The Long and the Short of It

NOW added to the endangered species list in New York City, along with independent booksellers and shoe repair: the neighborhood record store.

Quoted from the New York Times article Record Stores Fight To Be Long-Playing

I read this article about record stores dying in New York City and it made me sad.  I’ve had a lot of fun and learned a lot in record stores, and independent retailers in general, over the years.  However, these days I find myself spending less and less money in them as I acquire more digitally.  Especially being in Central America for the last 5 and a half months, where the only way to acquire media has been in the digital form.  Now however, on a two week trip back to California, I’m reliving the feeling of vitality I get when surrounded by the culture inherent in bookstores, record stores and the like and having trouble imagining a world without them.  So I guess instead I’ll imagine a world where even those who acquire mass collections of digital media will also take the time to mosie on down to their neighborhood book or record shop and spend a few bucks, which I did do yesterday at the Booksmith book store in San Anselmo, CA yesterday.