Scranton Revisited
Went back up to Scranton today, and as it turned out I pulled two awesome Mondays in a row. Started out my boss called and told me a bunch of packages came for me downstairs (I live above the restaurant where I work). So I went down and it was like fucking Christmas-the results of my tax return retail therapy sesh had arrived! Or at least, some of them. Some items I got my wife for Valentines day, and just cause, you know she’s my wife and I like getting her stuff, some lens filters for my camera (and a replacement lens cap, the first one lost within two weeks of owning the camera), a bitchen Corrosion of Conformity t-shirt (the olde school Eye For an Eye lp cover) and….my most magnificent order from Crimethinc. The latter being so fucking great I’m going to devote an entire video post to it.
So the day started off pretty rad straight away. Then I had to run up to Scranton to take care of some shit and of course I brought my camera. The results weren’t all too fantastic, I mean I got some ok shots I guess, but the highlight was a conversation with a complete stranger in an alley where I was taking pictures of some graffiti. Dude was just stoked for me, such a friendly guy. He was out taking a cig in the alley and we started talking about the downtown architecture and the Morrison Rock down in the Nay Aug gorge next to the university. When the weather turns better I’m going to go down there and take photos of it if it’s still there. It’s a giant rock next to this river, like 40 feet across, and it’s got a huge portrait of Jim Morrison painted on it. Or at least it used to back in the day. There’s like this thing with Scranton and Morrison graffiti, I don’t know what it is but you just see it around a lot.
I also stopped by the Electric Mindshaft. It’s one of two places downtown that sell vinyl records, but it’s the only place I really go to because the owner is just the coolest fucking guy ever. The other place, it was like I was bothering the self consciously aloof and disinterested affect sporting employees when I asked them about Record Store Day and ordering me some Amphetamine Reptile issue Melvins slabs. The guy from the Mindshaft, he’s older and unconcerned with hipnitude. He started collecting records when he was three years old, and he told me today that at current prices he’d never be able to sell all his records within his lifetime. Dude is just rad, I’ve been buying music there since the 90′s and every time I stop in we chat about records. One time he just out of nowhere hooked me up with a vintage Misfits Walk Among Us postcard for free with naught an apparent reason. Basically just cause he’s rad like that. Not to mention he has some killer wax, and his prices are more than fair. So, for all you record (and cd, and music literature, and comic book) collecting deviants out there you simply must check this place out. It’s located at 227 Lackawanna Ave. in Scranton.
So then basically I just wandered around town snapping photos. Uh, wandered somewhere where I was going to take some shots…until I saw the big sign that said “Warning: United Stated government Installation.” Then, you know, I figured it maybe wasn’t such a good idea to be seen running around with a camera outside the old U.S. Army Scranton Ammunition plant where my uncle worked back in the fifties. It’s right downtown, this big place where the State manufactures instruments of death to this very day. Creepy. I tucked the camera away just as a security guard was walking up. Good thing I didn’t take any photos.
However I did get plenty of photos besides. And I went to Coney Island Lunch, had some Texas weinerage in true Scranton tradition (the place has been there forever. And I mean forever. Like sixty years or something. Selling the same tasty weiners that just can’t be beat anywhere. Well, Majestic Lunch in Pittston gives them a run for the money but that place has been there for ages too.) Then I took the bus back here and ran some of the shots through GIMP while listening to some Catharsis and here’s the results for your perusal.
Two Fantastic Mondays in a row. Fucking @.
What a fucking find! BGK’s classic “Nothing Can Go Wrogn” lp. Raging hardcore straight outta Holland. One of the first international punk bands I got into back in the stone age 80′s.
I love the Melvins! That’s awesome. I’m not sure if you knew, but Tommy ramone and Glen Matlock are playing a show together in Allentown on March 20th.
The Melvins are fuggin great. They did some of splits with other bands I’m really into sort of recently (OFF!, Fucked Up, Mudhoney, etc.) that I want real bad. That show in Allentown sounds killer, that’s where I saw the Ramones back in the day. I’d really lke to see the Melvins again, caught them twice years ago and they completely steamrollered everything in sight.
Used to hang around Electric Mindshaft all the time. Some hardcore nostalgia right now…
Yeah it’s great store. Got a Poison Idea picture disc 7″ there for eight bucks once. Just picked up a bitchen GBH t-shirt there. 12 bux. Fuckin t-shirt he said he had in a box since the 80′s. You can’t even find that design anymore. Made me want to grow my hair out all spiky punxes again and fully charge my jacket.
Talk about nostalgia.
I got some pretty awesome stuff from the Electric Mindshaft. He has some really rare posters and if you bug him enough, he’ll give them to you for a really good price. I saw the Melvins about 4 months ago in Allentown and I saw Mudhoney about 3 years ago. They were amazing. They played with Iggy & the Stooges!
The Mindshaft is rad, and the owner is a good dude for sure.
Once I even saw the Melvins with Lorax on bass(!), and once at a fest they played with Muhoney in Kelso, Wa. That was a good show, they opened with a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Into The Void” that day. Mudhoney I saw a few times, and I used to run into Mark Arm now and then around town. That must have been killer to see them with the Stooges.