NATIONAL RECORD MART sign for sale

Recently, the center button of my Ipod 2 started sticking and now won't depress at all. This occurs a little less than a year after I sold off the entirety of my extensive CD collection (the Kindle made it seem alright) to the local CD Exchange. Of course, I continue to further immerse myself in collecting vinyl records as a coping mechanism for all these bad music listening decisions, so it comes as a true materialist zen moment when I stumble upon this:

I should add that I worked for NRM for five years starting in 1992, during the height of the grundge explosion. I pushed Badmotorfinger so hard, it was uncool before it was even officially released. Three nights a week and opening on weekends while studying as an undergrad, NRM was my college life, my fraternity.

NRM is, of course, a tedious acronym for Nation Record Mart, a company that fell under the same mid-90's malaise as Kentucky Fried Chicken. Please remember that by this time actual LPs were regarded as a thing of the past, just like artery clogging fast food. In fact, the music industry's demise can be directly attributed to it's inability to dictate the prevelant technology. It was the Compact Disc, not the mp3, that did in the music industry. The mp3 was merely the deathblow strike after an awkward and prohibitively costly ten year transition period from LP to CD. The disaster that was the Compact Disc went beyond obvious merchandising considerations and straight into how companies were forced to market themselves. National Record Mart is says it all, NRM Music is saying something. I had no idea at the time.

As a suburban kid in the late 70's/early 80's, landing a gig with the record mart was a validation of ones music knowledge credentials. That said, I had no idea what I was in for in terms of my education. I could never have guessed that I would work for a guy who loved the Boss, the Dead, and the Clash equally. A guy who would encourage King Sunny Ade, but let his employees in-store play Beasties, G'N'R, Pearl Jam... all the played out shit we loved. It was like a party at work everyday in some ways. The people you worked with could not be more in line with the core philosophical belief in the power of music, and if you got bitched at by a customer, take out from the Taco Bell in the food court made it feel like a party again. Store #41 was a Ticket Master outlet. In order to keep us loyal and away from scalpers, said guy from Teaneck, NJ would allow us a number of seats before the gate opened. We earned it by dealing with hostile ticket buyers all the time. There were so many perks attached to working at NRM; I sat (boogied) in the fourth row at several Phish concerts, met TLC before they hit big, learned to navigate the service hallways of the mall were Dawn of the Dead was filmed, possessed a promotional cassette copy of the aforementioned Sound Garden album 8 months before release, and boxed up the last 75 vinyl cut-outs for the scrap heap, thus truly ending an era of Monroeville Mall. The working at NRM stories go on forever.

Here's an article from the PG back in 2002 that sums things up quite nicely.

Seeing that store logo again brought back so many great memories, but that's the type of experience one can expect from going to Hannastown Fleatique in Hempfield Township, PA. It's the longest running outdoor antique show in the country, and it's were famous hoarder Andy Warhol would gather cool stuff to load into the lower floors of his NYC brownstone. I inquired about the price and got $275, and not much else on the history of the object. Apparently former NRM employees inundate these type of pop-ups, and the seller had grown tired of the tale.  It's not a complete sign, so I didn't bite, but I suppose the rest of it could be fabricated cheaply enough. With this type of thing it's a space consideration, not a money consideration. Also, it's a Do I want to hire an electrician so I don't kill myself trying to install a utility electrical line in my living room?-type consideration.

So, the NRM signage is still out there, for you weirdo CD collectors trying to do up the communal space right. CD collectors are the 8-Track collectors of the future. Vinyl is the new hard-copy format of choice. National Record Mart, however, remains a thing of the past.

Love for The Temple Of Doom

 Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom is my favorite of the four films. It does what a proper sequel should, which is give you more of what you like about the first film, while being something unique and unto itself. Temple of Doom does this. It's got it's own atmosphere, the other two films are just rehash.

 

One thing I remember coming away from seeing this movie, besides being supremely satisfied with my visit to the 1930's, was the realization that there wasn't going to be anymore Star Wars films. I knew the SW story was told in full, yet it wasn't until Temple of Doom that the reality hit home. In this way, Temple of Doom becomes one of my first adult experiences. 

