late night with guy mondo

For the last two years I have been cataloging my record collection at an online site called Rate Your Music . The site's main purpose is to make a database of every piece of recorded music in the world by relying on collectors to supply all the information. It also encourages collectors to rate and review music. I think this is the best thing ever. Whenever I have some spare time, especially late at night when I can't sleep, I add entries from my collect to my page there. Since I have a scanner I also upload cover images, too. So far I have cataloged 1,261 records (on vinyl) and I haven't started listing my collection of "Various Artists" on vinyl, 7" and 12" singles, cassette tapes, Evatone Soundsheets, 8-tracks, and the who-knows-how-many CDs I own. A nice feature of the site is the " Visualize " link that shows your collection as thumbnails of each LP cover in your collection. There is also a widget that updates tiny cover as they are adde...

I used to watch Soul Train with an almost religious dedication. I doubt that I ever missed an episode until the last season when I got a job that required my attendance on Saturdays. One show stands out because of the goofy oddity of it. It was the appearance of Yellow Magic Orchestra . They were one of few non-black artists, and one of only two Japanese groups (the other being Hiroshima ), to appear on the predominately-black program performing a cover (albeit badly lip-synced) of Archie Bell & the Drells ' "Tighten Up". While the band played Haruomi Hosono jumped offstage to dance in the audience like a crazy tourist. Everybody looked like they were having a ball. I vaguely remember Don Cornelius trying to do a post-performance interview that was cut short because the band's English seemed limited. It was a highly entertaining few minutes. I spent years looking for the single of that song since it was not (up to that point) released on any of the LPs i had f...