WTF!?!? Amoeba Barfs On Los Angeles

BEWARE A STORY ABOUT A GUY NAMED EDDIE

Years ago I was involved in a small claims case and was in a court room watching the other cases as we waited for our turn.  One case involved the sale of passenger jet parts which had been marked as having failed inspection.  The party who had sold these parts was suing his purchaser.  The purchaser claimed he had no obligation to pay since the part serial numbers had been identified as belonging to failed and disposed of parts.  When the judge asked the plaintiff where he got those parts in the first place, the plaintiff replied, "Out of the back of the van from a guy named Eddie."  The judge dismissed the case and informed the plaintiff that she would be reporting him to investigators.

I barely held my water, thankfully an understanding bailiff stood over me shushing me as we both attempted to keep our composure.


Be very suspect of any story where a guy named Eddie is involved.  


HOW TO SELL YOUR TRASH

My dark side has been tempting me for years to try this one but now Amoeba Records of Los Angeles has gone and done it.  By my sensibilities, what they've gone and done is taken the crap someone accumulated over the years and are now attempting to sell it off as a sort of one of a kind collection.  This is the stuff I periodically wheeled to the dumpster at my storage - spoken word, jazz, easy listening, tango (I don't care what country it's from, nobody cares) and just . . . well . . . crap.

Disclosure:  I am momentarily out of the record dealing business, however I plan on returning soon.  I have very little record inventory, and none of any value over $100.00. A bigger part of what I'm currently dealing involves a massive accumulation of paper goods - yes, big announcements forthcoming.

But records will always be my first love.  And really, why did I never think it would be Amoeba to first attempt to create some hype around what over my years has been food for the dumpster monster.  But apparently Amoeba's dumpster monster had reflux.

Let's do a little analysis shall we, since the truth is always a defense:

Here is a link to one of several posts Amoeba Records has done about their accumulation:
http://www.amoeba.com/blog/2012/07/jamoeblog/amoeba-acquires-eclectic-treasure-trove-of-30-000-lps-eddie-s-record-collection-part-i-.html

I'll compare the records mentioned on the above link to others on the internet where available, in order.

The Poetry Of Langston Hughes LP appears to be the only one, on the page where Amoeba hypes the 30,000 LP find, which has any potential value.  There is no record on Popsike or Musicstack of this LP having sold, so it has no definable value, though a few copies are on Amazon and other sites where sellers are asking around $100.00.

Craig Moerer's Records By Mail has the Shady Brook Ziegfeld Follies record in mint condition, several of them, for around $15.00 each.

Again, no record of the Pagliacci LP set having sold on Popsike or Musicstack, though one on eBay DID NOT sell for $3.99.

A language course LP?  Really?  Unless Warhol did the cover, who cares?

I'm skipping the Edward R Murrow LP because I've thrown out more of those than I care to remember.

The Peter Giger LP is available on GEMM for $4.00.

The pricing on a few of their spotlighted items, like the Brother Ahh and Barbara Lea, appear to be mid-range of what Popsike reports as having sold at auction.  Nothing unusual or noteworthy strikes me about finding a few $100 items in a bulk of 30,000 records.

And as for the transport effort, I'll have Amoeba's story beat about seven times over . . . coming soon.

Adventures In Broadcasting Part 2 - Cult Radio The Space Opera

This article will assume you read Part 1 and that you have some familiarity with Cult Radio A Go Go and the father / daughter mime team, The DuFoes, because this article is aimed at a small community of people and the very large imagination of The DuFoes - the name of whom derives from the French for "Ah, everybody is our enema!"

And so for much of any of this to matter you need to be familiar with The DuFoes and their peculiar point of view that seems to be a belief that the internet is their own little playground for a space opera a la Scientology with me as their personal nemesis god Xenu. Hold on, I have to order another DC-8 (ahhhh-chooooooooooo).  See, I'm not scared of Scientology, Pneumonia or The DuFoes.  


So, just a little reality check and scorecard here:

- Back in January I received an email from Tiffany informing me that by following through with a planned commentary about Terry DuFoe on my show I would be opening myself up to a slander lawsuit and possible arrest.

- The particulars about the "simple open/shut" case supposedly came from the attorney at Tiffany's work, and included legal code regarding slander . . . from Wyoming, if memory serves . . . not California where both I and the DuFoe's live and work.

-I was tempted but didn't bother pointing out that California has very strong Anti-SLAPP laws where a defendant in a lawsuit where the purpose is likely to suppress free speech can file a Motion To Strike and be awarded fees on that motion's success in a later suit, called a SLAPPback.

-Here's a firm that takes such cases for the fees recovered in the SLAPPback:
http://www.casp.net/california-anti-slapp-first-amendment-law-resources/statutes/

-Only an idiot and the DuFoes consider slander cases in California.

-I went ahead with my commentary and heard nothing other than some ranting about me on their show which soon died down.

-Then came the RadioFlag incident which I wrote about in the VRT blog.

-Since I called Terry out on his effort to get Radio Dentata kicked from RadioFlag he has not mentioned me or even alluded to me. Prior to my blog article Terry did call me out on the defunct CRAGG Facebook page for not having any listeners during a late night repeat of VRT. He took down the CRAGG Facebook page as I was replying, first attempting to delete my posts, and when I kept coming back . . . poof, the page was gone.

-Terry then on his show one week before the DuFoe's abandoned trip to Disneyland made fun of many of Radio Dentata's hosts execpt me. I vigorously defended RD and the other hosts on Twitter.

-This last week on CRAGG the worst Terry was able to utter was an implication, I suppose, that Radio Dentata plays too much Heavy Metal and Classic Rock. I for one like a little Armageddon with my Eagles.

-For two hours up against CRAGG last Saturday I played repeats of VRT on RD and our station trended ahead of CRAGG on RadioFlag. Now this doesn't mean we have more listeners. What I will say about Terry's listener argument is that it seems a little like the story of the two midgets comparing their penis sizes. The midget with the bigger penis says to the other, "because mine is bigger than yours I'm almost the size of John Holmes." The logical fallacy here seems amply apparent.

-The DuFoe's have also announced that they will not be on this coming week because they are going to Comic Con. Jane and I were planning and had announced on Twitter and RadioFlag a special live broadcast to go up against CRAGG but we will postpone that until the DuFoe's return to CRAGG Live. 


Now I do hope The DuFoes do think of Jane and I as they pass the Interstate 5 and PCH Beach Cities interchange where we will be a short distance away enjoying an early breakfast on our balcony.