The RHP Bookstore across the way

Not that it's especially well-located, considering all the drunks, hooligans and "crazy when convenient" people who pass along this benighted street, but here it is.

Enter at your own peril. Beware of the cats.

Sir Kevin from Heaven, wuzz happenin'!

All bookstores that serve coffee and play jazz are cool by me, man

@earl-of-trumps said
Sir Kevin from Heaven, wuzz happenin'!

All bookstores that serve coffee and play jazz are cool by me, man

Thank you sir. I might look into serving coffee publicly but at the moment I'm not sure this place would pass a health inspection.

That said, I'd be happy to serve you a brew of freshly ground beans in the back room (and sorry that it's just through a door instead of a pivoting section of bookcase).

As for the other, I have mixed feelings about having a sound system in the bookstore. Sure, I can see how that might help people get in the mood or derange their senses or break them out of their usual ruts, but it also seems too much like getting the customers into an alpha state to lull them into buying more product. Hmm.

In other bookstores, I sometimes find the music to be an unwanted distraction to my browsing mind.

P.S. -- I'll try to get some magicians from Chicago to visit the back room to show us some stuff.

@earl-of-trumps said
Sir Kevin from Heaven, wuzz happenin'!

All bookstores that serve coffee and play jazz are cool by me, man

A little bit of a riff on that topic:

When I was a kid, we moved around some. There was a used bookstore in Mankato, MN that had a bookstore cat. When my Dad's job took us to Texas, I went to say goodbye to that bookstore owner. I remember he recommended a book to me about the human condition, called "The Tangled Wing" (which I still have never read).

Somehow (much prior to that, of course) I got a job at The Readmore Bookstore in Mankato, and they even trusted me to close up and take the cash-bag to the bank a few blocks away.

I was scruffy and not quite fit to apply at the time (early 80s), but I overheard that someone had quit, and by then I had sold a few crossword puzzles to Dell and knew the names of the book publishers, which got me in.

I think it was in Mankato (a college town) where I bought Murmur, All Mod Cons, and The Gift (among others).

A little later in life, my year at the Readmore in Mankato helped me get a job at Haslam's in St. Pete (which has closed because of the pandemic, and I don't know if they will ever reopen).

My one important contribution was to mention to one of the owning family that "Neuromancer" by William Gibson had just won the Nebula Award and that they should keep it in stock.

@kevin-eleven said
Not that it's especially well-located, considering all the drunks, hooligans and "crazy when convenient" people who pass along this benighted street, but here it is.

Enter at your own peril. Beware of the cats.

Bookstore is the right place to meet people. Is it also second-hand books?

@torunn said
Bookstore is the right place to meet people. Is it also second-hand books?

Absolutely! And not just second-hand books, but books from decades ago, and maybe even some incunabula, ephemera, and a few protozoans in the nooks and crannies.

Hey, wuzz happenin' ?

Jus anotha bro from the hood doin tho bad eubonics and showing my black slam. Yeah!

One Lesser Key of Solomon to go please.

YouTube

@gambrel said
One Lesser Key of Solomon to go please.

[youtube]9o8FNVVFJE8[/youtube]

Here you are, sir -- discreetly wrapped in advance.

(And if you need any candles or whatever,
I'd suggest Augusta's place,
down the street where three watchmen wait
and up the stairs behind the gate)

@divegeester said
Hey, wuzz happenin' ?

Jus anotha bro from the hood doin tho bad eubonics and showing my black slam. Yeah!

Sorry if you misread the flyers [I thought literacy was a thing over there], but Poetry Slam Thursday won't start until next week. I still need to find a good deal on some folding chairs.

And, not to stifle your blow, but it seems kinda weird to see an apparently somewhat conservative royalist like you siding with the woke cancel-bots.

@earl-of-trumps said
Sir Kevin from Heaven, wuzz happenin'!

All bookstores that serve coffee and play jazz are cool by me, man

Sir Earl the Pearl, your post got me thinking.

I had an electrician in to check the wiring, and was glad to learn it had been modernized just a few years ago, so we should be able to support live bands without blowing all the fuses.

I'm thinking let's have Jazz Nights on Saturday evenings around 8 PM. By then most people will be rested instead of Friday-night crabby. Plus it would be more inclusive. The older people could go home to bed afterward, and it wouldn't overlap prime clubbing hours for the younger people.

Sound good?

@kevin-eleven said
Sir Earl the Pearl, your post got me thinking.

I had an electrician in to check the wiring, and was glad to learn it had been modernized just a few years ago, so we should be able to support live bands without blowing all the fuses.

I'm thinking let's have Jazz Nights on Saturday evenings around 8 PM. By then most people will be rested instead of Friday-night crabb ...[text shortened]... o bed afterward, and it wouldn't overlap prime clubbing hours for the younger people.

Sound good?

The young clubbers aren't going to be hanging out in a bookstore on a Saturday night with Gramps.

@the-gravedigger said
The young clubbers aren't going to be hanging out in a bookstore on a Saturday night with Gramps.

Thank you. It seems I am out of touch with the times.

And let's forget about this whole Jazz Night thing. I don't want to be one of those guys who asks bands to play for free with "exposure" being their only compensation.

@kevin-eleven said
Sir Earl the Pearl, your post got me thinking.

I had an electrician in to check the wiring, and was glad to learn it had been modernized just a few years ago, so we should be able to support live bands without blowing all the fuses.

I'm thinking let's have Jazz Nights on Saturday evenings around 8 PM. By then most people will be rested instead of Friday-night crabb ...[text shortened]... o bed afterward, and it wouldn't overlap prime clubbing hours for the younger people.

Sound good?

It should only be open daytime, if it's a bookstore. Guests come to find new books, or go through second-hand bookshelves and maybe leave some books as well for others to pick up. Just coffee, tea, juice and sandwiches/cakes/buns/cookies. And perhaps you can bring your pets too.

@earl-of-trumps said
Sir Kevin from Heaven, wuzz happenin'!

All bookstores that serve coffee and play jazz are cool by me, man

Especially if they have comfy chairs, too.








No! No! Not the comfy chair! 😆