I remember the book stores of Harvard Square would share a printed map, which showed all the other book stores within walking distance. 27 is indeed the # I recall being displayed. Seemed amazing even then. The banks will never consider this same kind of promotion!
I have tried to express the loss of human scale and interaction, expression, communication I feel with these shops going away with little of kind to replace them. Craft breweries? Not the same thing, really. I get called an aging nostalgic -- by my children no less. 1989, graduated college (in Ohio). Moved to Davis Square, Somerville. Immediately hired at Wordsworth (picture 4, Citizens Bank above). Typical day? T to Harvard Square > day at Wordsworth stocking, recommending, receiving recommendations from, selling books to all sorts of people I'd never otherwise meet (Wallace Shawn!) and working with teachers, arts critics, musicians, future authors (Jhumpa Lahiri!) > knock off work > browse and buy a few unheard gems at Mystery Train > turkish coffee at the café above Brattle Square Theater and then downstairs for a double feature (Godard/screwball comedy) before taking the T back to Davis (oh, maybe catch the Horseflies at Johnny D's at the end of my block). Serendipity at every step of this daily journey/routine doesn't seem to have found an analogous replacement, in my life at least. And the lives of the artists I worked with and incrementally supported and received sustenance from – also gone. I moved in 1991 to Minneapolis-St. Paul. I had a similar experience here. I'm inspired to look at the same degradation of this culture here (although there's a resurgence of record shops, one rep movie house, two surviving bookstores) through the same lens you've ground here. And, as I'm weaning from Spotify and embracing BandCamp where I browse as similarly as I can muster as I did at Mystery Train (or Salem's Record Exchange where I'd buy directly from Barrence Whitfield some Saturdays), I'm apprehensive to hear your news about "ownership" of that community. Sigh. Thanks for helping me be a more intentional consumer, fan, friend of life-enriching artists. Oh, I forgot, one of the greatest joys of my record buying life? Finding series number 313 (my birthday) of the blue vinyl 45 of Tugboat/King of Spain at, I think, Newbury Comics (yeah I know...) in, what, 1988? I guess that brings this full revolution.
Businesses don't seem to exist for the same reasons in the modern age and that saddens me - it seems the ambitions of most modern start-ups isn't to build a business but to build a product that can be sold - it's why it's heartbreaking to see - last.fm, delicious, tweetdeck, songkick, upcoming, flickr ... services you could love when you thought the people who owned/ran them had the same ideals and ambitions as you but can't when their priorities lay elsewhere.
Maybe I'm naive to want an internet full of "family run businesses" whose primary focus is its customer? Maybe capitalism killed that a long, long, time ago. Maybe it was always a pipe-dream.
This is great, if bittersweet, Damon. I was wondering: if The Million Year Picnic is included, does New England Comics count as well? It's at 14A Eliot St.
Great piece! Are you doing CD shops? There was a used CD shop on Church next to current Sinclair / Clock shop. And there was a subterranean one on JFK near Shay’s, same side of street. You may have posted photos of these already that I didn’t recognize? -mk
I think you're on to something very important and under-discussed. I won't try to articulate exactly what or why. This book called Scale by Santa Fe Institute head and physicist Geoffrey West discusses the question of why and how things scale; what seems incomplete from his account is something like what you point at here: If there are returns to scale, should we ever stop? Is scale always good? What scales? What is the relation of the human to scale? What does scale *feel* like, culturally? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/business/dealbook/geoffrey-west-scale-the-universal-laws-of-growth-innovation-sustainability.html
For what it's worth, the sad trombone Armageddon Shop is really tops for all things heavy, and they run their own little label, too, which puts out some stellar stuff (lots of which I was first exposed to on Bandcamp). In an age where anything is available at any time to anyone, curation becomes a true differentiator. So many of the bookshops and record stores I have loved are gone, but many of the ones who've stuck it out have narrow focuses, cult-like followings, and no ambition to scale.
I remember the book stores of Harvard Square would share a printed map, which showed all the other book stores within walking distance. 27 is indeed the # I recall being displayed. Seemed amazing even then. The banks will never consider this same kind of promotion!
