Hipster's got the fever - the vinyl fever

     So about this time last year, I had to go out to California to do a thing. While I was there, I visited the original, very cool Tower Records on Hollywood and Vine. If you haven't heard already, Tower is liquidating its stock and closing its doors forever. Bur as sad as I am, I know that vinyl lives on. L.A. still has the hipster's Mecca, a warehouse of music, movies, and poptitude called Amoeba Music. The place calls itself "the largest indie record store in the country," and brother, you'd better believe it. It's a neon pantheon in the heart of Hollywood, and you can't swing a swizzle stick in that place without hitting a bevy of great used CD's and movies, memorable concert posters, shirts, suicide girls and friendly walking encyclopedias of pop knowledge.

     But wait, there's more! Like free concerts inside the store, ala that classic of hip-pop drama, Empire Records. Imagine going down to the record warehouse to finally buy Depeche Mode's Violator on CD so you won't have to scratch the vinyl anymore, and being serenaded by my favorite new-ish band, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, live and in the flesh, as you paw through the scratch-and dent-specials. I eagerly await my next pilgrimage to this Promised Land of the Great Vinyl Gods.

     Until then, though, I can't complain about Tally's music store offerings, because I have the fever, the Vinyl Fever. Not only is this hangar bay on West Pensacola Street spilling great new and used music at the gills, but it seems to have channeled Amoeba Music's hiring mojo - the staff is hip and friendly to an extreme. Think the polar opposite of Jack Black from High Fidelity. Even better, Vinyl Fever's Web site is chock full of local artists, scene info, and recommendations that don't suck.

     And that's not all. This town's got a couple of hole-in-the-wall used CD stores that can't be beat.

     But if real vinyl - not just the metaphorical kind - is your thing, here's the best-kept secret in town: Check out Avant-Garb on the corner of Gaines and Macomb streets. The lovely keeper of this cool collectibles shop, Heather, maintains a mind-blowing stack of vintage records wayyyyyy in the back of the store. At the very least, you'll find a cool record cover to staple up as wall art, like in the bathrooms at Momo's Pizza.

     Anywhere I missed? Gosh yes, there is. Drop me a line or post a comment to share the info, all you hipster's apprentices.

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Pop! Goes the Hipster

     Hey, you. Yes, you.

     Are you hip? Do peers desperately seek out your opinion before buying the new Panic! at the Disco album, or a ninety-dollar Don Ed Hardy t-shirt with the rhinestone-studded snake tattoo monogram?

     Either way, I've got a secret to tell you: You can always be more hip.

     And that's where I come in. My father always told me that ninety percent of any job is holding people's hands. and I, dear reader, have come to hold your hand and teach you to be Bohemian by the numbers.

     Okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit. I might be just another prematurely-balding grad student in his twenties who reads The Hipster Handbook, listens to indie rock on WVFS  and thinks he knows pop culture from a hole in the wall. But for those of you who missed my column a few months back, this town is chock full of pop rocks and hip nuggets of gold. And you deserve a place in the blogosphere that polishes them down for you.

     So what's fair game in the world of the Hungry Hungry Hipster? Heck, what isn't? In the coming weeks, I will ruminate on the sights and sounds of Gaines Street, Railroad Square, Lake Ella, and maybe even Tennessee Street. I'll talk tattoos, music, cinema, lowbrow art and belly dancing, always dishing out the Big Bend's heaping helpings of each for you. And I'll occasionally fry bigger fish, like reality TV, the iPod revolution, and why we're all still upset at Facebook and YouTube.

     We might even explore the problems that come with being tragically hip, like: staying authentic and not "selling out"; spending a lot to look cheap; deciding if it's okay to work at Starbucks, Hot Topic, or All Saints forever; and determining whether metalhead dudes are permitted to date rockabilly chicks.

     However, folks, I'll need your help. I'm no evil hiptator, and I do not have perfect knowledge of Tallahassee's hiptastic splendor. So read on, and please PLEASE fill in the gaps with your postings or emails to me on local culture going "pop!"

Love,

The Hungry Hungry Hipster

P.S. Don't forget to check out USA Today online for your daily dose of Pop Candy. Whitney Matheson is my blog role model. Plus, she wears Chucks, so she must be cool.

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