One of the local funky little music stores, Ear Xtacy, went out of business this week.  It’s in the Highlands, which is about as hippie as you get in Louisville.  I’ve been in there a few times, and it was a throwback to the days when you had to go somewhere off the beaten path to get good music.

One of the few upshots of moving to California during high school was being able to go to Berkeley* and spend a few hours at Rasputin Records.  It was the first place I heard Nirvana, Green Day, and a bunch of other music that you don’t get in suburbia, both new and old.  The guys who worked there usually looked like they’d stepped right out of Woodstock.  I think they made as much money on tee-shirt and poster sales as they did on selling vinyl, but it was one of my favorite places as a teenager.  There’s something about just flipping through albums to find something that you haven’t heard before that you just don’t get from iTunes.

Of course, with the advent of digital music, these places are starting to become rarer and rarer.  One good thing is that a lot of music that never got past these little places is accessible to a wider audience.  The bad thing is that there are fewer places for small bands to get a toehold.

If you all will excuse me, I’m going to go see if I can find the turntable and listen to that old Hendrix album I’ve got around here somewhere.

*What can I say?  Telegraph Avenue was a lot of fun back then once you got past the politics.

Apparently, the Occupy Wall Street crowd in New York is really having an impact.  Unfortunately, it’s impacting the small businesses around their little people’s paradise and the people who are employed in them.

Marc Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall Street in lower Manhattan, said he had to cut 21 of the 97 members of his staff on Thursday and Friday after seeing sales plummet by 30 percent in the six weeks since the protests began. He’s also been forced to slash the restaurant operating hours, moving up his closing time from 9 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays

So a protest movement that’s supposed to be sticking it to the man has taken food off the tables of 21 families, and made it likely that 78 more will be poorer by the time they’re through.  


Way to go guys!  Nothing takes down capitalism like making sure that people who are hustling to keep a roof over their heads can’t keep their jobs.  Hey, if you work really hard, maybe you can drive all of the small businesses in the area out and then you’ll have a place to crash this winter.


Update – Looks like the folks out in Oakland are bracing for a general strike on Wednesday.  I’m sure all of the hourly employees of the small businesses that are staying closed out of concern for security and safety will enjoy being short a day’s pay.  

I saw the news today of the passing of William the Coroner.  I met him at the NRA convention in Pittsburg this spring, and have enjoyed reading his writings ever since.

William, thank you for your humor, your insight, and for the happiness you brought with you wherever you went.  We are diminished by your absence.