Final Project: Re-Vinyl-ization

Blake Maddux
Final Project
Final (8/6/2009)

Compact disc manufacturers have waged a fierce battle against digital downloads since the new millennium began.

Now they are fighting a smaller but unexpected battle on another front.

Sales of vinyl records increased by 89 percent last year according to Nielson SoundScan, which tracks music sales in the United States and Canada. SoundScan estimates that vinyl sales will have increased threefold between 2006 and the end of 2009.

These figures do not include used LPs that are sold at secondhand music stores. If the business reported by several such stores in Cambridge is any indication, vinyl is making a much larger ripple in the music industry than the SoundScan numbers can capture.

Thanks to vinyl sales, these record stores are not only staying in business, they are thriving. This at a time when CD sales are dropping (by 20 percent in 2008), major chains such as Tower and HMV—both of which had locations in Harvard Square—have closed their doors, and digital music can be streamed online or downloaded easily, albeit illegally, for free.

Angela Sawyer, owner of Weirdo Records, attributes the spike in vinyl sales to a “revolving nostalgia factor.” Twisted Village owner Wayne Rogers says that it is due in part to the fact that “some people never stopped buying” vinyl.

Whatever the reasons, vinyl has always appealed to those who enjoy the larger liner notes and artwork that accompany an LP, and above all the sound, complete with its occasional crackles and scratches.

Twisted Village is located next to Charlie’s Kitchen, a popular Harvard Square landmark. However, it is down a somewhat hidden set of stairs and behind a windowless door with only a handwritten sign on it. Like the elusive LP version of an obscure record, one must really be looking for Twisted Village in order to find it.

Rogers says that based on the consistently strong sales of vinyl that he has experienced since opening in 1996, he might have never known that demand for LPs had ever waxed or waned.

“Record labels were lagging behind,” he says, meaning that LPs were not printed for many years even though there was ample demand for them. He describes many of the used LPs that he sells the occasional copy of as “stuff I could have sold by the boatload if they had been issued a decade ago” on vinyl.

The higher LP sales that he is experiencing come mostly from new releases and re-issued classics. Hip and highly popular artists such as Radiohead, whose album “In Rainbows” was the biggest-selling LP of 2008, have been issuing their latest recordings in both CD and LP format for several years. This has proved to be a smart move because, as Rogers has seen it, everyone older than 30 buys CDs, while everyone younger than that buys LPs.

Mark Redmond, 30, has at least 200 records at his home in Cambridge. About a dozen of them are framed and hanging on the wall in his finished basement.

He thinks that LPs appeal more to younger people because “Older people grew up with vinyl, so there is less of an adventure in it” to them.

At Weirdo Records in Central Square, Angela Sawyer has also benefited from the increased popularity of vinyl.

“I’ve never seen a store that expanded as fast as this one,” she says, “but it’s still the tiniest one in the damn world.” As small as it is, this location—which opened in February—is an upgrade from her living room, which is where she used to sell music.

Sawyer says that the avant-garde and experimental music in which she specializes appeals to only a small group.

Scanning the shelves, one sees LPs by The Monks, the “anti-Beatles” band formed in Germany by American G.I.s in 1964, The Free Design, whose song title “Kites Are Fun” sums up the group’s aesthetic perfectly, and the 1969 album “Trout Mask Replica” by Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, about which Sawyer says “records will never get weirder than.”

“Vinyl has a permanence,” she says. “You have to pay attention a little more. You have to go home and give it some time.”

Back in Harvard Square, John Damroth, the bespectacled, goateed founder of Planet Records, sits at a counter wiping down used records with a white rag.

Planet Records’ Cambridge location opened in 1997. It initially sold only CDs, but since records have always meant so much to Danforth, he decided to “go against the business grain” and sell vinyl.

“It felt like I was a bad businessman,” Danforth says, referring to how LPs were unprofitable for him in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, vinyl started picking up around 2006, and “this year has really been outstanding.”

Damforth estimates that records account for 20 to 25 percent of total sales. On some days, they are half of the total. That is rare, Danforth admits, but “the fact that it happens at all is pretty amazing.”

Damforth agrees with Rogers that younger buyers are making the difference. He hears some of them say that they wish that they had a turntable, and then buy LPs anyway. This is because, he says, of the aforementioned larger pictures and liner notes that appear on the vinyl sleeves.
Damforth compares them to comic books and says that they have a “stop and smell the roses” quality.

Redmond agrees, saying, “You feel like you really own [a recording] when you own it on vinyl….It’s more of an actual object, a piece of art, something tangible.”

