Sometimes I have thoughts that are interesting but I can never remember how I got to them. For example, today's post was going to focus on my love of finding things really cheap that end up being really important to me for some odd reason. I thought about this the other day, but now that I sit down to write about it I can't for the life of me remember why I was thinking about this topic. The only aside I can remember is that at the time I thought that this would make a really cool post because it involves a list, and I think that lists are the best medium for blogs. They're short, they get to the point, and, often times, they reveal information that otherwise would go unspoken. When in conversation would it ever become relevant to bring up a list of important objects that you have an attachment to that you got cheap? It wouldn't unless you, the thinker of said thought, was the one to bring it up. It's a totally random piece of knowledge or thing to remember. But it's just the type of random information that fits perfectly for a blog.
Anyway, here's that list:
1. Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet. I got this record (CD) for 3 dollars in Hamilton almost eight years ago at the used record store that's right beside the Sonic Unyon store. Now, while I'm not a big hip-hop fan, this was the first rap record I ever bought. I was in my "punk rock rules" stage and that was pretty much everything I was listening to. This opened my eyes to something beyond rock music, therefore it's important to me.
2. Joe Jackson - Look Sharp! & The Police - Synchronicity. I bought these two albums on vinyl for something like five dollars at a junk shop in Minden (a small town in the heart of Ontario cottage country). It was a totally random find and is great because Look Sharp! is, to this day, one of my favourite albums of all time. The add bonus of the Police record was just icing on the cake. Sadly, that junk shop has been replaced with a trendy clothing store. Stupid development and progress.
3. A collection of Mulla Nasrudin stories. This book cost me all of two dollars. I bought from a booth set up by the some group involved in Sufi Studies at the Word on the Street years ago (NOTE: for those of you not from Toronto, Word on the Street is a literature festival that used to close Queen Street West for one Saturday in the fall. They've moved it to Queen's Park and it just hasn't been the same). These stories insightful, proverbal, and just plain humourous. I read every so often to see where I am.
4. Secret Wars 2 #8. This is the first appearance of what would later become Vemon, but was just Spider-Man's mysterious new black custom. For some reason this issue is worth something, but it's never had any value to me because I've been able to easily get my hands on about eight copies of the damn thing, never paying more than three dollars for it at any given time. I think I once bought one for a dollar, and then sold it for ten. This is the only issue I have ever sold. EVER (*I have sold about three copies of this single issue). I still have every comic I have ever purchased, been given, stolen, or been beat with. God's honest truth... Okay, I don't still have every one. I've lost a couple, but that doesn't count. I've moved a lot in the last four years and I can't always keep track of everything. That's why I've had to buy Radiohead's The Bends three times. I keep losing the damn thing. I don't know why I keep buying the record. I don't even really like the album, and I can't stand hardcore Radiohead fans. They annoy the shit out of me and this prejudice as gotten me into trouble on several occasion (and I'm sure that this is just another one to add to that list).
5. Wilco - Being There. I bought this double album for 9.99 at a used record. Now, while this doesn't sound like a huge deal, it's sweeter because this particular used record store priced all their single discs at 9.99 and then charged 18.99 for a double ablum. Also, this was still during a time when CDs costs close to twenty dollars rather than the fifteen dollars they cost today (roughly). Whoever was pricing this record clearly wasn't paying attention and I reaped the rewards (either that or they knew that some young, impressionable boy who pick up this record and start a long lasting love affair with this band).
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