[Update: with new intel I figured out this is Marlon Dela Cruz! The plot thickens. More to come! Stay tuned!]
…so this update is that because I couldn’t find any notes made in my encounter memos for Marlon, and because I remember that he told me that the Record Store scene in Manila was quite small and that he was personally connected to one of the shop, I took the liberty to look up “Best” and “Oldest” “Record Shops in Manila, and for any one that had an instagram page (I fond about a dozen), I planned to write to them each with a short message saying, “Hello from Tokyo, and sorry to trouble you. I am looking for a needle in a haystack! I met this record-collector from Manila in Tokyo not long ago and made his photo for my blog, Tokyo Records Style. I had a friendly encounter with him but lost his contact details. I’m hoping to identify him and so I can reach out to him, write a story about our encountet, and tag him, etc. If I sent you the photos, do you think could help identify him?” First off all, nearly ever one of the first 4 or 5 record stores I wrote to replied within minutes: “Happy to help, let me see the photos!” And before I could even reply to photos to them all, wouldn’t you know it, in the first or second reply I got, from Bear’s Den Records, was a note saying “Oh! That’s Marlon, he’ll be back in Tokyo soon!” BOOM! I found him! THANK YOU, Bear’s Den and all the cool record shops in Manila who were so willing to help. So Marlon and I reconnected, and yes, he’ll be back in Tokyo very soon, and if we’re lucky, on Tokyo Records Style again. As I keep saying, “The world gets smaller through music!”
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”
I feel a little bit like Roy Batty cuz for I’ve seen so many records you wouldn’t believe in japan, met and photographed characters that glittered on the streets of Tokyo, but some of those memories (read: chicken scratch notes) made in haste that make no sense 6 months later, will be lost in time, like tears in rain, as I post the the next couple of Tokyo Record Style subject. Lovely characters who I only hope follow me and will see themselves and say “HEY THAT’S ME!”
Trying my best to recollect, this cool cat was from Manila in the Philippines. I met him at Garageville records in Tsutsujigaoka as he was having a beer on the shop’s couch. He, shopkeeper Yasu, and I all chatted each other about the record store scenes in Tokyo and Manila. He told me he worked in some capacity with one of the oldest shops in Philippines, and having been to the Philippines myself with a desire to return some day, I pressed him to tell me more but for some reason he was a bit secretive, suggesting that it was some sort of buried treasure of bounty, and better if known only by those IN the know. I guess I wasn’t worthy. But I can’t blame the guy, after all, he had cool glasses, an amazing coiffe, and undeniably good taste in music. So I just had to accept the fact that I’d have to find this Manila honey-hole on my own.
Dude from Philippines, hope you’re out there and the record gods are smiling upon you! Thanks for posing for Tokyo Record Style and for the nice chat with Yasu and I at Garageville! Hope to meet you again the next time you are in Tokyo! Until then, I guess “sometimes you gotta be a stranger.”
Tom Waits – Blue Valentine
Label: Asylum Records – 6E-162
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo, SP – Specialty Pressing, Gatefold
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Jazz, Blues, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Piano Blues, Electric Blues
https://www.discogs.com/release/851596-Tom-Waits-Blue-Valentine
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