Three of my hobbies are thrifting, low-level record collecting, and interviewing musicians. Sometimes, when it comes to gift-giving, they overlap.
To start with thrifting: I do a fair bit of it (as well as garage sale hopping and "delete-bin / library booksale/ Neptoon Free Doorway Boxes" scrounging). I find some fun vinyl that way. Like, how does that go, "I'd pay a quarter for that?" Sometimes I'll go up to two bucks, if the record is interesting enough, like this LP-length presentation by the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals. Take a minute to ponder the organization's name; what does the phrasing suggest to you, especially if considered irrespectively of the cover art?
Maybe it's the ESL teacher in me, but I zoom in on that preposition. It's not "of," which would be congruent with the painting, which suggests that the animal's fundamental indecency is what needs to be addressed. Instead, the "to" actually suggests, at least to me, some variant on, uh, bestiality... such that when you factor in the horse -- I mean, standing there at a Value Village, I was going, what the fuck, is this some sort of horsefucking thing? What the fuck IS this?
Now as my wife can tell you, that topic of horsefucking has some significance to my career as a journalist; my first article for the Straight was this, about the Enumclaw horsefucking episode and the film subsequently made about it, Zoo. A variant on this story, drawing on outtakes, appeared in CineAction, as well -- which also was a big deal for me, in terms of encouraging me along on this never-lucrative path. In fact, I have been cautioned about mentioning the topic of Enumclaw to Erika's family members too soon in my introductory conversations with them. Having learned the hard way that I will do such things, Erika has been seen to take control as soon as she hears me mention that piece of geography, shushes me and tells the story about me, adding a meta-level explanation, which, don't tell her, makes it even more amusing to me; we're still talking about horsefucking -- because there needs be some context given, right? Except now it's coming with a few parenthetical remarks about me, too, while I'm right there, grinning affably: "Okay, we can tell the story this way, if you'd prefer!"
Everyone has a childish side somewhere, right?
Coming back to SINA, that "to" not "of" is probably a deliberate bungling, one of the layers of humour behind the project, a "wouldn't-it-be-even-dumber-if" moment, perhaps as bait for people to ask about it on talk shows. Y'see, Buck Henry was involved in some manifestations of SINA; they were a satirical media-infiltrating operation of some minor notoriety in the 1970s, in some ways not unlike the media-infiltrating activities of the Cryptic Corporation, presenting their art on a meta-level, as well. Just sub animals with pants in for people with eyeballs on their heads, you know?
Before you begin to fear that we are spiraling down a rabbithole of TMI weirdness, do note, this is not actually a digression. Y'see, Buck Henry represented SINA on television under a pseudonym, pretending to sincerely advocate for putting clothing on animals. And Buck Henry looks strikingly like Homer Flynn (of said Cryptic Corporation) in some regards. In fact, I think it's possible the first time I saw Homer Flynn on TV, I wondered if it was Buck Henry in a role. I have no doubt this is something Homer has heard before.
And of course, while I never met Buck Henry, I have talked in person twice with Homer Flynn and may do so again someday. There was even "paparazzi video" of me shot and posted online, talking with him, pitching this article. So if I am thus fortunate once more, I'm going to offer Homer this record. I have tucked it away safely until such a time comes. If he doesn't want it, maybe I'll check with Negativland, if I ever see them (I suspect Charles Mudede, the other person I've interviewed of relevance here, probably would not want this record).
This is how the thrift-and-gift usually works, I guess: first you buy the record ("someone will want this") and then you figure out who it's for.
Though sometimes you know at the outset. Another example of a thrift store oddity set aside for the next time I see a musician: I have one of the "Inside Track" albums awaiting Dar Williams, next time she comes to town, because we actually talked Alison Steele the last time she was here; Steele comes up in her splendid poptune, "FM Radio." The album itself is a curious thing: it's one-minute long introductions to songs, given by Alison Steele, that could be played over military radio, intercut with the songs themselves. There were whole radio shows of Steele put onto vinyl -- also a Rap Line series. Maybe there are other deejays that did this? It's a practice I know very little about; you don't see these every day.
Which brings us to the point: Riverdans are playing today at LanaLou's as part of another Punk Rock Flea Market. And one of the people whose records I pick up regularly when thrifting is Oscar Brand. I have gifted Oscar Brand records to Jeff Andrew, Rowan Lipkovits, Jello Biafra, I think Eugene Chadbourne, and likely also the Minimalist Jug Band. At any given moment, odds are I have one or two in my collection, awaiting the right person, thrifted for a dollar or less. There is NO DEMAND for these -- they are semi-ubiquitous and never expensive, despite them being uniformly wonderful... and politically sometimes beyond the pale, but nevermind that...
So the last time I saw Dan Scum, who I interviewed here, I gave him a couple of these (I think volumes 3 and 5). I have since found another, so I texted him: do you want another? He does.
But in fact I have something even cooler and more curious. Y'see, Dan has been known to sing "Dirty Old Town," which you might know as a Pogues song, but is actually by Ewan MacColl (father of Kirsty, who is on "Fairytale of New York"). MacColl also sang "Poor Paddy Works on the Railway." I thought I might actually have a dupe album to give to Dan on this front, as well, so I dug around my Ewan MacColls today, and learned something startling. I do have the album duped: once as a 10" and once as an LP (on red vinyl, oddly enough, which one doesn't expect on older records). And the odd thing here is, the records, whether on 10" or 12", are the same. It's either a very long 10" or a very short 12", or possibly a bit of both. I had thought the LP would combine the sequel 10" as well -- which I also have -- but it turns out that it does not.
I also learned in doing this that I do not have Ewan MacColl on vinyl singing "Dirty Old Town" anywhere. I had thought I did ("Poor Paddy Works on the Railway" is on this, and its really almost as punky as the Pogues' version, once MacColl picks up speed).
I do have something for Jonny Bones, too, rest assured, but it's not a thrift store record. He does tell me he'll be there (and there are some other cool surprise guests in town, too). It's kind of ironic that the last time I was at a benefit show for him, it was interrupted by a Powerclown gig!
I'm being told Riverdans will go on about 2:30. There's a whole lot of music happening all day, I suspect, not clear exactly what to expect. If you're looking for an interesting place to have lunch, shop for trinkets or custom soaps or used records or... whatever Jonny brings? It's going to be a spectacular afternoon.
If you happen to have a Ewan MacColl record with "Dirty Old Town" on it for me, I wouldn't say no, but you could also give it to Dan.
More here.
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