For the Record

BIRTHDAY BOY: On Friday, CJ turned 15. That meant a fun-filled day driven by his desires was mostly in store.

Our first stop was a 9 a.m. trip to iconic Easy Street Records in West Seattle.

A rather recent collector of vinyl record albums, CJ had been wanting to go to Easy Street for some time. However, his desire was dually-driven by the search for records AND the knowledge that Easy Street has a quirky onsite restaurant that's a bustling breakfast spot.  (The photo at the top of the post features a few of their breakfast specialties.)

I loved the store, because they love Bowie. :)

And now, here's Annabelle to tell you a little bit more about our visit on Friday. ...  

The Easy Street Café is inside Easy Street Records, a record store in West Seattle. The Café is open from 7 AM to 3 PM most days. We visisted the café for breakfast on my brother’s birthday, April 20.

Most of the menu options are puns on famous songs or artists, such as the “Eddie Feta” and “Notorious B&G”. When we ordered, our waitress made sure to get down any special requests we had for the chef. Speaking of the chef, our food took much longer than it should have to be done. Peeking into the window, we also noticed that he didn’t seem to be wearing a beard cap to prevent the hair from going in the food. Despite these complaints the food was delicious for everyone, although the steak was well-done and the eggs were over medium rather than over easy.

The waitress came around the café to fill coffees, which although helpful and courteous, was a bit annoying if you didn’t want more or had already added as much sugar and cream as you wanted. Overall, the main draw for the café is the food and the record store it’s attached to. If you’re in the area, I’d only recommend visiting if you have the time or are very interested in Easy Street Record’s selection.

Annabelle's right, it was a looong wait for breakfast. Fortunately, there was lots to look at as we waited.

We were a party of six, thanks to Rick and Rachel being able to join us, and the meals we ordered were all different. Christian said his Horton Heat Hash (named after the band Rev. Horton Heat) had some good heat. CJ's "Bluberry Hill Hotcakes" looked amazing. My Greek-flavored Eddie Feta scramble was tasty (and supposedly Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder's own recipe).

All in all, it was a fun way to start CJ's birthday.

Later that day, we went to his favorite lunch/dinner spot, Wing Dome. And afterward, he got some complimentary birthday cake ice cream at Chuck's, another favorite spot of his.

That evening, big brother Kennedy took CJ and Annabelle to the 8-bit Arcade, where they beat a couple of vintage arcade games. So all in all, it was a standout fifteenth birthday!

ON THE HUNT: Saturday, we were up at 6 a.m. to make sure we were in Sodo, outside yet another record store, Silver Platters, by 7 a.m.

Why on Earth start our Saturday that way? Because it was national Record Store Day, a big darn deal if you're a record collector.

The day is full of very limited release issues of special recordings on different media (often colored vinyl, picture discs, special posters, etc.).

CJ is a huge Pink Floyd fan, and there was a special Record Store Day issue set for release: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. It was Pink Floyd's debut album, and their one and only completed with the band's original vocalist and guitarist, Syd Barrett. Definitely psychedelic, the original recording is in mono and we suspected it was sure to be in BIG demand on Record Store Day 2018. Only 6,000 copies were pressed for U.S. distribution.  

While waiting in line, we studied what the cover looked like, so that we'd know it when we saw it if we were lucky enough to find it once inside the store.

We weighed our options and decided our best bet would be to try to find the title at Silver Platters, in Sodo.

And that's just what we did. We about 12th in line, I believe, when we took up our spot on the pavement in the morning cold. We were happy it wasn't raining, however. 

Below, CJ tells you more about the experience. 

Record Store Day is an event at bricks-and-mortar record stores across the country on 21 April each year. For each year's Record Store Day, there are several releases distributed to the bricks-and-mortar stores, often produced in limited quantities.

For this year's Record Store Day, I woke up earlier than I usually do to be in line at 7 A.M, waiting for our store of choice to open at 9 A.M. While my mother and I were waiting in line, the manager of Silver Platters (the record store we went to) gave instructions to the various people in line on where various sought-after Record Store Day releases were.

The release I was looking forward to the most was Pink Floyd's 1967 debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the band's only album with Syd Barrett as the frontman (and without guitarist David Gilmour). This year's reissue of Piper was in mono (Syd Barrett reportedly dismissed stereo sound as a gimmick), and included an extra exterior sleeve and a poster.

Another release we got was David Bowie's posthumous live album Welcome to the Blackout, recorded in London, England on 30 June and 1 July of 1978. Blackout is a sequel to last Record Store Day's Cracked Actor, and, like its predecessor, is on a whopping three discs.

While it wasn't technically a Record Store Day release (it came out the day prior for its forty-fifth anniversary), one record we got was a reissue of David Bowie's Aladdin Sane on silver-colored vinyl. My mother spotted Aladdin Sane after we got the above two records, and immediately decided to bring it with us.

Lastly, we quickly decided to get an abnormally-shaped 10" 33 1/3 rotations per minute (RPM) record shaped like a Porg from the film Star Wars - The Last Jedi. The Porg featured two songs from The Last Jedi's soundtrack.

In addition to the albums, CJ got a cool swag bag with some Record Store Day giveaways.

If you want a taste of what Record Store Day looks like, check out this video posted by Easy Street of their event. (Easy Street is where we went on Friday, for CJ's birthday.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=94&v=saLo0REbJhE

All in all, our Record Store Day was a complete success, and we went home very happy with our treasures!

ON EARTH DAY: Google shared this message from Dr. Jane Goodall on Earth Day. I thought I'd share it with MPA readers.
https://youtu.be/q8v9MvManKE