Put Music Stores On The Endangered List

I was downtown catching a movie yesterday and I decided to pop into the Virgin Mega store to see if there were any cheap dvds top buy. When I got down there, I saw their "going out of business" signs everywhere. For whatever reason, this really crushed me. Granted, there are still some really authentic record stores that are still left in Denver, like Wax Trax and Twist and Shout. But, it still upset me to see this huge music store going out of business. It just really bothers me to think about how generations below me will never know what it is like to go into a music store and speak with some pierced punk rocker about what the latest great band is. It isn't the death of a business, but the impending doom of an entire music culture. That is what really baffles me. However, I get that it is cheaper and easier to get everything online. I mean, for someone who feels so sad about this, I haven't bought a CD in a music store in years. So, I too am part of the problem. But it still bothers me none the less.

On a lighter note, I was the COOLEST person in the grocery store yesterday. So, I went to the store wearing my ratty, "CBGB" sweatshirt (which is a club that used to be open in New York City that most great bands either got their start or played there at one point). I was standing in line at the check out counter and there were like 10 people behind me. The guy directly behind me was like, "nice sweatshirt!" and struck up a conversation about CBGBs with me. Then the cashier joined in the discussion and we were talking about music and this club. Then the cashier got to the bottle of balsamic vinegar that I was buying and of course it didn't have a price on it. So she has to do a price check, and I was like, I am so sorry to hold all of you up. We continued our talk about how awesome my sweatshirt was for what seemed like 10 minutes until the old man with the balsamic finally came back. He said to the cashier, "You're not going to believe this, but this balsamic is 15 dollars!!!!" and the cashier was like, "Oh my gosh are you serious???" and then she looked at me and I was like, "Yeah, it's imported from Modena, Italy, they gotta charge you something for that...." She looked at me all baffled and was like, "so you still want to buy it?" and I was like, "I saw how much it was when I pulled it off the shelf... I just forgot the exact price. I use this with a lot of food and the cheap stuff doesn't taste nearly as good."
Then, the guy behind me was like, "Wow. A cool punk rocker chick who buys imported balsamic....that's so cool". The lady finished ringing me up, I paid, and then she did this....subtly nodding her head, she looked and me and said very softly, "Stay cool." and I just thought to myself, wow, I am like the rock star of the grocery store right now because of my ratty sweatshirt and my ridiculously expensive balsamic vinegar. It was awesome.