Jonny Numb

For a myriad of reasons/excuses, I have been unable to do a proper update of all the physical media I’ve added to my collection over the past couple weeks.

So this post will be a veritable tornado of pictures (and stories) of items acquired and from whence they were acquired.

Enjoy!

Back in May, me and my partner took a day off for business (closing out one of her father’s bank accounts) and pleasure (walking around downtown York – perusing the shops, getting some lunch, and taking note of all that had changed since we worked there).

Once we parted ways with her father, we made our way out to Mothership Records, which, ironically, inhabits the same storefront that used to belong to Flying Feet (an independent shoe store our family shopped at when I was in elementary and high school).

My partner stayed in the car, occupying herself with a book, while I combed through the shelves and bins of CDs (including a bunch of boxes located underneath the elevated vinyl racks). After scanning through their selection in as expedient and efficient a manner possible, I walked out with a nicely varied stack.

This post will jump around in time, place, and…SPACE (echo echo echo!) a lot. Try to keep up.

On June 3, me and Lizard traveled to Philly for the Sisters of Mercy show at The Fillmore. Deciding to make a day of it, we first stopped on South Street to hit two of our favorite shops.

Mostly Books on Bainbridge Street lives up to its name – yes, it’s “mostly books,” but you can find DVDs, CDs, odd memorabilia (an old Simpsons calendar hangs behind the checkout, and is for sale!), and even a selection of VHS tapes on their somewhat charmingly chaotic shelves.

I inevitably leave with a stack of books that will be added to my ever-growing “to be read” pile, and some movies, as well.

As an aside: for the DVDs/Blu-rays, Mostly Books does the “empty case on the sales floor; disc located behind counter” method of theft prevention. When I was previously at the store back in March, they were unable to locate the disc for Punishment Park. This time, they were unable to find their copy of Cheerleader Camp. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I’d neglected to see the $40 price tag adorning the case for this out-of-print Anchor Bay release.

(Oh, and the Sisters of Mercy show was good, though Andrew Eldritch’s vocals were a hot mess pretty much the entire time. Nice to see A Primitive Evolution live again, though.)

On that note, here is the haul from Digital Underground, our second and final stop on that day’s South Street tour.

The LYE and A Primitive Evolution discs were procured at the Sisters of Mercy show.

I’ve noted elsewhere that one of the upsides of going into the (physical) office once a week is the opportunity to check out the random items for sale outside the Tru Value on 2nd Street. You can find all sorts of oddities procured from their hauling/cleanout service (mostly furniture and knickknacks), but my attention inevitably goes to the dual-layered bin of DVDs next to the curb. For a buck apiece, this is a low-risk way to add titles to your collection (even if the disc is beat-up or unplayable, it’s still only a buck).

Yes, Ulli Lommel’s Zodiac Killer is one of the worst movies ever made, and inaugurated the largely terrible, mid-’00s trend of cheap, direct-to-video serial-killer biopics. But as I am on a highly questionable quest to collect the late Mr. Lommel’s latter-day disasterpieces, I couldn’t leave it sitting there for some unsuspecting victim! (Fun Fact: Zodiac Killer actually hit shelves before David Fincher’s Zodiac was released to theaters.)

In addition to the small stack-o-movies, I noticed a couple framed posters resting against the alcove leading to the store entrance. All were black and white, and I’m honestly not sure if any were actually legitimate, but this one looked fine enough for me to bring home…

Pardon my legs…and Coraline in the lower-left corner.

I like checking out new (to me) places, and even more so when they exist mere minutes from where I live. So I took time on a recent Saturday to walk through Funky Finds and Grinds in Lemoyne. Following the format of an antiques mall (every booth has its own specific focal points – vintage housewares; comics; video games, etc.), the single-level space offered a diverse collection of items.

That said, I of course got hung up on the CD offerings…

I picked up the Saturday Night Kids album based solely on its hilarious song titles. (As an aside, the Cypress Hill album was not acquired at Funky Finds…but I was too lazy to take a second photo.) (And, as another aside: Milla Jovovich is a very underrated singer.)

Something I enjoy about yard sales is the unpredictability of what you will find – some may be a bust-out for your interests, while others might hold a vast assortment of riches.

