[Music] Turntable Adventures

I don't remember why I started collecting vinyl records, but it might have been because Remy's, my favorite Cubao secondhand bookshop, always had a few boxfuls of used records outside their window. It was 2005, the height of Rock Star INXS, and I was on dialup internet, no Youtube for me. So when I saw a battered Kick in one of those boxes, I promptly bought it. It was PhP30. I didn't even have a turntable - that came later when I met Lorena in the store right next to Remy's, who got me a shiny new white Pioneer PL-J5000-W two weeks after I beat her to a Philippine pressing of Dark Side of the Moon. At the time I had accumulated a fair number of records for someone with no turntable to speak of.

Since I was broke and had no money for those big booming speakers, my roommate Bebe and I hooked it up to my PC speakers with baby jacks and the first tune we played on it was Elton John's Tiny Dancer. It crackled and popped and hissed ("blue jean.. jean... blue jean baby...") but we were immensely satisfied. Bebe even made a short film with it, though the song there doesn't actually come from the turntable. The needle got loose and they weren't able to fix it so Bebe edited the clip later.

Two weeks after this, I broke it by plugging it into a 220-V socket - major stupidity (no thanks, Japanese electronics). Thankfully, someone from Jov's Electrical Services said they'd put a 220-V transformer inside so it wouldn't happen again. The very same week, Bebe tripped and fell from the upper bunk and smashed up the dust cover, but miracle of miracles, the needle was fine, the arm was fine, and it still PLAYED.

It's been a year, two months, and twenty-eight days since Lorena. I never saw her again, but I'm glad I talked to the girl who let Pink Floyd get away from her. She got an Alice Cooper album instead, by the way.