I have tried to express the loss of human scale and interaction, expression, communication I feel with these shops going away with little of kind to replace them. Craft breweries? Not the same thing, really. I get called an aging nostalgic -- by my children no less. 1989, graduated college (in Ohio). Moved to Davis Square, Somerville. Immediately hired at Wordsworth (picture 4, Citizens Bank above). Typical day? T to Harvard Square > day at Wordsworth stocking, recommending, receiving recommendations from, selling books to all sorts of people I'd never otherwise meet (Wallace Shawn!) and working with teachers, arts critics, musicians, future authors (Jhumpa Lahiri!) > knock off work > browse and buy a few unheard gems at Mystery Train > turkish coffee at the café above Brattle Square Theater and then downstairs for a double feature (Godard/screwball comedy) before taking the T back to Davis (oh, maybe catch the Horseflies at Johnny D's at the end of my block). Serendipity at every step of this daily journey/routine doesn't seem to have found an analogous replacement, in my life at least. And the lives of the artists I worked with and incrementally supported and received sustenance from – also gone. I moved in 1991 to Minneapolis-St. Paul. I had a similar experience here. I'm inspired to look at the same degradation of this culture here (although there's a resurgence of record shops, one rep movie house, two surviving bookstores) through the same lens you've ground here. And, as I'm weaning from Spotify and embracing BandCamp where I browse as similarly as I can muster as I did at Mystery Train (or Salem's Record Exchange where I'd buy directly from Barrence Whitfield some Saturdays), I'm apprehensive to hear your news about "ownership" of that community. Sigh. Thanks for helping me be a more intentional consumer, fan, friend of life-enriching artists. Oh, I forgot, one of the greatest joys of my record buying life? Finding series number 313 (my birthday) of the blue vinyl 45 of Tugboat/King of Spain at, I think, Newbury Comics (yeah I know...) in, what, 1988? I guess that brings this full revolution.
Businesses don't seem to exist for the same reasons in the modern age and that saddens me - it seems the ambitions of most modern start-ups isn't to build a business but to build a product that can be sold - it's why it's heartbreaking to see - last.fm, delicious, tweetdeck, songkick, upcoming, flickr ... services you could love when you thought the people who owned/ran them had the same ideals and ambitions as you but can't when their priorities lay elsewhere.
Maybe I'm naive to want an internet full of "family run businesses" whose primary focus is its customer? Maybe capitalism killed that a long, long, time ago. Maybe it was always a pipe-dream.
This is great, if bittersweet, Damon. I was wondering: if The Million Year Picnic is included, does New England Comics count as well? It's at 14A Eliot St.
You forgot revolution book
Shout out to Planet Records, you didn’t mention it’s former location; it’s also still open but a few blocks down Mt. Auburn Street.
Mandrake Books on Story Street closed back in the 1990s. For a few years I worked a shitty job for Harvard in the same space. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/30/us/irwin-rosen-93-harvard-square-bookshop-owner.html
Great piece! Are you doing CD shops? There was a used CD shop on Church next to current Sinclair / Clock shop. And there was a subterranean one on JFK near Shay’s, same side of street. You may have posted photos of these already that I didn’t recognize? -mk
I think you're on to something very important and under-discussed. I won't try to articulate exactly what or why. This book called Scale by Santa Fe Institute head and physicist Geoffrey West discusses the question of why and how things scale; what seems incomplete from his account is something like what you point at here: If there are returns to scale, should we ever stop? Is scale always good? What scales? What is the relation of the human to scale? What does scale *feel* like, culturally? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/business/dealbook/geoffrey-west-scale-the-universal-laws-of-growth-innovation-sustainability.html
For what it's worth, the sad trombone Armageddon Shop is really tops for all things heavy, and they run their own little label, too, which puts out some stellar stuff (lots of which I was first exposed to on Bandcamp). In an age where anything is available at any time to anyone, curation becomes a true differentiator. So many of the bookshops and record stores I have loved are gone, but many of the ones who've stuck it out have narrow focuses, cult-like followings, and no ambition to scale.