Hit a sale and saw a small box of 8 tracks and grabbed one by Little Anthony and the guy who ran it said he had tons more in the back and made 6 trips to it and brought up 5 medium boxes full of tracks. I was ecstatic for a while until I cracked a few open and found scores of Christmas tapes, country music and easy listening. It’s like his taste and mine live in parallel universes. I even felt a little bad after he went out of his way to drag out these boxes and I walked away with 6 measly carts. Nancy Sinatra, Ozark Mt Daredevils, Minnie Riperton, Moody Blues and Jay & The Americans. I hope someone comes along and grabs the rest and makes his day but I have a feeling I’ll be seeing this huge lot at St Vincent DePaul’s thrift store for a dime each.

Sales have been majorly sucking for eBay and the junk store lately and after 8 of them I got a wine rack and one of those glass tables with a large ceramic bear holding it up that were big about 6 years ago. Come on people we’re in a recession sell your crap theirs money to made out here.

I’m back online after my puter was hit with a Trojan and turned into a giant spam machine.

I had a strange 8 track moment last weekend I was at some estate sale in the late afternoon when it was pretty much picked over and ask if they had any 8 track tapes and the woman said he thought her husband had some and lead me to a basement that was illuminated by a few small Christmas tree lights and we both searched and she went to call him and locked the door behind her. And for the next 5 mins that seemed like a lifetime I was felling like that woman in the pit on Silence of The Lambs waiting for the Gimp to get home. Finally she came over with a small stack of country tapes and at that point I didn’t care and just planned my escape once the door was pried open. I’m going to have a backup plan when I hit these.

And lightning strikes twice, I found another Umbo, this one was from a woman who bought her house a few years back and it was sitting in her laundry room, I got it for a whole $2.

I got these for $5 because the woman’s husband was in the basement and she wanted to get them out fast before he came back and changed his mind about selling them. I usually rifle through boxes for the good stuff but the clock was running. I later discovered most of them were compilations like K-tel and a few 50s blast from the past, some Kiss, ELO, Abba, a Stars on 45’s irritating tape, Wagner’s Ride of The Valkyries, by my favorite classical composer Leopold Stokowski, an Elvis soundtrack sung by Ronnie McDowell (from Dick Clark Motion Pictures). Also 2 tapes by The Monks of Weston Priory and while I look at listening to religious music a type of torture they brought to mind those Benedictine Monks that were the flavor of the month in the mid 1990’s, you think Perry Ferrell would have signed them up for Lollapalooza.

I finally went Dirty Harry on my tenants and broke into the house, put their possessions in storage and changed the locks and all I got back was a nasty letter pinned on the door threatening to sue, but I’m ready and the way they never have 2 nickels to rub together for a lawyer I figure I’ll have it rented out in a few weeks. It was kind of empowering and I’ve been on a high all week.

I’m starting the spring that almost wasn’t with a dropping snow level this weekend so I was putting together a pile of cool tapes I own and decided to also make a short list of holy grail tapes but I’m an atheist so maybe that’s not a good phrase but you get the idea. If anyone how has these wants to deal you know my email address.

Nothing on the music front (again) so I went for the odd ball route and hit a warehouse full of ancient computer equipment, I bet theirs going to be a market for this crap any day now but I’m still trying to learn about valuable pottery at this point so unless it’s a Commodore 64 I pass. But in the corner I spied a strange looking mini bed and when I went closer it turned out to be an hospital gurney. I had an experience with one of these when I first moved here when my Geo that I owned for 2 weeks was turned into an accordion by a truck and I was loaded on one of these and was strapped on like a horror movie so it was nice to see one again. It cost me all of $10 and after riding in it for an hour in the house I decide to toss it on Craigslist. I got a bite from someone looking to get it to take his father on 400 mile trips. That must be a sight. I was sort of hoping some perv with a hospital fetish would grab it but I suppose that’s why they’re not easy to get for private citizens.

I’ve noticed a phrase that is thrown around a lot to describe everything in the current world climate. Let’s say it together “Things are going to get worse before they get better.” I don’t think I’ve every heard it in its reverse where things get better before they take a turn. It has finally hit home for me since my tenants gave me the cliché that tenants give when they aren’t going to pay rent this month. “Give me a few weeks and I’ll be getting a check from disability for $1000,” or “My daughter will be sending me $900 at the end of the month,” or my favorite “If you can wait a few weeks I’ll sign over my entire check to you”. I feel sorry for people who are actually getting a check in a few weeks because when I hear this it means you’re getting your 30 days notice next week. I learned last time that the only successful landlord is a fascist landlord. And while I can be your best friend when your paid up once payment becomes later and later I start to grow a Hitler mustache and goose stepping. But this time I’m sitting pretty since a lot of houses are being foreclosed and my 2 bedroom $600 a month shack is looking pretty sweet. So I’m ready to throw them out with impunity and yesterday some Star Trek nerd showed interest in taking it over and I have a soft spot for nerds.

Here’s a problem I get on playing a certain 8 track tapes I don’t think I’ve ever seen addressed. Have you ever been listening to a tape and hear it switch channels and have the song play for about 2 mins and then it stops. Then you pull out the tape and have to pull out miles of brown tape from the player and find the last bit eaten by the capstan. This is my number one tape killer and the only way to fix the cart is the spool most of that takes a good hour. Still beats getting music from MP3s though.

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After sale after sale of tapes that are either all country or all easy listening or all utter crap. I found a beauty parlor that was being used as a front for a yard sale. Other than filling up my bag with all kinds of hair cutting and conditoning products for cheap (Now if only I had more hair.) I spied a few orphaned tapes that were all comedy. I have to say there is classic rock and classical cars but for some reason comedy doesn’t have that much of a shelf life. Try listening to 8 tracks by Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor and to an extent George Carlin. I cut him some slack because one, he’s dead and two, he had the tallent to keep his material fresh with the times and didn’t get trapped and rehased his old material. I like Don Rickles but his stuff today is nearly identical to his 70’s material and he still uses the same racial stereotypes from then. It isn’t an easy occupation and while you can go to an Eagles concert and yell “Hotel California” you don’t get that at a comedy show and if Steve Martin comes on stage with an arrow in his head saying “Lets Get Small” it may get met with a confussed silence.

I'm going to a huge sale that is a 2.5 hour drive this weekend. last time I went here my clutch went out and it cost $300 to tow  it home I'm hoping for a better experience.

Still waiting for new yard sales to begin so I thought I’d take the opportunity to do a little winter cleaning and arranging. It’s amazing what you can do with a gallon of paint and an afternoon and since the tenants who rent the slummy house connected to the junk store forgot to pay the electric bill I took a little vacation from work last week. Now my guest bedroom is a study and visitors will just have to stay at the Red Lion Hotel if they want to see me now or bring a sleeping bag. It’s now very minimalist and once I put in the giant Easter Island statue in the corner with hollow belly I realized I needed a little mood music in the room. So I hid a small 8 track tape player in the idol and the effect is complete. I wouldn’t call it high brow or even low brow art but then I realized that ever since 8 tracks and such have gone online that art aspect has really diminished. I was leafing through a few old copies of Russ Forester’s 8 Track Mind and a lot of the people had some real creative ideas and cool cartridge sculptures. Maybe someone can start a separate category on the newsgroup for this dying genre.