Oh, I can see that you’ll be very happy here.

I haven’t been to Down In The Valley for years either so I have no idea what they’re like now. The Down In The Valley store in Richfield was where I used to shop every week when people were dumping their LPs to buy CDs in the late 80′s.

Roadrunner is still around. I stopped there for RSD and the store was pretty crowded. Everything I wanted was gone. The remaining stuff that might have been tempting was way too expensive.

Treehouse Records (which used to be Oarfolkjokeopus, the center of all the good 80′s music that was coming out of Minneapolis) and Roadrunner Records are really good South Minneapolis stores. Down In The Valley used to be pretty good too. St. Paul has a brand new vinyl store downtown called Eclipse, right next door to The Amsterdam Restaurant and Hall.

I’m not a big fan of Cheapo. The owners of that store are total assholes to their employees, and don’t have much love for their customers either.

I probably visit my favorite local record (The Electric Fetus in Minneapolis) 50-60 times a year. Going to the store on Record Store Day is like going to Walmart on Black Friday, and everything good is snapped up by the people who’ve been in line since 6:00 am. I’ll keep on supporting my local record stores throughout the year, but Record Store Day is just too fucking nuts to deal with. (Actual Black Friday at the store is a walk in the park compared to Record Store Day).

Why yes, I am old.

The best time to buy records was when people were selling off their entire collections and replacing them with CDs. I was buying so much great stuff then. The used bins are starting to become interesting again now that the boomers who first started collecting vinyl are being trotted off to retirement homes. Full original sets of Beatles and Stones LPs are showing up in the bins. It’s made me stop to think that maybe I should be thinking about selling rather than still buying.

That said, a coworker just turned me on to The Stone Roses last week. I now have three Stone Roses CDs in my collection. Why deny yourself such good shit?

It will be fun to watch Tebow fail at football this year, but nobody is going to come up with any kind of quote to top Viking’s punter Chris Kluwe’s letter to Emmett C. Burns Jr.

I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won’t come into your house and steal your children. They won’t magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They won’t even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery…

Tebow probably has a sad that he’ll never be able to use the phrase ‘lustful cockmonster’ in public now. He’ll have to keep it in his prayers.

I blame Obama.

Can I also mention that I have a copy of Trax on Wax 4 signed by all the members of Rockpile? I got it from a record industry friend but it’s still cool to have.

Too long. Didn’t watch.

However, your post title rocks.

…dropping a penny in a beggars cup and then patting yourself on the back for being so magnanimous

It the Hollywood executive feel-good movie of the summer.

TPaw would bring the singular honor to the Romney campaign in that NObody on that ticket would win any of their home states. MN is completely done with TPaw.

It’s always interesting, when reading the comments to any opinion piece at the NYT, to check out the difference between the ‘readers picks’ and the ‘NYT picks’. Nearly every favorite of the readers is telling Douthat that he’s ‘wrong, wrong, desperately wrong!’, while the paper’s picks maintain a proper balance of pros and cons. I don’t have to think twice about which collection I feel is more representative of the general public.

For just a few hours on those nights, we enjoy one another’s company — and forget about the having so fucking much money.

Mitt Romeny and the Surf Punks. Brothers in the battle for their turf.

And unlike Andy Warhol, EIEIO is still a living thing.

Oh wait…it’s not still 1988. How time flies.

I just follow George Bush’s advice and put food directly on my family.

Hang your print by the front door so as you depart your house and dive into the cultural trenches you will be ever mindful, thanks to Andrew’s example, that there are things worth scrapping for..

This would also come in handy to immediately clue any females entering the house that they should stop, turn and run away as fast as possible.

Well here’s a theme song for Jonah’s attitude about the young people (the young people: Jesus, what’s that supposed to mean…).

Nothin’ On My Mind by Austrailian legend (not a star) Paul Kelly.

DougJ is going to slit his wrists when he sees the title of this post.

Oh ohhh. Irresitible Bogg bait.

Because when I want to understand the black experience in America, Dah Reihl is my go-to guy. Dan knows whassup.

John Cole and ABL should both read this and make up.