Friday, October 06, 2006

Eulogy

I worked at Tower Records from April 1990 to December 2000. It was fun for about two or three years, then it became a job. And for five years or more it was a good job. Then it became a bad job and eventually I quit. And when I quit I sent an email to the whole chain, every employee, explaining why I quit and what I thought the company was doing wrong. I don’t know if I was right, but I know Tower Records is shutting its door and being sold off piece by piece.

I wanted to take this opportunity as a music fan to say that Tower will be missed. Sure, I hadn’t shopped there as much as I used to, preferring Amoeba and online shopping but Tower was still a good place to find stuff when you needed to.

More importantly for me is the memories of the time I spent there. I had some great times. From my first day when I met Greg Creel and Matt Libatique. I was trained on the register by Michlle Motta. She had the word “Skins” tattooed the inside of her lower lip. There are too many great times that might not mean anything to anyone else. Even going to the bank to get change with Mark Yourst was a blast. We’d go the liquor store on the way back and by junk food, soda and, sometimes, alcohol. Because, it was okay to drink the back room. Mike Hogan was my almost-first roommate, but his apartment was where I began to drink in earnest.

We went to a lot of shows when music was very interesting: Nirvana, Primus, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, the Ramones, Bad Religion, Hole, Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Fugazi, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, Rollins Band, Firehose, Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., Metallica, and more, more, more.

I worked at three different stores: Brea, Costa Mesa Lab, and Anaheim. All were different but all had their moments.

I just want to thank the people I worked with for a one of a kind experience. Greg "Grog" Creel, Matthew “Mutt” Libatique, Mike Hogan, Pete Graham (wherever you are), Tommy Hoyt, Mark Yourst, Larry Salzman, Steve Miller, Craig Larsen Ballam, Schnoz, Michelle Motta, Dave Reyes, Martha Lopez, Melanie, Linda Meacham, “Jill“ Watts Yoshizawa, Carolyn Kitchens, Shannon, Jim, Leann, Royer, Diane, Kari, Justice, McMillan, Jamie Lurtz, Hiba Kulazovic, Tyrone Flournoy, Tim Schwab, Heather, Cathy, Rodney Metoyer, Venus, Alex, Dave, Rick, Brian Q, Kim and whomever I have forgotten (I am sorry). It is amazing how many names I have forgotten. I picture faces but it is a big blur.

Of course, two of my best friends I met at Tower even though they didn’t work there at the time: Craig and Ty (they were sales reps).

I could go on, but ultimately, I grew up at Tower Records, I met friends, met girls, heard new music, saw great shows, and it will be missed.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I saw on other Blog you posted this:
"I remember seeing Nirvana at the
Roxy shortly before "Nevermind" came out and being right up against the stage in front of Kurt"

I´m really interested in finding infos about this show (08/15/91).
I would really apreciate if you can contact me at jorge1100@ozu.es
Thanks for all in advance!!

7:12 AM  

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