Category: It Happened to Me

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It Happened to Me Music

I can take “Buy a synthesizer at the Tokyo Roland Store” off my bucket list!

While in Tokyo, I had to make at a stop that I’ve always wanted to visit: Roland Store Tokyo, the flagship store of the venerable Roland, maker of all sorts of electronic music instruments.

The store is located in Harajuku, right in the middle of where Tokyo’s various youth subcultures hang out, and where tourists (admittedly including myself) come to check out all the quirky shops, especially those devoted to kawaii.

If you’re an electronic musician and in Tokyo, this store is a must-visit…

It was the last hours of our last day in Tokyo, so we were short on time. That meant that I had to stick to the main floor (the synthesizer floor), and that’s why my photos are of.

The entryway featured the hot new boutique synths of the moment:

  • The Jupiter-08, a “boutqiue-sized” digital recreation of the 1981 classic, the Jupiter 8
  • The n/vision, a “boutique-sized” wavetable synth

Both were so new that they weren’t going on sale for a couple of days. The display models were there to give prospective buyers a chance to try them out, and they sound great!

A tour of the first floor

This was a last-minute stop, and we were pressed for time, so I stayed on the main floor with the intent of maybe buying one of the “Aira” series of compact synths.

Here’s the back wall of the first floor:

A view from the back wall:

And here are the display Aira units:

There was a guy ahead of me who was trying to choose between the S-1 (which I wanted) and the J-6 (nice, but it’s more of a chord machine with less sound tweakability, and I know how to play chords).

He went with the J-6, and when it became my turn to talk to the staff, it turned out that there was one S-1 left on their stock shelves that day. I took it as a sign from the synth gods that I should buy it then and there.

At the current exchange rate, I got it for $100 cheaper than I would’ve had I bought it in the U.S., and I bought it at the mothership!

Unboxing pics

As a foreigner, I was able to buy the S-1 tax-free, but that meant that I couldn’t unbox it until I left the country. So I unboxed it and tried it out on the flight to Manila.

Following internet tradition, here are my unboxing pics…

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It Happened to Me Music

THIS is the photo that made me accept that I’m old

Why this photo?

Because the accordionist pictured above, who could easily be a stunt double for my father-in-law, is none other than Krist Novoselic, the former bassist for Nirvana, performing two years ago.

Here he is in 2023 with Geddy Lee (I would love to hang out and jam with Geddy — and hey, Krist too!):

Another pic of Krist:

By the way, it pleases me to no end that a member of Nirvana has embraced the accordion. I’m glad to be in good company.

I haven’t seen a photo of him in several years, so until today, if you mentioned his name, this picture would come to my mind:

But we all get older. In 1992, the year the photo above of young Krist was taken, this photo of young me (and the band I was in, The Dangerous Kitchen) was also taken, and I certainly don’t look like that anymore:

Here’s to getting older. It beats the alternative!

 

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It Happened to Me

A last-minute addition to tonight’s agenda

In case you hadn’t heard of it:

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Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me Music

Playing LIVE at the Honu: Saturday, September 26 at 2:30 p.m.

It’s short notice, but I got the call to play on short notice too!

I’ll be joining Tom Hood, playing good ol’ classic rock and folk tunes — him on ukulele, me on accordion, plus various other musicians — at The Honu, a fantastic tiki bar in Dunedin at 2:30 p.m.!

My plan is to show up at least an hour or more before the show to get a loco moco and an ube colada.

If you’re in the area, drop by, say hi, have a drink or some food and enjoy some tunes!

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Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

Yeah, that *might* be me…

Categories
It Happened to Me

Who sells or buys condoms at a yard sale?

“YARD SALE CONDOMS”: Collage of photos of open, half-full box of condoms at a yard sale

First, a little background…

There’s a guy who lives a short bike ride from our place who has an ongoing garage sale. It’s not on every day; just on weekends, and sometimes, the occasional weekday:His wares are set up on folding tables and shelves that seem to be set up all the time. There’s no indication that he takes them down or puts them away when he isn’t having a sale. It appears that he does cover the goods with tarps, shower curtains, and large trash bags when it rains.

The stuff is a mish-mash of household goods: mostly appliances and tools in various states of neglect or disrepair. There’s an impressive set of the rustiest drill bits I’ve ever seen. I once bought a pair of needle-nose pliers from him; they were a great deal at two bucks, and they’re hard to ruin through neglect.

And now, the condoms

Towards the back of the sale area was a set of metal shelves. Past a guitar amp that had seen better days were these items:

They they were, among a still-shrink-wrapped box of Lipton tea pages and an apparently-unopened box of face masks was an open box of Trojan condoms.

I tipped it on its side to see if it actually had condoms or something else…

Yup. Condoms. The box was half-full and appeared to have an assortment of condoms, not just the type marked on the box. Judging from the condition of the condom box and the boxes surrounding it, they’d been outside for weeks.

“Behind every item at a yard sale, there’s a story,” the saying goes. I wonder what this story was.

And because I know you’re wondering: No, I did not buy any.

He’s not the only one

Here’s a Facebook post from barely a couple of weeks ago:

Here’s one from a couple of years back:

And finally, here’s a Reddit post showcasing a vintage find:

And in case it’s not clear: Don’t buy yard sale condoms, folks.

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Editorial It Happened to Me

Be someone’s “Gary”

I have no proof that the above story happened, but I have had my own “Gary” experience back in the early 2000s, back when I lived in Toronto.

And yes, I’ll name the person and place: Joe Sacco, then-owner/manager of the pub Smokeless Joe on John Street.

Smokeless Joe, circa 2009. They moved to College Street in 2011 and closed for good in 2013.

Early August, 2002: I was sitting at the bar at Smokeless Joe, waiting to meet someone for a second date. She appeared to be running late. Fifteen minutes stretched into thirty, which stretched in forty-five. Finally, just shy of an hour after it was supposed to begin, I got a phone call. Not on my cell phone, but on the bar’s landline.

Remember, this was 2002, five years before the iPhone was even announced. Texting wasn’t easy then, and even mobile phones were still a little unusual.

My mobile phone at the time: a Kyocera 2255. I know because of this blog entry.

Think about how I’d have to pass the time back then, before the era of the smartphone. I probably chatted with the barkeep, read the menu a couple of times, and perused the local free alt-weekly papers, Eye and Now. Smokeless Joe didn’t have a TV, which is highly unusual for a bar, even back then.

The barkeep passed me the phone, and my date told me it wasn’t going to work out.

Joe must’ve been observing, because shortly after I dejectedly returned the handset, he walked over to the barkeep and whispered something in his ear. Only a moment passed before the barkeep placed a pint of stout before me, saying “Sorry she’s not coming. Joe told me to give you a couple of these, on the house.”

I cryptically wrote about it here on August 21, 2002, which was twenty-four years ago. Just thinking about what happened that day, even though almost a quarter century has passed, brings back a flood of memories, and more importantly, the feelings that went along with them. But what I’ll remember most is that act of kindness to this day. Thank you so very much, Joe!

As I wrote at the start of this post, I have no proof that the “Gary” in the review pictured above exists or that the event took place. But I know for certain that things like this have happened and can still happen.

If the opportunity ever presents itself, be someone’s “Gary”.