Urbanite

I have just experienced what one would call, an unexpectedly delightful experience a la city living.

Purchasing a record player has been on my "When-I-Arrive-in-Boston-This-is-the-First-Thing-I-Need-to-Do List" for months, if not a year. Looney Tunes is a hole'ish in the wall'ish record store I noticed the first time I walked down Boylston St. Today, I thought I would stop by to see if they had any advice for what model player/receiver/speakers they would recommend. The place reeked of audiophile. A 50'ish man with stringy, gray hair that had not been washed in at least a week came to my aide. Luck would have it that a woman that had bought a player from them two years ago had just returned it because she was moving. Further, this man had just picked up a set of speakers that he wanted to give in the name of "community service" with hopes of enticing a young hopeful (who turned out to be myself) to begin the adventure of analog audio. The speakers belong in a late 90s LL Cool J music video and as horrible as they look, the deal (and deal maker) was just too good to refuse. It was an omen of omens. I thought it over and returned around 6:30 in the evening to pick up the goods and walk them home.

After a quick lesson in setting up analog audio, what I thought was going to be an easy 15 minute walk to the store from my apartment and back turned into a power-walk marathon. There was no way I could carry all four components at the same time (record player, receiver, two speakers)! After three trips over the course of two hours and some words of encouragement from a jovial customer wearing all purple with a rainbow headband, playing air guitar to whatever he was listening to on his worn in black headphones, I am sitting in my sparse apartment with a beautiful set up on wooden floor. Pedro the Lion's "It's Hard to Find a Friend" gloriously plays as I drink a beer and remind myself how badly I need to shower after that trek.

Sitting here, I realize two things. One how incredibly worth it that was to now be exposed to analog audio, which is so incredibly more pristine then digital and second how happenstance today's events were. Only by living in a city and not having a car would these events have unfolded the way they did and I can type to you with tired fingers that it very much so was, it very much so was.