For a number of years now, I’ve been a supporter of Loving Care Cat Rescue, a nonprofit, no-kill shelter that takes in and adopts out felines, giving them the necessary vetting before going to their forever homes. I’ve had cats since early childhood, so seeing kitties get a new lease on life is a subject close to my heart.

For the past several years, LCCR has held an early-summer yard sale where all the proceeds go toward the cats in their care. The items range from household appliances, kitchenware, knickknacks, furniture, and holiday decor.

At this year’s sale (held on June 10), I found 3 boxes of DVDs under one of the tables. I’m not sure where they came from, but it seemed like every other disc was in its original shrink-wrap.

Deliverance, Cat Ballou, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were all sealed.

My partner found some blankets to donate to her favorite local dog rescue, and I also picked up some picture frames, a pair of ice-cube trays (in their original package), and one of those fake-out soda cans that can be used to “hide” small items (I’m going to use it as a coin bank).

At the end of May, we found ourselves in Hanover for an early dinner at the Famous Hot Weiner, which was followed by a short walk to the Black Rose antiques mall. While following the same vendor-specific model as Funky Finds and Grinds, this store is much bigger – you could easily whittle away a whole day if you looked at every booth in detail.

It had been years since I’d been to the Black Rose, and remembered few of its offerings outside of – rather predictably – a section that housed a mess of vinyl and DVDs. As me and my partner wandered around in a daze, our synapses firing from all the overwhelming overstimulation, I came across the music-and-movie mecca, which was spread out across maybe 10 industrial bookshelves.

I had been looking for that out-of-print Deadsy album at a decent price, so I made the “oooooh!” sound when I found it. Yes, that is the soundtrack to Michael Mann’s Thief, but I’m not sure of the “live” qualifier – it sounds like a studio recording to me. And the sound quality on that Louis Armstrong CD is so bad in spots that it made me motion sick (may seek out a remastered release elsewhere).

The CDs were pretty well-organized, but the movies (mostly DVDs, but some Blu-rays) seemed to go in and out of a haphazard alphabetical order. There were also some sections split out by genre.

Vanishing Point was sealed (and a blind buy). The New Mutants is better than its reputation and production history would suggest. Problem Child is a classic from my childhood (even if the DVD is full-screen). I’m sure Steve Miner’s Day of the Dead remake is terrible, but it has Mena Suvari, Ving Rhames, and AnnaLynne McCord(!) in the cast, so I have to watch it at least once. And I remember hating Guns Akimbo for a myriad of reasons, but I find Samara Weaving a consistently interesting presence in movies I otherwise dislike (Mayhem; Ready or Not; Babylon; Scream VI…the list goes on), so maybe I’ll dig it on a second spin?

And last but not least, I made a recent pilgrimage to Extremities Entertainment, my favorite physical-media shop in Centra PA. It’s an hour away, but always worth the drive. They offer more-than-fair trade credit for your items, and their inventory fluctuates on a weekly basis.

While EE has a healthy vinyl section, CDs and DVDs/Blu-rays are their dominant stock. As chain stores like Best Buy, Target, and even Wal-Mart downsize (or outright eliminate) their physical-media sections, independent stores have become oases for people who prefer non-digital options.

This is as good an illustration as any of the diversity of EE’s selection – from indie finds like Meek’s Cutoff and Keane, to mainstream fare like Hostiles and Bachelor Party. The Batman: The Animated Series Blu-ray set presented another “ooooooh!” moment, as it was something I had had my mind set on. The Bloody Judge and the MST3K discs were all in their original shrink-wrap.

Boasting probably the largest CD selection of any of the shops in this post, rummaging through the boxes and bins (and boxes on top of bins and boxes) offers collector types the thrill of the hunt: holding your hand at a certain angle to block out the glare from the overhead lighting as you scan the spines for a gap in your collection or a long-out-of-print surprise.

While EE specializes in heavy metal, they maintain a solid selection of other musical genres, as well. During another recent visit, I plucked albums by Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Chet Baker from their Jazz section.

Anyway, all this physical-media talk has left me exhausted. Time to go watch and/or listen to some of this stuff…

Until next time, my fellow scavengers!