Movies, books & music 10 May 2005, 19:46

Hey, Dan Burden is coming to save part of Edmonton.

Anyway, as I was saying about bookstores:

On the book front, there are two great independent bookstores in town: Greenwood’s and Audrey’s, which hold a candle to Duthie’s in Vancouver. This means what you want is in stock, the shelves are browseable like a library’s, and NO scented candles or Godiva chocolates.

I’d like to add to that my fave Edmonton used bookstores:

Music

I think of a song, I queue it. While it plays, I am reminded of another song, search and queue that. I find the CDs with those songs and wishlist them. (If there’s a Canadian distributor for the titles, I can even buy ‘em at my local independent record store.)

Versus what?

Shopping in record stores gives me the creeping willies. The stacks lean over me ominously like groaning monoliths. The cataloguing system intimidates me. The genres all seem bullshit.

Yeah I’ve had good experiences peering at the Imports shelf at A&B Sound (where I bought one of the best belly dance CD’s ever, and both Andy M Stewart & Manus Lunny CD’s—very important Celtic folk artists—the best of the rarities). Another exception is White Noise back on the Choorstraat in Utrecht. But the browsing experience in most record (and video) stores is really quite bad. Maybe it’s cheap land that is the bane of browsing experiences.

Movies

When did watching movies become a solitary act?

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Discuss.

  1. # And then like 1336 days ago Darren James Harkness goes:

    I like Alahmbra Books, which moved a year or two ago from its longtime home on Whyte. Wee Book Inn is also extremely useful for finding odd books and old magazines, and I've always had a good experience with them.

    — Darren James Harkness · 1336 days ago · #

  2. # And then like 1336 days ago Natalie goes:

    the watching of movies becomes a solitary act when you begin to appreciate the art of cinema and wish to absorb the medium as presented as opposed to the movie-going experience. i will go alone to films not because i don't value the opinion of my husband or friends, but rather because i want time to allow my thoughts on what i have just seen to fully gestate before sharing them, if at all. it is selfish - but so what? as for your comment on genres in music stores being bullshit - i agree. i so seldom buy music as i have a fairly extensive collection that keeps me satisfied and i hate the industry overall. however last week i decided to go out and purchase Citizen Cope "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings" and found it classified 6 different ways in 6 different stores: blues hip hop folk soft rock r&b alternative i am also opposed to viewing grander than life size posters of ashleigh/ashley/ashlay/ashlee whatever simpson. all the used book stores in stone's throw here are combo book/used music. in general the music is crap and the clerk more opinionated than jack black in "high fidelity" - last week, when cruising about for the Citizen Cope album i mentioned earlier, i went into one such store. i was chastised by the clerk for picking up a dead kennedy's cd. Evidently, in his post-adolescent opinion, they were "useless punk" i guess that's what you get when you are spoon-fed gerber brand greenday. he did not expect me to start singing "california uber alles" at the top of my lungs in the store either. thus my rant concludes - i must return to the bullpen. Now it is 1984 Knock *knock* at your front door It's the suede/denim secret police They have come for your uncool neice

    — Natalie · 1336 days ago · #

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