the first amoeba took a lot of my scientific learning co. money when i worked in berkeley. i was 23, had a decent salary, and had never seen a record store like amoeba in my life. a few years later they put one in the haight in san francisco. that one took even more of my money. then i moved to l.a. just in time for them to open a mecca-esque amoeba superstore. course when i lived in l.a. i had no money. perhaps there’s a baton rouge branch in the near future?

with the day to myself and christian’s car, amoeba came calling.

i foolishly put an hours worth of time in the meter thinking i wouldn’t be long. i quickly fell into that amoeba trance and lost track of time and space. suddenly i snapped out of it and realized i’d been browsing for about an hour and fifteen minutes and was only in the m’s. i had some chick hold my records and sprinted outside, this time cleaning out christian’s change compartment and loading up with two + hours.

then there’s the sad moment when you realize you’re holding two thousand dollars worth of music and only have forty to spend. this time i had to part with a gil scott heron record, yo la tengo’s ‘i can hear the heart beating as one,’ a new record by giant sand, de la soul’s ’stakes is high,’ gbv’s ‘propeller’ and ‘under the bushes, under the stars’ (i actually can’t believe i left that one behind) and several others. hurts to much to go on …

the final haul was a pristine version of van halen’s ‘fair warning’ for $6, the silver jews ‘the natural bridge,’ cedric burnside and lightnin’ malcom’s ‘two man recking crew’ and a t-shirt.

an admirable show of restraint, i think …