for the first time this year.  I love having a lawnmower with a bag on it so I can just vacuum up all the leaves and sticks I missed cleaning up last month.  After I did a so-so job I spent a few hours with these guys playing:

See that blue ball?  Sweet Lou (the tan dog) is addicted to it.  Seriously, I call it the crack ball because he is obsessive about it and will cry if he can not play with it.  He chews on it like it is bubble gum and will try and bring it to you when he wants to play “ball”, but usually he grabs it and runs away when I reach for it.  The good thing about “ball” is that it keeps his attention and he stays in my unfenced yard and I can do my thing around it without having to chain him up.  The bad thing is trying to get him away from the “ball” when it is time to go in or what not.

After a couple hours of playing “ball” the infamous ((RAD))am stopped by and him and I headed out to go thrifting.  It was a good day for thrifting and I scored a few select apparel items that will make me look super cool.

From there we swung back to my house to pick up a beautiful lady who just got home from class and headed for some Skyline Chili.  It was the first thing I had ate all day and furthermore the last too.  I stuffed myself silly.

The cutest girl on the block I had the pleasure of taking to lunch soon got called into her job so after lunch we headed back to the house and ((RAD))am split to go impress the ladies with his sweet Jeep.  I just hung around the house and tried my best to get my record player working on my new receiver and finally discovered I need to buy a preamp…boo.

The weather was perfect and I know I got a lot more done than I listed here but I do not want to bore you.

Today sucks though…  I have to work the next 5 days, 10 hour shifts.  I am not looking forward to it but I am looking forward to next weekend when my friends Josh and Shannon come invade Ohio so we can caravan to a metal show.  More on that later.

Until then, enjoy the weekend.

Good Reads, Music, Random

Pirates Press Celebrates 5 Years!!!

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I received an email this morning from my pals over at SolidPR I thought I would share with everyone. With Record Store Day being celebrated just this past weekend I felt this was a more than appropriate good read:


Pirates Press Announces Five-Year Anniversary!!!

The best stories are those that write themselves, when all the writer has to do is expressly write what they see (or in this case, see AND hear)… and all the reader has to do is envision their role.  The story of vinyl records and especially its burgeoning resurgence is this type of story, and the proud leading role PIRATES PRESS has been playing in it is one as well. Their family of salespeople, production coordinators, project managers, and graphic designers have experience from all over the manufacturing, sales, and distribution industries and care deeply about the experience people have working with them.

Putting their customers ideas to life is the essence of Pirates Press’ true goal… helping artists, record label owners, and other entrepreneurs do what the market and industry are demanding of them to survive; bring collect-ability back. Helping create tangible products that reflect an artist’s visions in such a way that creates a real demand to purchase it (rather than download it) is important in an increasingly downloadable world that too-often looses the tangible dimension that once [financially] drove the industry.

Vinyl collecting has for generations been the baseball card of the non-jock (and even the occasional jock), and remained present in certain scenes and genres (underground for the most part) regardless of the pressures from the industry to exclusively digitalize. It was always that tangible element of vinyl in combination with the nostalgic sound and feeling you get from playing records which resonated with collectors through vinyl’s darkest moments. Now, when the digital world that everyone assumed would replace it entirely has brought such strain to the industry, vinyl and other creatively packaged albums sales have made a tremendous resurgence, once again giving people something their passionate about going out (or [ironically] going online) and buying. Pirates press believes that the sky is the limit at this point for vinyl and other types of creatively packaged music and ideas, and we’ll continue doing everything in our power to bring our customers there in as powerful and prominent of a way as possible!

Pirates Press Statistics in the last three years:
– 680,000 records produced in 2006
– 1,100,000 records produced in 2007
– 1,750,000 records produced in 2008

High Profile Projects: Spiderman3, MyChemicalRomance, Beck’s “Odelay” Deluxe 4LP Package, AgainstMe!, The Dark Knight, Madonna’s “Hard Candy” & a slew of singles, Talib Kweli, Brian Posehn&Lewis Black&PattonOswalt, Pulling Teeth (Holographic Record Jacket), Murder By Death 16pp Foldout, Bob Marley Boxset, Isis Boxset, The Watchmen, All the WBR Singles, & Much More…

High Profile Customers: Warner Brothers Records, Reprise, Sire, Atlantic, Original Recordings Group, Relapse, Robotic Empire, HydraHead, Deathwish Inc., Troubleman Unlimited, Anticon Records, Temporary Residence, Suburban Home & Vinyl Collective, Southern Lord Records, Tank Crimes, Chunksaah Records, Fat Wreck Chords, Vagrant Records, Slumberland Records, &  Many More…

Pirates Press Unique products include: Gatefold Jackets, Tip-On (casewrapped) Jackets, Boxsets, 5th and 6th Color Printing, Foil Stamping, Embossing, Spot Gloss and other special finishes, Insertion of CDs/Digital Download Cards into the vinyl, BIG Posters, Slipmats, Stickers and other Merch, Unique Types of Colored Vinyl, Limited VERSIONS to create immediate collect-ability! Looking to the future, we’re also working to redevelop the technology to make flexidiscs, as well as new technology, a multiformat CD/DVD/Vinyl Disc, Shaped Records and Picture Discs as well as diecut shapes of vinyl pressed directly into the records. Lots in store in 2009 and beyond!

