I the record collector....

When I was a child I loved to look through my parents records that they saved from when they were young.  The dusty, musty smell they acquire through the years, the history, the music, the size, the novelty, the album art, and the vinyl are just a few of the reasons why I love records.  I go to estate sales, garage sales, and thrift stores to find the real gems.  When I am at these places the best part is that I have no idea what it is going to sound like, so I judge the album by the year it was made, the cover, and what type of music.  The best part is that a whole album is only one dollar or less at these places.  I usually search for 60's garage, psych, surf, exotica and rock n' roll.   I do occasionally go do record stores if I know exactly what I want and if I think they will have it.  I hate buying new, re-issued lp's.  The older and rarer the record the better!  I love knowing that the records I own have been around longer then I have.  Some of the records I own have peoples names on them from the previous owners, which I love!  I just picture Pam for instance, listening to the same record as me 40 years ago, and she wrote her name on her records so they would not get lost at the crazy dance parties she attended.  When my friends and I get together we throw a stack of 45's on our record players and dance all night long!  

I am dedicated to listening to my music on vinyl, though I do have the new forms of consuming music like everyone else.  I have some CD's that I purchased because they are awesome compilations that Rhino puts out, for example Nuggets, Pebbles, and Girl Groups.  I also have an ipod so I can listen to music in my car.  If I have a rare record that I love and want it on my ipod, my boyfriend will record the album through garage band and them import it to itunes.  I do also download music from Chocoreve and Twilight Zone.  I use these sites because the downloading is free, the only restriction you can only do it once every several hours.  I believe that downloading music should be free because if I download an album or a few songs and like them then I will be on a search to find the real first issued album.  I believe that albums are a work of art.  Bands put a lot of time and effort into recording and mixing their songs to sound perfect and compile them into a perfect listening order.  Not only is the music important, the cover is important in conveying what kind of band they are.  Having the real record also has a more warm or raw sound then a downloaded version.  The added joy to records are that they are memorabilia and a novelty.  I know that some people find records a pain in the ass because they are lazy and complain about having to get up and flip the record.  I feel that records make the parties.  How fun is an ipod at a party?  You plug it in and forget about it, and forget you are listening to music.  My friends and I all get together everyone brings their favorite records and we take turn playing our tunes, talking about the music, sharing thoughts and details about the bands and of course, dance.  It just makes for a more pleasurable time.  We all wish that we were in our twenties in the 60's when music was just better!  It was a better time, and a better time makes for better music!  

Communist Party Songs!!!!

This is a "Hi- Infidelity" greeting card made to look like an LP.  Inside there is a paper record to write your message for any occasion.  There were a few different cards made in the 60's, but they were pretty rare.  I just thought this one was funny and wanted to share! 

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

The film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was produced by Stanley Kramer in 1967.  It is a truly classic movie that portrays social issues of American society in that era.  The film succeeded in breaking the tension and conflict of interracial marriage.  The movie starts with Joanna, played by Katherine Hepburn, and Dr. John Prentice, played by Sidney Poitier, getting off a plane from Hawaii.  Dr. Prentice was in Hawaii on business and met Joanna, they fell in love and were engaged to be married.  They flew back to San Francisco to get permission from her parents.  This leads viewers to believe that they are going to watch a love story but it is actually a debate about interracial marriage.  Joanna has an optimist out look and sees nothing wrong with interracial marriage because of the way she was raised.  John on the other hand wants nothing else but to be with Joanna, though he is more skeptical to what their parents will think of the matter.  Both of their parents have the same reaction to their situation, which was also the same reaction of the society at the time.  Though they only had one day to make their decision of where they stand on the interracial marriage.  Her father Mike Drayton, is a liberal and even he had to question his beliefs.  He did not ever expect his own daughter to bring a colored man home.  Though Joanna's mother reminds him that they never said, "don't ever fall in love with a colored man".  Joanna's parents both search for a reason they should not get married besides their race, but they fail.  Dr. John Prentice character was the perfect man, he was intelligent, rich, handsome and noble.  Kramer adds one scene to this movie, which is a perfect example to this.  Mr. Drayton wanted to get away from the decision making so he went with his wife to get some ice cream.  He was hoping for the same ice cream he usually gets, but instead he got a different flavor; Oregon Boysenberry.  When he took his first bite he hated it, but then he took a few more bites and started to grow on him.  This is a perfect metaphor of his new relationship with John, he might not like it at first but soon he will agree with it.  

