April 1, 2004

I figured out why that Sinatra tape was recalled and why the songs on track 1 were never released. When you play them backwards you can hear a very faint conversation with an unmistaken Frank Sinatra and a mysterious voice discussing a mob hit on Bobby Darin. It confirms that The Chairman of The Board indeed had mafia connections, and puts it all out in the open. So if you don't see an update in a while I want everyone who reads this to spread the word and I plan an upload to Kazza very soon just in case

April 12, 2004

In keeping up with the “Today’s garbage is tomorrows cool” mindset this 8 track tape just sold for over $100 on ebay. Smokey and the Bandit always gets decent bids but never this high I’d love to know why and offer this theory. Firstly, the seller had the foresight to list it in the ebay auto section. When I was a kid in high school that movie debuted and it easily could have been a 90 min commercial for a Trans Am with that whole rebellion and invincible car speeding across America (Imagine the sensation of owning one of these cars, equipped with 8 track player popping this tape in the player and going back in time). Most of those car chase movies have aged as well a Ernest P Worrell (The Hey Vern, guy) film but for some reason this one is still watchable and in my opinion the only one where Burt Reynolds is convincing as a “good ole boy” with his “ah shucks” personality. I enjoy it not as a Trans Am ad but as a CB radio promo. The connection with 8 track tapes and CB is obvious since they both when out like a shot and disappeared into the void with a small but loyal fan base. It’s still not worth 100 bucks and I’ve long given up on piggy backing on fluke sales like these and listing the same tape the following week, but mark my words, you’ll be seeing 4 more of these tapes this week and none will top $10.

April 13, 2004

The main page is 6/10 on the google page rank, a new high for this page. I'm going out for a pizza.

April 19, 2004

Instead of the usual fare on raving about  the great K mart player I got this week and the sound track of The Littlest Angel I found yesterday I thought I'd dust off my collection of vintage household cleaners and toiletries.  When I sleepin most of the hardcore estate sales people buy up the Van Gogh's and first editions of The Constitution but I get a thrill out of going through the kitchen sinks and bathrooms for the half used detergents and colognes that have probably become toxic by now.. So sit back and grab a Bubble Up soda and lets take a walk down the Rexall turnstile and see if any of these look familiar.

Can digging through their garbage be far behind?

April 23, 2004

I got this no label boot today featuring the talents of Victor Buono titled Heavy who I love in those campy 60s films like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, but most people remember him as King Tut on the even campier Batman TV show. It’s a fun tape because of the dubious packaging that has a drawing of a nude woman with a horny look on her face and The title “Party Fun”, and “Adults Only” but when you listen to the tape 80% of it is Victor talking in verse all about him being fat. The only time it even dwells on Blue material is him saying that he’s so large he has “titties”. I don’t care, I like the tape and get a kick out of when he brings up references like TAB cola and polyunsaturated fats and is empowered by his tonage. He’s one of those unsung entertainers of the 60s and 70s that were staples on talk and game shows that past on into the void. Others that come to mind are Totie Fields, Dick Gautier, Nanette Fabray, and Ruth Buzzi. I think these people are ripe to be in a Broadway musical, it could happen.

April 27. 2004

It universally accepted that the mullet haircut is a big joke and a bad fashion statement but when I was a kid there was a Hispanic bad hairstyle that I think belongs in the same group. I don't think it has a name but it fits well on a disco floor and works to its full advantage with a mustache. Here are a few famous Latinos who sported it back then.

I think it was  originated by Sonny Bono

I grew up in Hawaii and it was big there too though not necessarily with Sexy Mexies.

Today people complain that their aren't enough Hispanics on television, I think the program directors still remember the tacky hair and aren't going to let this happen again.

April 28, 2004

I may have to start paying for a host for this webpage since I noticed that Tripod.com has a new feature called a "popup side bar". Here's the message you get when you click on the "What is this" link-

Tripod has millions of members who build sites about every conceivable topic. Tripod Sidebar is a tool for helping people find other Tripod member sites similar to the one they're viewing. When a visitor browses to a Tripod member site, we check check our database. If similar sites exist, the Sidebar opens up, and those sites are listed.