Props to Pirate Press for staying in the game for five years now!  As a vinyl collector myself I think it is great this company is doing better and better every year.  I can only blame them some for helping empty my wallet as more releases come out in the future, but I am ok with that.

Funny, Random

Good Friday?

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Yea I guess it is a good day.  Minus my dog Zeus and his terrible gas today has been just one of those days where I sit back and think of what to do…  I have been having a rough week with personal stuff going on so I have been not doing much lately and think today should be a productive day.

I could get a tattoo.
In fact it’s been over a month since I last got some work done so this may be a winner.  Persistence Tattoo is where I go.  Ronnie and crew rule.  I really want to finish up my sleeve.  I also want a Dick Goddard tattoo…and I am dead serious.  The guy is a Cleveland icon.  Not sure if it will be portrait or not.

I could go to Half Price Books.
It’s only been 5 years if not more since I last stepped foot in one of those stores.  I know, I suck but there is not one very close to me.

I could go to a park with the dogs and take a hike.
It’s been raining non-stop today and is a wee chilly so I am pretty sure I am going to skip that idea.

I could listen to music all day.
Well so far I have been listening to a ton of music today.  I checked out the new Doves album which is amazing, listened to some rarities from Strung Out‘s latest release, rocked out to Iron Maiden, and now for whatever reason have decided to listen to Metallica‘s Live S#it Binge & Purge.  Scratch that, I got sick of it and hit the random button…

I could hit up the local mall.
The local mall scares me.  In fact this city I live in right now scares me.  The water must be contaminated.  I have lived here for over 5 years now and only am friendly with my neighbors on both sides of my house.  I do want a new hat though…  I am torn.  Every year for the last few years I get a Cleveland Indians hat even though I am not a huge fan like I used to be in the mid-nineties.  I found one I kind of like for unknown reasons…it’s bright orange and Chief Wahoo is lime green.  Yeah, I know, no team colors there.

I could make lunch.
Food is always good.

I could play video games.
I can not even tell you the last time I picked up a controller and played some games.  Maybe today is a good day for that.  My brother did challenge me to Guitar Hero: Metallica on Easter Sunday, I mean Zombie Jesus Day.  As I still have yet to play that game I still have older ones and can work on my awesome finger tapping skills.

I could organize my vinyl.
I could do that but I would rather not today.  That requires a thought process and I am staying away from that right now.

I could…stop blogging about what I could do and get off the internet and do something…
Yeah that is a good idea.  I’ll be back later folks with some stuff to keep you entertained on this good Friday.

UPDATE: (For all of you who were biting your nails wondering what I was going to do…)

So after listening to some more music I opted to make a nice lunch for the lady and I.  After watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations I decided to call my tattoo guy at Persistence Tattoo and set up an appointment for later in the evening.

Since the weather never cleared up we ventured to Half Price Books to see if we could find anything cool.  I searched through the records and found an English Beat Wha’ppen LP and also grabbed a copy of Swingers as a certain someone in my household had never seen it.  I love that movie.

Before we headed for some tattoo fun, we stopped at Roly Poly in Mayfield Heights.  If you like your sandwiches fresh and healthy check this place out.  Annie had mentioned it to me in the past and said they make wraps and sandwiches.  We split a Nut & Honey wrap that was amazing.  It was a wrap with cream cheese, raisins, sunflower seeds, cashews, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, avocados, sprouts, and honey mustard dressing.  Needless to say it was delicious.

Running late we arrived to Persistence Tattoo in Eastlake where I got a beheaded St. Valentine on my right arm.  I’ll take a picture once it heals up if any of you are interested.  I think it looks sick and had a great time while getting it.  When I say great time I am not referring to the actual tattoo as I hate getting tattooed.  The fun was had in the conversations between all of us in the shop.  Crude, rude, and hilarious.

Headed home we decided we needed a dessert before watching Swingers so we made a pit stop at Handels Ice Cream and grabbed some deliciousness.

So it was a good Friday after all.  It really was the day I needed to end the week in a positive way.