John's parents flew in to meet their son's new love and are shocked that she is a white girl.  The parents discuss the issue they have on their hands.  The father's views reflect the beliefs of  their generations.  John refers to his father as an Uncle Tom and says,"Your generation will always think of itself as a Negro first and a man second.  I think of myself as a man."  The mother's on the other hand notice the love in their children's eyes and think back to when they were first in love.  John's mother talks with Mr. Drayton and informs him that he is opposing the marriage because he has forgotten what it is like to be in love.  This was the first logical argument he heard all day and helped him make his decision.  

May I remind you that the movie was written only a few years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.  This movie obviously represents these social issues of the United States of that period.  Interracial marriage was still illegal in some states.  This movie spoke out to those experiencing the same issue at the at that time period.  This movie is more like a piece of history, the issues Americans have dealt with and how far we have come in the world of social change.  Through a roller coaster of emotions, the movie will make you laugh and cry.  It is a must see.  You have to find out if love will overcome prejudice.   

Are they really green??

As we all know there are a lot of green products hitting the shelves and they are coming with a great marketing plan.  But are they really green?  According to Jacquelyn Ottman there are going to be some big changes this year in the world of green marketing.  She believes that green claims are going to be questioned, electronic companies will claim eco-performance, and companies will make and sell more green products.  Products are going to try to use less packaging, less energy use and reduced toxicity(no pvc or heavy metals).  They are going to be marketed to have higher performance levels, aesthetics and cost effectiveness on the front of their marketing materials, while awaiting potential greenwashing backlash.  Greenwashing  is used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.  

This article discusses that green products are Not as green as they claim to be.   For example, the sierra club named the Chevy Tahoe the "Green Car of the Year".  It is an eight-passenger car plastered with "hybrid" labels, even though it only gets 20 miles to the gallon.  The Toyota should have been named the green car of the year because it gets 46 miles to the gallon.  I do not see how they call a huge SUV a green vehicle.  Water bottles are pitched as eco friendly because of the eco-shaped bottle claiming that the manufacturer uses 30% less plastic than regular bottles because of the new shape.  I ask myself all the time, how do they get away with using terms like eco-friendly when their bottles are made using large amounts of energy, have do be transported using fossil fuels, and the bottles end up in landfills without biodegradability.  Simple Green is another product that has been around for years and is advertised as a green cleaner that is safer alternative to other cleaners.  They leave out that the key ingredient is butyl cellosolve, which is the same toxic solvent that is found in some traditional all-purpose cleaners.  

What it boils down to is that large companies are marketing their products as green when it turns out to be they are not even good for the environment, not to mention all the resources it takes to make them.  The companies have been using terms like "earth friendly", which really has no meaning.  What defines "earth friendly" and what gives these companies the right to double the selling price because of this term.  Within the next year Landor Associates estimated there will be $500 billion spent on green products.  Green products have been on the rise because of concern with global warming, but buying green will not cut close to cutting emissions.  Scot Case from Terra Choice Environmental Marketing said, there is "zero enforcement" in green marketing.  His company did a study and found that 99% of 1,018 green advertisement claims were misleading.  

I understand that companies want to make money and with global warming prevention pitching, what better way to do it.  I am for companies that are trying to design better ways to minimize resource use, but they need to look at their product from all angles.  For example, the man that made Swiffer made it to cut the water usage that goes along with mopping the floor.  What he didn't think of was that you have to throw the sheets away that are just going sit in a landfill.  I am not trying to say it is easy to design the perfect green product, it is almost impossible, but companies that wish to put out a green product should be required to qualify certain qualifications to market their products as green.