Mike Murray, 31, a musician and teacher who lives in Somerville, is particularly fond of the liner notes. “I’ve read every letter in the booklet for every CD and record that I own,” he says. “The record makes that experience fun….The CD is uncomfortably small.”

However, Rogers and Damroth both believe that the reports of the CD’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

“Vinyl might not get much further,” Damforth says. “I’ve been wrong about these things, but I still think that it is a niche market.”

“People who really care about music are more likely to buy LPs,” Murray says, describing this niche. “They think about it in a more intense way. They want to get more out of interacting with it.”

Next to the checkout counter at Planet Records are lemon yellow fliers that list the names and locations of other vinyl sellers in Boston and Cambridge. Damforth explains that he does not worry about the competition from other stores, and is happy to help people locate something that they could easily get on CD but would rather have on LP.

Twisted Village and Weirdo Records are both on the flier, as is Stereo Jack’s, which opened in 1984 and is just outside of Harvard Square. Adorning the front windows are a bust of Elvis Presley in a classic pose and an ever-changing assortment of obscure LPs that one would probably otherwise have no idea existed.

Part-time employee Worth Wagers has observed trends similar to other Cambridge record stores. He writes by e-mail that vinyl sales at Stereo Jack’s have increased significantly in the past three years. This is due in particular to the store’s use of eBay, “where they sell the rarest records that come through the door.” (At Twisted Village, Rogers also mentioned his use of the Internet. When he brandished a mint-condition copy of Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks,” a favorite of critics and collectors, he said, “that one goes on the auction block.”)

Wagers believes that the appeal of LPs “is a combination of the sound quality” and, echoing Damforth, “still wanting a physical artifact of the sound.”

“Warmer” is the word that is almost universally used to contrast the sound quality of vinyl with that of a CD.

To Redmond, warmer means more intimate and “less clinical.” Playing an LP “makes you feel like you’re in the room” with the artist.

Murray concurs, saying, “You can hear the fingers on the fret board. It sounds like someone is in the room playing an instrument.”

He also thinks that “Vinyl might become the go-to format for those who want something other than CDs,” which he says are becoming obsolete. Because of MP3s, CDs are now neither the only nor the most convenient way to get a digital recording.

To the ever-increasing number of vinyl buyers, getting computerized, state-of-the-art sound is not the point. It is to get the sound that only vinyl can offer.

Although LPs are not expected to ever outsell CDs, and certainly not MP3s, Murray speaks for many record lovers when he says, “No one’s ever going to be nostalgic about CDs.”

Redmond further reflects the sentiment this small but expanding group of music lovers when he says, “For the event of putting on a record, you can’t beat vinyl.”

Final Project: The Redemption of Magnum

Project Paper
Stephen Mugo
Final
As if in a choir, one-by-one led by the female ape, the monkeys break into laughter. Debbie Magnum laughs back, mimicking the apes, her face radiating with a broad smile. Momentarily, the gap between man and ape is bridged by these transcendent signals. In a playful expression of contentment, the monkeys hop from tree to tree, their cracking laughter getting louder but discordant, eventually receding into the back peripheries of their cage. Magnum moves to the gorilla cage, calling out each of the four gorillas by name, as one would greet a human friend. It is only 7:30 a.m. Magnum has been feeding the animals for the last one-and-a-half hours.
For the last 11 years, Magnum, 33, has been working at the primate department of the Oklahoma City Zoological Park . Standing at 5 feet 8 inches, averagely built, and with flowing brown hair, this mother of two walks in hurried strides, perhaps revealing what she calls her clustered schedule. She works ten-hour days at the zoo, six days each week. “The level of enthusiasm with which she goes about her zoo job is unmatched” says Amy McFarland Dean, Magnum’s department manager.
Several times every year, Magnum travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo where she works to save the wildlife in the Congo Forest . A native of Norman -- a campus suburb within the Oklahoma City metropolis -- Magnum wants to save the apes of Congo from possible human-triggered extinction. She has received international recognition, including a Conservator of the Year Award, 2004 from The Wildlife Club International, for her work in Africa . She says that her work in the Congo Forest is her first passion in life. “The endless conflicts have led to a drastic reduction in the ape population in the Congo Forest ,” Magnum says. “These animals have become victims, too.”
Due to recurrent civil wars in Congo which have resulted into widespread poverty, large swaths of the Congo Forest have been cleared to avail farmland for the landless poor. The rebels fighting the government use the forests as their hiding places. The trees have been cut and burned to make cooking charcoal. The wildlife has been illegally poached for meat. Magnum says that the Congo Forest is the largest habitation of apes in the world. She says that while the world has focused on the human crisis in Congo , the wildlife problem has received little attention. “The humanitarian crisis has received some world attention, but the animals have almost been forgotten,” Magnum says.
Magnum says that her sympathy for the threatened wildlife in Congo is drawn from the fact that she suffered neglect for a long period in her life. She has joined a non-governmental organization called Ape-Refuge which sensitizes the warring parties in Congo to the wildlife problem, and rescues trapped and injured apes. Magnum volunteers her expertise gained at the Oklahoma City Zoo to rehabilitate these rescued apes. Magnum says that her goal in life is to give a second chance to the suffering animals. She says that her passion to rehabilitate comes from the story of her life, which she says is a story of redemption.
Magnum’s parents, Eli and Irene Magnum, divorced a few months following her birth, primarily because her birth resulted in disagreements and in financial problems. “A few years ago, my mother confessed that my conception was a mistake,” Magnum says with teary eyes. “At one point, my dad suggested to my mum that she aborts me. My mother rebuffed the idea.”
Magnum would never see her dad again. Eli Magnum eventually ended up in jail for the offense, according to Irene Magnum, of aiding in a robbery. Although he was sentenced only to 18 months in jail, a riot broke out in which the inmates held up for two days the Illinois jail facility where Eli Magnum was held. In the ensuing melee, a fellow inmate killed Eli Magnum, mistaking him for a sex-offender. He was only 41. “Eli was a handsome man, sometimes a wonderful husband. But he was tragic,” says Irene Magnum, now 49.
The imprisonment and consequent death of Magnum’s father affected her greatly. “I saw life as completely out of my control. I made no great efforts to shape my life as I expected to die early, too,” says Magnum. Magnum’s mother was unable to keep up with her daughter’s needs resulting in her delay in commencing school. She never caught up. Discouraged by successive poor grades, and compounded by endless quarrels at home with her mother, Magnum quit school at the tenth-grade. “By then, I had failed in three relationships, one of which was violent,” says Magnum. “Over this period, I went to jail several times for drinking, buying drugs and for petty theft.”
Irene Magnum never remarried, and never had any other children. Nevertheless, she led a life marked by misfortune. According to Magnum, Irene Magnum suffered bouts of depression for which she spent periods of time in psychiatric facilities. Irene Magnum’s relationship with her daughter remained for the most part antagonistic. Magnum relied more and more on her friends, who she says led her into deeper problems with drugs, the law and into increasing disinterest in life.
Shortly after she quit school, Magnum says that it appeared as if the curse of her father would sooner or later catch up with her. Magnum says she had given up her fate to circumstance. “Magnum was frail in health for neglect and substance abuse,” says Ashley Croswell, Magnum’s long-time friend. “Aimlessly wandering through life, she seemed at the twilight.”
However, not too late, fate intervened to redeem Magnum. It was in July 1998 when within a few days of each other, two events occurred that changed the trajectory of Magnum’s life. One day as she walked with four of her friends in downtown Norman , Oklahoma , Magnum says that a stranger walked up to the group, stopped her, and told her that she looked like the leader of the group. The stranger told her that she looked outstanding. Magnum says that the group was without a formal leader, and without the necessity for one. She says that the stranger did not stop long enough to explain his words but that the incident focused a lot of attention on her from her friends.
Magnum says she had received little attention in her life. She recalled that she often went unnoticed at school. “I never was the most noticeable in a group. I knew many people in downtown Norman but never got to know who this stranger was. Never saw him again. But his words couldn’t get off my mind,” says Magnum.
Magnum’s friends noticed the incident, teasing her afterwards saying that she was the “strange leader” of the group. Ashley Croswell, Magnum’s long-time friend, found the incident odd enough that she nicknamed Magnum “boss.”
“I had not experienced strangers say words like those. Usually, they flatter, saying you are cute and such, but never any serious descriptions,” says Croswell.
Within a few days following the incident with the stranger, all of her friends called Magnum by her new nickname “boss.” This, she says, kept the stranger’s words alive in her mind. Later in the same month, Magnum’s mother was admitted to a psychiatric institution for treatment. Magnum visited her mother in the hospital and got into a chance conversation with one of the psychiatrists caring for Irene Magnum. A little into the conversation, the psychiatrist told Debbie Magnum that she was a Type-A personality, meaning she could perform complex tasks and solve sophisticated problems. However, the psychiatrist told Magnum that Type-A personalities have short attention spans making it difficult for them to follow through on tasks.
Magnum says that the conversation with the psychiatrist was a breakthrough moment when she began to comprehend the intricacies of her life. She remembered the stranger’s words on the street in downtown Norman . She imagined that both from her appearance, and from her words, the complexities in her life were manifest. Evident, too, were her unique abilities, she imagined, which led a stranger and a psychiatric professional to perceive her then untapped potential.
“These two incidents brought a breakthrough into my life,” says Magnum. “Instantly, I could explain almost everything that had occurred in my life.”
Soon after, Magnum found that she could easily overcome the thoughts that often led her into despair. She felt an increasing urge to apply her newly discovered potential into worthwhile causes. “The feeling of understanding myself produced confidence within me,” says Magnum. “The energy to restart my life was released.”
Magnum loved animals although she says she had never owned a pet in her life. Had she made it into college, she says she would have studied to become an animal biologist. Magnum says that she chose to pursue to excellence the next best choice. “I persistently applied for a position at the zoo until I was hired. I applied myself and my abilities found expression in my work,” Magnum says. “Now, I am trying to resolve a complex international wildlife problem in Africa .”

Final Project: Cambridge Street Booms Despite Economy

Inside a strip mall frozen-yogurt store with orange walls, green plastic tables and a flat screen TV, a mother of three works six days-per-week to make sure that her first business venture is a success. The hot summer weather brings customers inside of the air-conditioned store to get a taste of unsweetened-frozen-yogurt with fresh fruit.

Lori Peljovich, co-owner and mastermind behind the frozen-yogurt store, says that she first tasted the tart frozen treat in New York and she just couldn't get enough. With the help of her brother, local real-estate developer Barry Samuels, she acquired funding, found the location, and set up a test kitchen to try out recipes. Peljovich named her store “boYO,” using trendy yogurt-slang for “Boston Frozen Yogurt.” boYO opened this past May in Charles River Plaza off Cambridge Street next to the affluent neighborhood of Beacon Hill in Boston, Mass.

Peljovich says that the decision to start her business now was personal, “I hadn't worked in over 10 years and I wanted to go back to work and run my own business. I didn't want to go work for somebody else and go sit in an office somewhere.”

Despite the economy, Peljovich says that business is good. During the day, business men and women from Massachusetts General Hospital and Government Center stop by for frozen yogurt, and in the evenings and weekends the store is supported by the student and family populations of Beacon Hill. boYO is not the only business venture to recently open its doors on Cambridge Street. At a time when the pressures of the recession

are crushing small businesses throughout Massachusetts and employment is lower than it has been in 20 years, business on the western side of The Hill is as vibrant as ever. Up and down Cambridge Street, small businesses are opening and expanding, providing jobs to the unemployed and bringing hope to otherwise dismal economic conditions.

Suzanne Besser, Executive Director of the Beacon Hill Civic Association, says that store-front vacancies in Beacon Hill are generally short lived. “It seems that as soon as they go out, it seems like someone’s coming in,” she says during a phone interview earlier this week. “In many of the cases, one has left and another who is currently on the street has moved into larger spaces.”

The Hill Tavern, a restaurant located one block west of boYO on the other side of Cambridge Street, is one of those businesses. They announced last month that they are in negotiations to take over Phoenicia, the Middle Eastern restaurant adjacent to them. The owners of Phoenicia are looking to retire, and The Hill Tavern manager Mico Flynn says that this could provide a great opportunity to accommodate the growing demands of the restaurant. He says that business is good and they would be more than able to support the expansion.

“We’re almost right where we were last year.” Flynn says that the combined population of workers at MGH and residents of Beacon Hill is almost 40,000 people, and that has insulated his business from some of the affects of the recession. “Having Mass General here helps a lot. They haven’t really been affected by the economy at all. Healthcare’s pretty steady.”

Flynn says Phoenicia's asking price for the lease and licenses to their property, is too high “for what they are offering.” He describes the current facilities at Phoenicia as “old and tired,” and says that they will have to put in almost $400,000 to modernize the kitchen, tear down the walls between the two spaces and update the furnishings. Flynn says that if they can settle on a price that satisfies both parties, the expansion would double their property and help them meet more of the neighborhood's needs.

“People don't have a place to entertain because the apartments are so small.” Many of his customers use the bar area of The Hill Tavern as their living rooms, and he would like to be able to support all of their social needs. He

says that they often turn down requests for parties because they are unable to give away the space without turning away their regular customers. “We would combine their back dining room with our dining room and people could use it for birthday parties and meetings.”

The expansion is big news in Beacon Hill. Besser says that the Beacon Hill Civic Association looks at it as an example of the healthiness of the neighborhood. The BHCA is a membership-based organization which provides what Besser calls, “quality of life” resources to the businesses. Many area businesses come to the BHCA for assistance with zoning and licensing laws. Of the 351 businesses in and around Beacon Hill approximately 130 of them are dues-paying members of the organization. Most businesses prefer the BHCA over the City of Boston Chamber of Commerce because of the neighborhood-specific benefits they receive.

“I don't know if they would consider us helping them,” Besser says. Most of the time they work with businesses to keep them up on “maintaining their trash, or the hours they are open, or what we call Good Neighborhood Agreements. We work with them on a lot of those issues.”

The attention to detail in the neighborhood, driven by the BHCA, makes Cambridge Street an attractive destination for new businesses. John True, the assistant manager of The Federal, a pizza and sandwich shop which opened two months ago, says he has been impressed with the cleanliness of their customers and the neighborhood. “It seems that there are a lot of good people that just live around here that really care about this area,” he says. “There is a lot less trash on the streets of Beacon Hill than any other neighborhood in Boston.”

The Federal, which is owned by local entrepreneurial management company Boston Nightlife Ventures, was purchased this past winter from the struggling pizza and sandwich shop, Venice Cafe. The group saw an opportunity to modernize the pizza, sandwich and salad concept by making everything from scratch and using fresh ingredients. They also renovated the building and updated the look and feel of the location with fresh paint, new brickwork and an open kitchen.

True admits that having a business on Cambridge Street has its downsides. Despite the affluent population and consistent sales that The Federal sees between the hours of 10 a.m. to 2 a.m., they also have to contend with the troubles of being downtown. He says, “There are lots and lots of homeless people around here.”

The proximity to M.G.H. keeps The Federal's business thriving during the day but True is concerned about the number of vagrants which the hospital also attracts. On a couple of occasions, the tip jar has disappeared, and

loiters have made themselves too comfortable in the sandwich shop. “We had a guy in here last week who decided he was going to fall asleep on these two chairs.” True says while motioning to his chair. “We had to call the police because he was just laying there, and it was disturbing to the customers. Apparently this is what he does this all the time when he doesn't want to go to the homeless shelter.”

True says that dealing with these issues as well as the post-bar crowd at night, can add to the stress-level of his employees, but financially, it is worth the headache. He says that the only affects of the economy they feel is the cost of food. Rising transportation costs have increased the price of beef and other meats. “We try to have fair prices for what we serve because the [high] quality of the food. I think higher priced items people steer away from, like $20 pizzas.”

True says, “I feel like we are in a good area. I mean a lot of people are going out to lunch. There are a lot of college kids in the area, so I mean, these are people that are going to eat out in the city regardless.”

Peljovich of boYO is also positive that her business will continue to grow. She says, “It's a tough economy and it’s a recession but you know in a recession people want something that will make them happy. They want a treat or something that's gonna help brighten their day. And that's what we're trying to bring... and I think so far we've been successful in doing that.”

Hurry up and wait!

This link illustrates the years (yes, years) it can take to obtain filings requested from the Freedom of Information Act -- the piece is on the Taliban POWs who were likely buried in a mass grave and attempts by the Bush administration to forestall investigations.

I filed a FOIA 6 weeks ago for the final project piece and while I was notified days later it was received, regrettably, I have yet to receive any filings. I have since learned the waiting period can last anywhere from a few weeks to a couple years. Just want to give all my colleagues out there the fyi. Deadlines are deadlines and, alas, while we all want to be the best reporters we can be, the story can't wait forever...

Wow Bill Clinton. I've been following the devastating story of the two reporters who were imprisoned in North Korea after entering into the country illegally. Now with Clinton's efforts they have been pardoned.

Marines ban Twitter, Facebook, other sites

Frequently in class we have chatted about the benefits (and costs) of online networking site and the world wide web... I thought this article was interesting enough to share...

The Death of Journalism (Gawker Edition)

Journalism at a major newspaper is different from what's usually required in the wild and riffy world of the Internet. And that wild world is killing real reporting -- the kind of work practiced not just by newspapers but by nonprofits, some blogs and other news outlets.
. . .

The popular saying in the industry now is that it's important to "save journalism" -- not necessarily newspapers. I agree, but newspapers are still the most common organizations that pay a large staff of reporters, providing them with a living wage, health care and a retirement plan.
. . .

I still want a fluid blogosphere, but one where aggregators -- newspapers included -- are more transparent about whom they're heavily excerpting. They should mention the original source immediately. And if bloggers want to excerpt at length, a fee would be the nice, ethical gesture.

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