And of the 15 sites listed 10 of them are in some type of Pakistanian mid eastern language, one is about Disabled Americans another is about a role playing game with poon tang or something, the next looks like a collection of dirty jokes collected from that Truly Tasteless Joke Book that came out 20 years ago and the last is about an up and coming gay musician. So to all you Pakistanian trackers who are reading this, welcome. I Wonder what I can get for a Ravi Shankar 8 track? And to all you handicapped gay blue joke telling poon lovers, Just what is the gayest 8 track?

May 2, 2004

This item appeared in today’s paper. 

I think I glossed on this before but I’ll say it again- this area has a small Buzz Martin cult in it. I first noticed this years ago when I went into an antiques store where the bottom floor was all lps in a state of disarray but through a 6th sense I found 3 albums by Buzz and when I took them to the counter to pay the guy snatched them from me and was ecstatic and went on how he was looking all over for them weeks ago, and I left empty handed. I find these records in regularity at estate sales and usually sell the duplicates on line, most of them get sold to folks who live less than 50 miles from here. On one occasion I met the buyer at a local Safeway and made the transaction at the Starbucks counter. I think his words ring more to the older established people who grew up in this town since his brand of country logger style are about the joys of lumberjackin’ and he even gets political and sings how the government is taking away jobs. I wish he was still making music during the spotted owl controversy around here, I bet it would relaunch his career. I’m happy that his works are still being sought out and stolen if this continues I may have to keep mine under lock and key.

May 6, 2004

Another reason to hold on to 8 tracks. I'd like to add the issue of dropping a CD in the jewel case from waist level and having the case break the hinge making it useless. I wish I had an Apex pinch roller for every CD I have with a busted hinge. I could drop an 8 track tape from a two story building and have it back in the player working good as new. 

May 15, 2004

Today I was hit with a surprise when I hit an apt sale and found 7 big ass boxes filled with 8 track tapes. Since I was one of the first ones there I first hit the records because I rarely have any competition for tapes and can be nonchalant with them, Lps are another story. Sadly, this guy is a big country western music fan and it looked like he had the complete works of Willie Nelson and Kenny Rodgers. I’m not a big fan of this type of music (Probably because I graduated from high school and know the multiplication table) and prefer the real dumb stuff like The Hee Haw soundtrack or Tom T. Hall’s “Who’s Gonna Feed Them Hogs” to any of this or even the “New Country” where a guy stands in the middle of the stage in a cowboy hat, a cordless mic and sings about how great America is. So it was back to the tapes that mirrored the same taste. I went through about 500 carts and found 20 that had potential. Then I took the pile to get a price and the old codger tells me 10 cents each or $20 for all. Since I haven’t had a few grosses of tapes for a while I pealed off a 20 and went back to the booty and found someone else pawing through the goods. When I told him I just bought them all and beat it he got all angry and told me he was going through them before I paid and I explained to him that like Ben Hur there no rules in the arena with garage sales. He didn’t buy that and after some debating he offered me $20 if he could mill through them and pick out some choice tapes. Remember I don’t like 98% of country music so I gave him the OK and he got 50 tapes that I  most certainly could have lived without. So we were both pleased and now I’m sitting next to 500 tapes and a Craig car stereo that cost me nothing, not a bad haul. There were a few quads in the bunch but my favorite tape is one by Burt Reynolds called Ask Me What I Am that is the most sappy country music on the planet. I already counted 140 country tapes I’ll probably list on ebay once I go through the tedious work of keying in the artist and titles. It could have been worse, it could have been Gospel music.

May 16, 2004

I just started sorting through this pile out and found this strange bootleg By Seals and Crofts titled Diamond Girl. The artwork isn’t too special and looks like it was made on a Xerox machine but what got my attention was the catalog number on this tape (Were manufacturers even concern about documenting these semi illegal carts?) is the Satanic 666 listed right before “Diamond Girl” and also repeated on the spine. I wonder how it sounds played backwards?

