I enjoyed a little bit 'o vinyl synchronicity this past weekend. It involved unusually fine weather, a used record store, beer and Brett Milano's Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting.

Order is import to this story. First up: the weather.

As reported last week, me & the wife went on a mini-vacation up to Portland, Maine. The last time we'd visited was back in mid-December for our annual Christmas shopping weekend. The weather during those couple of days was clear, crisp and unbe-fricken-lievably cold (read: "nut-chattering"). As luck would have it, last week's weather brought several days of unseasonably mild temperatures to the Northeastern United States. Being a native New Englander, I do understand that it's my duty to complain about the weather in all four seasons (summer, fall, winter, mud). However...I'm not about to start up a tale of woe about forty degrees & sunny on the last weekend of February.

So: the weather-record store connection. In December I discovered this used record store located right around the corner from our hotel. One morning we were out on a quest for postage stamps and midway between the hotel and the post office there it was: a little hole in the wall shop that looked to be chock full of vinyl goodness. The place didn't open until 11 so I vowed to make it that day's post-lunch destination. The vinyl magic never happened though as my will-to-shop was frozen solid during the twenty minute, near zero walk back to the hotel after lunch. I tell ya, you know it's cold when I pass up a chance to fondle some records.

Now, our recent spate of clear & mild allowed me to follow through on my plans. So on Friday afternoon it was off to the vinyl promised land (or so I hoped).

Fellow collectors, readers and/or worriers-for-my-sanity, I was not disappointed. The small store packed a big punch. Rows & rows of jazz obscurities, blues, rock, country, garages, psychedelia, rockabilly, avant garde, soundtracks & sound effects. I was sucked into the electronics bin where I added to my Stockhausen (gotta love a record where 'potentiometers' are listed as instruments), and Moog collection. Jazz: early Jack DeJohnette, Lester Bowie duets and a Keith Jarrett organ record. The find of the haul was a German reissue of Tom Waits' The Black Rider (on blue vinyl). Man, did I have a good time.