Made it to New York. Exhausted. Got up at oh dark thirty to return the rental car and catch a train from Philly to NYC. Only slept a few hours. Spent all day on trains without being able to get any sleep. Even got told by a Septa employee to keep my feet off the seat. Took a nap just now but am wasted zonkered on a hot New York summer afternoon. Haven’t had anything to eat in 18 hours except a few strawberries.
I always feel such a frenzy in New York to hit a million record stores. Philly was fairly disappointing in that every store we went to would have taken hours to find something interesting and we only had time for brief visits. I did turn up a Fulanito single (never seen them on vinyl) and a Nigerian hip-hop collection I’ve never seen before. We did find an Indian grocery and they had some interesting stuff but it was bootleg central.
I know I want to go to Spanish Harlem for Reggaeton, Jackson Heights for Bhangra and Bollywood (Too many bootlegs though; Anjali and I must be among the only souls willing to pay a lot more for legitimate copies.), Virgin Megastore for their massive international selection, Rashid’s for Middle-Eastern music, Stern’s for more international variety, and Beat St., Fat Beats, and others for the Hip-hop. Also have a special request from DJ Blackmarks to pick up the latest Dipset mixtape so I need to be on the lookout for streetside vendors with blankets of cds.
IK