Celebrating a 30 year old film from my youth is kind of depressing. Then again, movies like this one are one of my life's guide posts. Watching Harry Ford take the amount of physical abuse that he does really puts my own aches and pains into perspective. They don't make movies the way they used to, that's for sure.

The truth is, when you make a comment like that (They don't make...) you're really acknowledging that your own time has passed. The experience if seeing this film on the big screen is a distant memory, even if the film itself remains timeless

Anatomy of a Thing

I've been in the habit of offering a small token of thanks when set up and selling at organized events or online, usually being a small rubber or plastic bulk monster or robot toy such as you'd find in a party supply store. Cool, colorful trinkets in keeping with my theme of late 70's/early 80's awesomeness. They are something I can offer to someone just for stopping at my table and they help make the event a better experience for everyone.

Six years ago I found a huge bag of brightly colored plastic Gundam figures that I couldn't pass up, although I was never sure of what to do with them until recently when the local party store, Paper Mart, closed it's doors forever. Up until that point I would toss a few in a shipping box, or leave them on my table in a small candy dish with a sign saying "Take One". I've dispersed these guys over the years and have a finite number left. They are a diminishing resource so it's important that they be fully utilized before they're gone forever!



The venerable Paper Mart is closed after thirty years. I guess the kids didn't want to go up against Wal-Mart and Target anymore. It was a big groovy place with cards, gift wrap, novelties, and tons of Steelers stuff all year round. At one time I would have gone there to rummage for Star Wars supplies, another for Halloween stuff. Yet at another point in life I would have bought everything glow I could find, but those stories aren't appropriate for this blog. This time, my last time, I went to Paper Mart and found several bags of small, jiggly, squishy dinosaur toys, perfect for my Gundams to fight, and priced next to nothing.



I now understood what need to be done with my remaining Gundams. They would each be bagged with a rubber dinosaur in a claustrophobic struggle for survival which would also serve as a contact point. So, I created some header card art; I used Copic markers and took some liberties with the designs, then cleaned it up and added background and additional layout on the computer. I think the results capture the fun atmosphere I was going for.



Then comes the tedious assembly portion of this project. Once I got to putting the things together and discovered that the dinosaurs were so stretchy that any 'bot could ride one, (plus they fit into the bag more easily,) it became a lot more enjoyable. Dino Riders redux?





The result is a freebie I'm most proud of. While the concept stands well enough of it's own, through happy accident the various color combinations serve as tribute to so many great, classic toys and characters. The appropriation of various properties and the packaging might be borderline keshi. I can only hope the kan (editor: Sans ji ) translates to "Thank You" but that's part of the fun (editor: It loosely translates to "Positive". Win!) I included contact info and formatted the card to fit in a business card holder. The creation is totally fun and functional, and I like to think it's a pretty cool, real world way to stay on the radar of the collectors I do business with.




Anyhow, I'll be making more of these things throughout what is looking like a busy summer show schedule. Please let me know if you get one and which favorite toy it reminds you of. So much of why people select whichever one they do depends on personal history, and we here at MZ are all about sharing the toy collecting experience!

Straub Beer... Mmmmmm!

"Please Return"

Something totally unique to the Pittsburgh region is Straub 16oz returnables. Not only is Straub the second oldest brewery in the U.S., they are also the only brewery anywhere in the states still offering returnables. It's cheaper than Pabst and as fresh as anything poured into a growler, and there's something nice about filling your pint glass to the rim with just one bottle (that will not break.) It's sustainable, but Hipsters don't know this exists. You won't find this on any bourgeois white kid's "20 Things About Pittsburgh" list. This is how your great granddad brought home his beer, which makes it pretty effin' cool. In a throwaway society that can only pretend to respect tradition it does not get any more real than this. Quaff!

Pumpkinhead (twentyfive years later)

Back in 1988 a genre geek teenager was likely to rent every available VHS tape available. In most rental outlets the selection amounted to a hundred or so titles, featuring mainstays like Star Wars and Halloween, and then a constantly revolving B movie roster featuring the likes of Battle Beyond The Stars and Sleepaway Camp. It is within this din of the mid-80's home video explosion that a new breed of direct to video films would emerge, and at the forefront of this new concept in home entertainment was a gnarly low budget scary movie called Pumpkinhead.



