Records Day

Today is called "records day," which is when you're supposed to be writing report cards. I am celebrating it by listening to records. We still have a large collection of vinyl albums which we listen to occasionally and I am availing myself of them today. My first choice is Closing Time by Tom Waits, one of our all-time favorites. It's funny to have to get up every 20 minutes and flip the album, but it also brings back memories of great album sides, a unit of music that has disappeared from consciousness. The second side of the Beatles' Abbey Road is the gold standard, but don't diss the other greats, including the second sides of Who's Next, Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstacy, Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food and Elvis Costello's This Year's Model or the first side of Paul Simon's There Goes Rhymin Simon. Of course this is all older stuff, 'cause they just don't make 'em like they used to.