May 25, 2004

There was a garage sale ad where the sales are going to fight cancer for some woman this week and among the laundry list of items were "100s of 8 track tapes". This sale was slated to start at the ungodly hour of 7 am for for tapes I set the alarm. Since only old people get up that early I was greeted by a gang of blue haired women brewing coffee. I was later escorted to the back room and someone else got there before me thumbing through the carts with a nice stack in front of him. I began starting my own stack and he asked me if I was at that sale last week with the tapes and I told him I bought them all and sold a few to another fellow there. He told me that he ran into that guy after I left and thought he was rude. I agreed, and later told me that he has several hundred tapes but may get rid of them since they always break and he doesn't know how to fix them. At this point I was contemplating telling him that once there gone and making a side deal for his "broken" tapes but instead I dropped the names like sensing foil and pinch rollers that had him confused. He stopped me in mid sentence and asked me if I could teach him how to repair them so I gave him my number and will probably do this very soon. There maybe hope for a secret 8 track society here yet.  The sale didn't turn out as cheery, Those old ladies wanted 2 bucks each for the tapes and even after and attempted haggle they wouldn't budge and gave me that old "On Ebay they go for $2 song and dance". I would have torn that woman a new one and tell her how wrong she was but the sale was for charity so I let it pass and will look for those tape donated to the thrift in a week for the Goodwill price of $.69. This always happens.

And if you want to talk about a score yesterday on the 3rd day of an estate sale I found this boomerang shaped table with a pop up bar in the middle of it. I'm waiting to have guests over and ask them if they want a drink and maybe have a fondue pot warming up in the middle when it gets pulled out, snazzy.

May 28,2004

That yard sale for cancer was on again this week and I waited for the last hour before going back to the 8 tracks and this time a woman with a cell phone was in front of me calling someone to rave about them and wanted to know if they wanted some. I found it strange that in two weeks another person was in front of me buying 8 tracks. I thought I had a monopoly in this town but I guess I'm just another face in the crowd. But like the last person her tastes were a complete opposite of mine and she went for the Streisand tapes. Babbs is still sort of big (and very irritating) but judging by all the records and tapes I find around town she must have been enormous 30 years ago. And her music hasn't aged well since no one seems to buy it, except this woman of course. Anyway, I managed to get these tapes down to $.50, what 8 tracks should go for. I snagged a two tape set Called Heavy Metal with MC5's version of "Kick Out The Jams Brothers and Sisters" (hee), Eagles, Abba, Gary Wright, Fleetwood Mac and John Travolta singing love songs. I got a copy of this years ago as a kitsch joke but now playing it again I find myself seriously singing along with it. I also went to a sale that is put on by ones of those professional sellers who run estate sales for people who are either too old or too lazy too have one and now she puts records and tapes aside for me since I'm a regular and a good customer. It pays to have friends in power.

June 7, 2004

Not much this week but next Sat is the annual rummage sale for this entire peninsula, I may have to rent a truck if it's anything like the one 3 years ago where I had to leave 2 players behind because of lack of space. Also I'll be dragging myself up to the Seattle flea market as a seller this Sunday and will tote along some tapes to see if anyone bites. I guess the biggest news is a friend of mine at a photo lab met a person who brought in a plaque from the 3M tape company that thanked him for being instrumental in the designing of  8 track tapes. I don't know the story behind this but I'm having my email fwd to him and see where it goes from there, he son also collects tapes so this could be something worth wild.

June 21, 2004

Seattle was lucrative,  I was a greenhorn seller there and once I set up  was hit by all the people with neighboring booths and they quickly bought up all the "good stuff" and were reselling in the next booth for more than twice the price. Funny how a swag lamp I get for 3 bucks then I sell for 15 bucks gets resold for $30, I wonder if it ends up in NY city for $60. I feel like a hick in the country, at least I didn't get mugged. I brought a handful of classic rock 8 tracks down hoping to find a kindred spirit but some the only enquiry was by some dorky teenager laughing at the Aerosmith tape, too good for this lot. I also did some shopping myself and found some resold tiki items still with the less expensive Value Village stickers on them and a high price written over them.

