Tony is the real deal. Last summer I got a message from a stranger saying he had discovered my YouTube channel, and that he owned a record shop in Baltimore, Maryland and that he’s been making frequent record shopping trip to Japan over the last 20 or so years. He said his name was Tony and his record shop was called “Celebrated Summer Records” …(thinks to self, “Where I have I heard that name before, “Celebrated Summer”? Isn’t that a Hüske Dü tune?) Soon enough I was pursuing Tony’s online photos and getting a few glimpses of his Record Shop, […]
Tokyo Record Style
Tom Tom
I had the great fortune of working in a diner in the 90s and early 00s where people sat at the counter for hours, drinking coffee refills and doing the crosswords. Not unlike bartending, it was a kind of hard knocks education in human nature, and not just want made people tick, but what made YOU tick. Could you maintain an ongoing conversation with a regular or navigate a conversation with a (read: “every”) stranger. I never remember a time in life lacking “people” skill but my few years at the diner honed my gift gab. And it proved handy […]
Tokyo Record Style
David Sternberg
There is a certain quality that some people have, I guess you’d call it literally character, that if you have aspirations of ever writing a novel, you, when meeting these specimens, think to yourself, “Oh, here’s a good one to make a memo of. This guy’s whole being is expressive, I’m gonna base a character on this guy, in fact, I’m gonna cook up a little fictional vignette based on this very meeting, I mean after all, you can’t make up somebody or situations better than this.” David from The Little Record Store in North London was and is one […]
