{"id":7896,"date":"2012-03-07T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=7896"},"modified":"2013-08-23T19:05:50","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T23:05:50","slug":"my-former-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/07\/my-former-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"MY FORMER IDENTITY"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

When I got<\/strong><\/span> rid of my LP record abums, my friend Carl said, \u201cHow can you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The LPs were heavy, for one thing.\u00a0 And I hadn\u2019t listened to them in 20 years.\u00a0 “Carl, in 10 years I might not be\u00a0 able to physically pitch them, ” I\u00a0 said.\u00a0 “I\u2019ll be pointing at each one from my La-Z-Boy and making my kids choose between Bob Dylan and Charlie Parker.\u00a0 So I\u2019m doing it now for my kids\u2019 sake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I could have put my records on the treelawn (Cleveland-
\nspeak for the grass strip by the curb). \u00a0 I could have taken the LPs to a record store.\u00a0 Or a record store could come to me.<\/p>\n

A record store<\/strong><\/span> came to me. \u00a0 Pete the Record Guy showed up at my house.<\/p>\n

\"\"Just prior to Pete, Carl took five LPs for a wall montage.\u00a0 He liked Coltrane Plays the Blues<\/em>, Volunteers<\/em> by Jefferson Airplane, and Archie Shlepp\u2019s Four for Trane<\/em> — all good cover art.\u00a0 Carl, a roots-music maven, said I was in the top 5 percent of respectable record collections.<\/p>\n

My record collection was my former identity.\u00a0 It was my Facebook persona, circa 1975.<\/p>\n

I found a receipt in a Stuff Smith Black Violin<\/em> album — $1.50 from Mole’s. \u00a0 Where was Mole\u2019s?\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember.\u00a0 [It was on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights.]<\/p>\n

\"\"

Harvey Pekar<\/p><\/div>\n

Harvey Pekar<\/strong><\/span> used to rifle through my albums.\u00a0 The only album he ever wanted was my Charlie Parker Memorial Album,<\/em> Vogue Records, England, 1956. \u00a0I didn\u2019t sell it to Harvey.\u00a0 I figured, If Pekar wants the record that badly, it must be worth something.<\/p>\n

I checked on the Charlie Parker<\/em> Memorial<\/em> on the Internet.\u00a0 Today it’s worth \u00a35.40 to an Englishman on eBay.\u00a0 That\u2019s about $9.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 Pekar was always into small numbers.<\/p>\n

My kids didn\u2019t want my albums.<\/p>\n

I wanted<\/strong><\/span> to play Lenny Bruce’s \u201cLima, Ohio\u201d bit (from The Best of Lenny Bruce<\/em>) for Carl, but I didn\u2019t have a record player handy.\u00a0 Carl said, \u201cIt\u2019s probably on YouTube.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right.\u00a0 That’s why I got rid of my records.<\/p>\n

Pete the Record Guy went through my albums three times.\u00a0 Adi\u00f3s Aretha Live at the Fillmore<\/em> West<\/em>, John Handy\u2019s Carnival<\/em>, Paul Butterfield . . .<\/p>\n

Let it go.<\/p>\n

Three-hundred<\/strong><\/span> dollars from Pete for 100 records.\u00a0 Not bad.\u00a0 Pete didn\u2019t care about the condition of the records.\u00a0 \u00a0Pete said young kids \u2013- his main customers — \u201cwon\u2019t buy the reissue LPs, they want the originals, like yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"I said, \u201cWhat jumped out at you? Is there any album worth 90 percent of what you paid me?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cI like your two Fred Neil’s, Everybody’s Talkin’<\/em> and Sessions<\/em>.\u00a0 You don\u2019t see those often.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me take a photo.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry, Pete, I\u2019m not taking the records back.\u201d<\/p>\n

—-
\nSIDE B<\/strong><\/big> <\/span>
\n(This flip side is a little something extra for readers arriving\u00a0on the A train from <\/small><\/em>New York Times Square. Northerners, let’s trash the Sun Belt . . .)<\/em><\/p>\n

ATLANTA: NOT SO HOT<\/strong><\/big><\/big><\/p>\n

Atlanta is not<\/strong><\/span> far enough south for some Atlantans. Right next to the Atlanta airport is a billboard \u201cBeach Bummed?\u201d Meaning, go to Florida.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Atlanta isn\u2019t very good for sunbathing unless you want to tan your left elbow in traffic for several hours.<\/p>\n

I was at Atlanta airport, going through nine time zones to get to my gate.\u00a0 The TSA clerk, glancing at my ticket, said, \u201cSo you\u2019re going back to beautiful Cleveland?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, sir,<\/strong><\/span> and it\u2019s a lot better than Atlanta.\u00a0 (I didn\u2019t say anything.)\u00a0 Cleveland is not Paris — or Pittsburgh, for that matter — but it\u2019s a step up from a Southern-sprawl traffic crawl.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to Atlanta this month for a family bat mitzvah, and I have a summer gig there with Yiddishe Cup.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been to the Coke Museum twice.\u00a0 Is there a rum-and-Coke museum in Atlanta?\u00a0 If so, where?<\/p>\n

—
\n Atlanta relatives, nothing personal!<\/em><\/small>
\n—<\/span>
\nMy best writing is <\/span> “The Landlord’s Tale”<\/span><\/a><\/span> in the latest City Journal<\/em>.\u00a0 Please check it out. \u00a0 Must read long amusing essay about real estate now!<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I got rid of my LP record abums, my friend Carl said, \u201cHow can you do that?\u201d The LPs were heavy, for one thing.\u00a0 And I hadn\u2019t listened to them in 20 years.\u00a0 “Carl, in 10 years I might not be\u00a0 able to physically pitch them, ” I\u00a0 said.\u00a0 “I\u2019ll be pointing at each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,21,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coming-of-age","category-on-the-road","category-pekar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7896"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16235,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7896\/revisions\/16235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}