Happy Narwhal Dreams

The two greatest movies about record stores are Empire Records and High Fidelity. I’m pretty sure the conclusion for most people is that High Fidelity is the better movie. Regardless, there is something special about independent record stores. Well last night I crashed at Happy Narwhal Records. From now on my intensions will be to never buy a CD from a big corporate store. This trip has given me the appreciation of locally owned businesses and how important a place like this is compared to Best Buy.

The previous couple nights (and the next couple I’ll be back there) I stayed with Don and his family. Well, Max and Mike who are my age own the record shop and Max is one of Don’s former students in a retailing management class. Don suggested hanging out with these guys and it’s a great thing. I mean here I am this morning, I woke up at a record shop, great music playing, it’s cozy and welcoming. It’s great to see the ambition of two college students to start their own shop as they both finish up their degrees. Max will finish up with a business degree and Mike will have a studio arts degree.

I have a stack of old CDs at home and however many months from now when I get back I think I’ll just box them up and send them to these guys. They’ve got a good thing going. It has given me the urge to start my own place of some sort. I don’t know enough about music. They introduced me to their friends around the corner who opened up a movie rental place, well I don’t know much about movies either. But maybe, just maybe, I can have some kind of shop to sell my photography prints some day in the future. It’s great to see independence. Two guys just going out and starting a record shop like this is what the American Dream is about, and freedom in the USA. I don’t believe the American Dream means going from rags to riches and making millions, just the fact that you can go out on a limb and start something. Young people like Max and Mike leave me inspired and I hope their community and friends are as well. Happy Narwhal dreams everyone, how many of you have slept at a record shop before?

P.S. Max and Mike lived in the same house that Garth Brooks lived in during college.