The strange find of the day was a disco LP by that goofy poet Rod McKuen titled Slide Easy In...Disco put out in the hedonistic 70's but a better titled would be Music to Fist By, as you can see by the cover. I bet it sold well in Fire Island. The music is bad disco but the main cut is fun and I got a kick out of a disco diva singing about how she's "Never Been A Horse". I was hoping for a lost Village People album but it's far from "Macho Man" and with it's few Broadway standards, this Crisco Disco LP comes across as gay as a show tune with a cock up it's ass.  I want it on 8 track.

June 22, 2004

Today in the afternoon snail mail I got an unsolicited package full of various reels of radio commercials and station ID's for several radio stations in the 1990s. They're on reel to reel tape and as fate has it I sold my last player in Seattle last week but now am on the probe for another one which shouldn't be too hard I just don't like the way it takes two people so carry them to the car. I hope this was a gift or I expect any day now an email from a very embarrassed Ebay seller and it would answer why it's been a month and I still haven't gotten my Nancy Sinatra 8 track. Otherwise I'll offer a big thanks to whoever sent the tapes, they are in a place where they will appreciated and I can put them by the vinyl records I have of DJ intros. One day I'll find a radio station in the basement of an estate sale and things will really take off. 

July 4, 2004

Last week I was foraging in a shop that is more junk than thrift and found a cool Japanese silk bird picture that was really an ornate speaker, kind of like those plasma TVs that get hung on the wall. Anyways, the women who worked there said she saw me all over town looking at crap and such asked me I wanted to work there a few days a week and watch the shop and I said sure. So now I have a 4 day gig at this place am an learning about the finer aspects of second hand stores. Although I couldn't have picked a more pathetic store. This place is like one giant dumpster and I often look twice at the people who buy things here and wonder if they go home to trailers or government subsidized housing. I had a long talk with some guy there about Star Wars and collecting nazi memorabilia and my boss later told me that he comes by often and has the mentality of a 13 year old. I thought that was funny but when I started bringing up 8 track tape collecting we were on the same page.  It's on the main street of this town and I found out this place is adjoined to a  small shack where an 87 year old woman lives and watches TV 18 hours a day and comes out to say hi. She's nice and yesterday I found out she's owns the place and my boss gets free rent by taking care of her, strange. Somedays I feel like that lady in The movie Pecker, if only she'd have a Virgin Mary ventriloquist doll.

July 17, 2004

The best thing about working at the junk store (I call my place of employment a junk store since the label is pejorative) is when people with carloads of garbage and obtainium that they collected after they cleaned out their basements. I draw the line at clothes because I've be draw the line of working out of a store that looks like a giant free box. But last week some guy dropped of a buttload of LPs and the sheer volume yielded 40 of the good stuff, mostly exotic and singing celebrities. I don't understand even with non ebay people how they can give away stuff like Leonard Nimoy folk albums without assuming someone might pay anything for it. Also I was poking around the back and found a drawer filled with 8 track tapes. I wish it was a holy grail find but the best thing there was the sound track of an Elvis film. Other 8 track news is last weeks heat wave melted the belt in the car player and everything sounds like its being played at half speed. I may have to break out some rubber bands to get this going again.

July 21, 2004

My latest guilty pleasure is the music of Jim Steinman and some of it’s even available on 8 track. Most know him as the composer on Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell and once you get his style down you wonder how you got along without it. Most of his music starts out slow with a lone voice singing along to a few keys of a piano which builds up and explodes then ends back to the slow piano. But when it hit’s the climax you can see the rear view mirror of the car shake. He’s the only writer I can think of that can make Air Supply sound good, if only he’d get together with John Tesh. He also brought Bonnie Tyler from the dead with her overly sensitive Total Eclipse of the Heart. He seems to have found a home in musical theater which is too bad I think his strength is in rock and his quotes are more of the tortured rebellious song writer than a NY socialite. I’m looking for most of his stuff that came out on 8 track, got any leads?

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