I get really annoyed when I'm looking to buy something, I appear to be at the right place, and no one will take my money. Whether I get some new issues of Marvel Two-In-One or Luke Cage, Power Man isn't a life or death issue to me. But opening at the crack of noon? That's pretty effin' weak.
Still, not all was lost. The used bookstore down the street was open when I arrived at 11:15. They got my money and I walked out with several Earl Dumarest novels. The record store down the way also got some of my money as well, in exchange for this CD:
My pal Pat has nearly everything Blue Oyster Cult ever recorded, but I couldn't pass this thing up. It's named after one of my favorite BOC songs, but for some reason they didn't bother to include a track of "Career of Evil". Weird. Still, I wholeheartedly endorse any CD that has both "(Go, Go) Godzilla" and "(Don't Fear) The Reaper". The latter is one of my absolute favorite rock songs, right up there with Aerosmith's "Dream On".
I listened to this bad boy on the drive back to the office. Turns out it's concert tracks from BOC's heyday. Which means the songs are a little indulgent with the guitar solos and audience participation and such. Still, good stuff all around. By halfway home I had forgotten my annoyance with Acme and was rockin' out hard.
I hear you with the late comic shop opening anger. I just moved away from Champaign, IL (and used to play 40k in Bloomington, actually) and it seems that it is a universal truth in Illinois that comic/gamer shops open at noon on weekends, even though that goes against all business sense I can envision. What days are your main constituents (students) going to be able to come in in the morning (even 10-11am "morning")? THE WEEKENDS! It doesn't make any sense, but its almost like there is some sort of Comic Shop Union that won't let the fat dudes open their stores until noon on Saturday and Sunday. Why do they open at 9-9:30am on M-F when their major customers are at school, but not open at 9:00am on Saturdays when the high school/college students are free to swing by?!
ReplyDeleteThe BoC symbol recently played a humorous prominent role in an episode of Supernatural last season (I just saw it last weekend on DVD). Some kids were painting "satanic" symbols in an old house and ran out of ideas, so they put up the BoC hook on the wall.
ReplyDeleteWas that Mothers, perhaps? That was where I got my first Roky Erikson & the 13th Floor Elevators album.
ReplyDeleteLive BOC was how i got my start. I simply wanted to hear Vetrans of the Psychic Wars after reading some Moorcock and picked up Extraterrestrial Live.
Career of Evil was the whole reason I picked up the old Sony promotional tape, so I could hear them sub "I'll do it now I ought to" for "I'll do it to your daughter." Still cracks me up.
I don't know the name of the shop. It's one of those places where the front glass and whatnot is covered with signs and posters and album covers and such. The name was not prominent to me. Dude behind the counter had this awesome forked beard and shouted "Can I help you with anything?" over what I think was a Rob Zombie track. Given that, the selection of metal CDs was smaller than you'd think, but at least they had a metal section.
ReplyDeleteAcme is usually open by 10am Wednesday through Saturday. I think the owner found out that nobody was coming in early Sunday-Tuesday since new books come in on Wednesdays. So he stays home with his kids a little extra on those days. I hope you'll give it another try...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, Rick. I normally avoid comics stores on Wednesday. I don't have a pull list so there's no real reason for me to fight my way through the nerdwave. But if I'm in Bloomington again at a later time in the day I certainly will try Acme again. After all I still go to my downtown gamestore, despite widely variable levels of service.
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