For the Record

WEEKEND REWIND: We spent most of our weekend working around the abode, purging, organizing, cleaning, and then purging and organizing some more.

There was some time for fun, however. On Saturday, the kids spent 3-plus hours at the monthly game day at our neighborhood library. I will have Annabelle write up a review of that tomorrow. 

On Sunday, CJ, a fledgling collector of vinyl records, was dead set on attending The Northwest Record Show at Seattle Center. 

Here's what he had to say about the experience.  

The Northwest Record Show is a biannual event held at the Pavilion Building in Seattle Center. At the Northwest Record Show, dozens of record dealers come with thousands of vinyl records, compact discs, 8-tracks, and cassettes, selling to eager buyers like me. The Northwest Record Show has been an event at Seattle Center for over 30 years.

Yesterday, my dad and I attended 2018's first Northwest Record Show. I went from stand to stand, and ended up buying four different records.

The first two records were Pink Floyd's A Collection of Great Dance Songs (ACGDS) and The Alan Parsons Project's Pyramid. ACGDS is a compilation from the early 1980s. The version of the iconic song Money on ACGDS was a different recording than the original, due to copyright laws concerning the record labels. Notably, my copy of ACGDS was a promotional record intended for CBS (SALE IS UNLAWFUL, it reads in letters on the back). I bought Pyramid because it was the Alan Parsons Project's next album after I Robot (which I had got from a thrift store in Kent).

The third record, Pink Floyd's Obscured by Clouds, was the band's last album before The Dark Side of the Moon. Obscured by Clouds was a soundtrack album for the obscure French film La Vallée. Pink Floyd fans often refer to Obscured by Clouds as un underrated album, overshadowed by both the band's preceding and following albums (Meddle and The Dark Side of the Moon, respectively).

The last record I got, Nirvana's Nevermind, was an original pressing. While Nevermind reached the top of the Billboard 200, the original vinyl pressing is sought-after, as when Nevermind came out (1991), vinyl was fading in relevance, being replaced by compact discs. The sleeve, insert, and the record itself are in pristine condition.

Obviously, CJ was quite pleased with his purchases. He has been listening to them ever since, and we've all enjoyed his acquisitions. 

2K: Over the weekend, Mars Science Laboratory marked its 2,00th Sol (or Martian) day on the Red Planet.

To mark the occasion, NASA released a mosaic photo that is a preview of what the rugged rover will be investigating next.

The image below was assembled from dozens of images taken by the Curiosity’s Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Sol 1931, in January of this year. On the right side of the frame is Mount Sharp, the central peak in the Gale Crater where Curiosity landed back in 2012. 

Since September of 2014, the rover has been mountain climbing, all the while collecting drill samples to get a better understanding of Mars’ geological history.

Image of the mosaic taken by NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover in January of 2018 (Sol 1931). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS