Wreckless Eric _Le Beat Group Electrique_ / library CD sales

I love trawling the CD sections at library book sales. They're cheap, buying things supports the library, and sometimes they have great albums that were withdrawn after not getting checked out enough. Among them: Wreckless Eric's _Le Beat Group Electrique_, thanks to whoever purchased it for the Ledding Library. Great stuff, recorded quietly in a living room with a cardboard box for drums. Warm, low-stakes, charming:

 

Also useful: buying trashy 80s CDs that I want to listen to but that I know will follow me forever on the algo. So instead of having YouTroobpf keep asking me, hey, do you want to listen to Bleears for Flears's _Songs for the Big Blare_ again? Remember that time in August 2025 when you listened to it twice? Instead, I can put my laser vinyl into my laser vinyl machine and experience the shiniest version of that shiny 1985 sound without being hounded about it. It is weird to hear it at the correct speed - I was genuinely expecting the first song to be a full half-step lower, thanks to my crummy mid-80s tape deck and its unreliable dubs - but still kind of a pleasure, especially "Heed over Hells," whose bass line I had not paid sufficient attention to the first time around.

Foster Soiree / Bridge Pedal

Yesterday we went to the eternally rapidly gentrifying Foster Road for the Foster Soiree. Always interesting to see what's coming in and pushing out the sketchy businesses that dotted the area when we lived there. We got to hang out with Friend of Tape Mountain Alison D, whose Xtreme Twee business empire continues to get weirder and greater, get very nice kulfi-flavored ice cream (dairy for JL, non- for me), check out a new record store (not my thing) and the new-ish book store Word Virus (very much my thing).

Today I did Bridge Pedal, in which one bikes across most of Portland's bridges and tries not to crash into bicycles in front of one. Today JL and the boy also did the kids' ride - he needs a bigger bike very much - and I was able to catch up with them after I finished the main ride. I was so proud of how well he was keeping to his lane and not running over smaller children. It felt good. 

People had speakers on their bikes, which is... a choice. Here are my awards for best and worst songs overheard:

BEST: When I got to the finish line, someone was playing Shonen Knife's "Cycling is Fun" (the original and better version) Obvious choice, right, but a delightful song and the timing couldn't have been better. I shouted "hey!" along with them and startled another rider.

 

Left-field choice: Someone was playing Buffalo Springfield's "Broken Arrow" on the Marquam Bridge, a mysterious twisty banger from my dad's record collection, and somehow not among the top search suggestions on YouChoob:

WORST: Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls," the audio equivalent of shitting in the pool.