Hipsterville

    My buddy Paul and I took a day trip up to Charlotte (NC) this morning. We generally regard this as an excuse to eat Ethiopian food; most times we then visit the Bechtler (modern art) Museum, a very groovy place especially delightful since we've so far gotten in for free every time since they have reciprocity agreements with the Columbia Museum of Art, of which Paul is a member.
    However, up until recently there was a used CD store in the same uptown strip mall with the Ethiopian restaurant we like (Meskerem). We would arrive a little early for lunch and check out the offerings. We noticed that they never seemed to have any business and wondered if they were a Mob front or what? What, as it turned out. On our last visit, we found that they had finally gone out of business. It bummed us out so that Paul tracked down another good new and used record store nearby. After eating, we went there.
    It was really good. I scored three reasonably brilliant CDs ("Morph the Cat" by Donald Fagen, "Concert by the Sea" (or "'Play Misty for Me!' 'NO!'") (of course the preceding needs still another set of quotation marks for "Misty"; too hard for me!:)) by Errol Garner, and "Down Home Blues" by Gene Harris and Brother Jack McDuff) and a cassette of black stringband music from the Library of Congress. Paul found a lot of CDs himself. Then we wandered the neighborhood, which proved to be Hipsterville. There were many antique stores, a Jamaican bistro, a store called Reggae Central which was ultracool but somewhat short on, you know, reggae records, many vintage clothing shops and a bakery/ coffee shop. At one of the antique stores, Paul found a hardwood CD tower for $50, which is what they want for the wire and chewing gum ones at Amazon. We even made it fit in my car, eventually. So a good day all the way around.
    Of course, now the kitty hates me for staying away all day. But I think she'll get over it.