Basically a morality play, Pumpkinhead rises above it's "teens partying in the woods" foundations to be able to make several astute cultural observations aiding to the betterment of the story. When a fatal accident pushes a family man to despair, he uses his hillbilly connections to contract the local folklore to exact revenge. Thus, the story unfolds.

VIEWING PUMPKINHEAD

I wasn't impressed after viewing Pumpkinhead upon initial home video release.  It was a combination of the, then, prevalent rock video production mentality (which pretty much stains every movie from 1987 to the mid-90's),) and the fact that the film breaks one of the cardinal rules of horror movies in that it shows too much of the monster too soon. Apart from that, this was also a time in which there was a stigma attached to the film in being a direct to video release. Sure, there's probably some thirty something in California rolling his/her eyes as he/she reads this, but to the rest of the world this movie came out of nowhere and kind of didn't make sense in terms of it's importance. Sure, it was previewed in Fangoria like a real movie, but it never appeared at any local Carmike that I ever heard about. Sure, you have big names like Stan Winston and Lance Henrickson attached, but somehow watching Direct to Video in the mid-west back then felt like what watching a made for TV movie. Mostly, the movie's folksy charm bored me. We had seen a thousand teenagers get picked off in the darkened woods by that time, and the creature was already seen and done better in Aliens, and whatever fresh and original that this movie was bringing was lost on me.

The thing is, there is nothing fresh or original about Pumpkinhead. Pumpkinhead is a classic back-to-basics monster movie that relies on building a certain atmosphere rather than coasting along on modern horror movie cliches, and that is the reason it is so much fun to watch. It is done up in all the style that could be offered at the time, however goofy it might seem now. Being the product of the era, a really good story about the high cost of supernatural revenge is cluttered with all the trappings of excessive late 80's film making technique, however, the cheesy MTV lighting and Background Rock soundtrack begin to present a certain charm all these years later. Henrickson's stand alone leading man performance paves the way for Millenium, and Winston's FX house is firing on all cylinders bringing the nifty creation to life. The characterizations, while still archetypal, are slightly more complex than your typical late 80's scream feature, as is the overall concept and story. There is something real about the environment in which Pumpkinhead takes place, and the Razorback Hollow back story could not be more intriguing. It is all much more satisfying than most of what the big studios were churning out at the time. It's basically a modern masterpiece of macabre, and it's just in time for Halloween. For the twenty fifth time.

Fast Forward a quarter century and Pumpkinhead warrants further review. In fact, it's a wonder this film hasn't evolved into a lightly-edited (for language) basic cable holiday workhorse. There's no reason multiple generations of ten year old boys haven't made a ritual of watching this movie in the safe company of family and friends around this time of year, for the past several decades. Pumpkinhead is a film that has aged exceptionally well, and feels more like a Universal Monsters movie then it's slasher flick rip-off  brethren could ever hope to aspire. Dr. Giggles has his place as long as he knows to stand up when Pumpkinhead enters the room.

To Flea, or not to Flea?

Definitely, To Flea.

I've had some good luck when scouring the local flea market scene for unique and obscure treasures. Recent weekends are no exception.

I snagged these two classics for a measly ten dollars. It was one of those moments that I had to be consciously aware of my poker face at all times during the transaction.

Then of course I proceeded along with a hop, skip, and a jump to yet an even more intriguing purchase.

 

Yes, that's a bootleg  Takara Micro Man Cosmic Fighter, possibly even (?) utilizing restocked merchandise. There are a few things that differentiate it from any previously released version of this toy, first and foremost being that it doesn't come with a figure. This would be a bummer if the cockpit canopy weren't all chrome and sealed shut, thus rendering the issue irrelevant. Upon closer inspection you will see that there are several other accessories that are no longer present, otherwise this could be the real thing, even including what appears to be the actual Takara Micro Man decals and sticker sheet. The motorized and projectile features are there, and the tank tread is not to be mistaken with anything ever produced by Playmates. It swaps out easily with my other Micro Man toys, and it is seriously fun to play with!

I bought it for thirty bucks after talking the lady down from her original fifty, so, yes; the flea is still a place to kick collecting ass all these years later.

SPOILER!- Marvel Studios announces another obscure superhero appearing in the upcoming Guardian of The Galaxy movie!