Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Easy Way To Help Relieve Hunger

Land O'Lakes is donating $1 for every person who clicks on their web site. Go to the website listed below and on the upper right side of the screen there is the green area where it says:


"You Click, We Donate!"

Click it, and that'as all you have to do!
http://www.landolakesinc.com/company/corporateresponsibility/foundation/default.aspx


If you need, here is more info on their "Operation Co-operation" campaign, from their website:

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Still Groovy

My friend Roger, the school librarian, gave me a cool little article about vinyl records. You know, the long playing platters most cool cats used to listen to. How cool are records, now? Imagine my search for equilibrium when Roger told me the article came from that bastion of hip-ness, AARP Magazine. Yeah, I've finally caught up with the folks who rally to advance the cause of retired persons.

Roger related a chat he and I once had about my "show and tell" with kids to teach them about my passion for music. He read the following passage, and told me later, "it reminded me of you, and it was just like you said." From the article:
Even the nonlistening rituals of record ownership are burned into the memories of everyone who ever had a collection. Need proof? Head down to a music store and buy a record—most larger shops now have at least a small vinyl section. The rest will come naturally: bring the record home (on the way, I guarantee, you'll admire the cover artwork). Now slip your thumbnail into the cellophane sheath, right at the album's business end, and slide it along. Feel that flutter in your stomach as the album opens? You're remembering what it's like to access your music with a single, graceful stroke—instead of peeling, stabbing, cutting, and finally biting your way into a CD jewel case. Now slide out the inner sleeve. There she is: the proud, black thing of beauty, her label winking at you through the sleeve's center hole. As you extract the disk from the sleeve, you'll find you haven't forgotten how to hold it safely: your thumb at the ridge, the label resting on your fingers.

The part the author left out, Roger explained, was that I also related even how the smell of brand new vinyl was part of the experience. Oh, how sensory memories affect us...
It seems that about every month or so, there's another article about records, how we are buying, selling, and wanting more. They never completely went away, kids. Get this: Vinyl record sales soared 89 percent in 2008, according to Neilson Soundscan. New records by old and new artists alike are being released on vinyl. (See the chart.)

Call me grandpa, but my turntable fits in nicely as a component of my surround sound system.

Read this article, and some others, too, at the links below.