Wednesday, 13. August 2008.
Portland seems to be a very nice city. It gives you sense of being a safe place, plus it's very bike friendly and relaxed. I like it right from the start.
Ivy is at work, Simon and Nick went to the beach with Dixie, so I'm home trying to write some more of this and checking my e-mail.
I finally manage to get into the city only around 5 pm. I make myself a list of record stores and go to check them out in order of proximity.
The first one is Green Noise. I go through the 7" section quite quickly and am about to leave when a small stack of 7"s catches my attention. I ask whether these are for sale or not and the guy behind the counter says they are but they have to be priced. I ask how much for a Siege bootleg, Inside Out (NY) 7" on Noiseville and a Red London 7". I expect some high prices at least on then first two, but they're actually 4 and 3.50 dollars respectively. I get them. Once again, I'm about to leave when I notice another stack of 7". I ask whether those are for sale
and the guy says they belong to the customer who just got into the store and is selling them to the store. He lets me go through them and I set aside a Gorilla Biscuits "Safari" boot, Madball 1st 7", Walk Proud first 7", Insted 7", an older Misfits bootleg, PHC 7", Infest 7", Bad Brains 7" on Caroline and a few more classics.
The guy at the counter prices them fairly and I get all of them.
In the meantime I start chatting with the guy who is selling them and it turns out he's from the greater Los Angeles area. That explains Insted, Walk Proud, PHC, Infest,... He says he got them at the time and that sounds quite right as he looks a couple of years younger than me. We discover we know tons of people and have many mutual friends.
The sad part is that he's currently unemployed and is selling his record collection to pay bills. In the end, he's happy with the money he got, the shop assistant made some money for the store and I'm happy to have these records. However you turn it, it's a win win situation.
In the end it took the guy so long to price everything that no other record stores are open anymore.
Ivy meets me at a coffee shop next door and we have some crepes together.
She has some incredibly interesting and quite radical ideas about changing the world and helping the community. I listen and learn and hope that she finds the wherewithal to turn them into reality.