BOC: My BOC Holiday

[John A Swartz]

This will be a somewhat long-winded, overly-detailed account of how I
celebrated March 24th as a holiday (I took the day off, and since my
company allows 2 "floating holidays" a year, I decided to declare today a
holiday).

Having previously scoped out my local record stores (in Burlington, MA -
10 miles north of Boston), I knew that I'd be able to secure my copy of
HEAVEN FORBID at approximately 10 a.m.  Newbury Comics, which is very
good about having new releases on the racks on time (and the most
reasonable in terms of price), was my destination.  Wearing my BOC
"Godzilla" t-shirt and my Kronos necklace dangling from the rear-view
mirror, I drove off this morning with the first CD of Workshop of the
Telescopes playing in my car.  After hearing "Cities on Flame",
"Transmaniacon M.C.", and "Before the Kiss (A Redcap)", I arrived just
before the doors opened, hoping to purchase the first copy of HF in the
Greater Boston area (anybody beat me?).  My sales receipt indicates
"9:50", but it was really about 10:00.

In the store, I only saw 2 copies of HF, so I mentioned to the
salesperson that they should get more copies.  Whether to humor me or
not, I don't know, but he said, "Well, if you're buying one already, then
we'll probably need to get more."  Newbury's price on the CD was $12.88.

By 10:02, I had the CD spinning in the player in the car (those poor
Toyota speakers will never be the same) - I sat in the parking lot and
listened to the entire CD (my review will follow in a separate posting -
suffice to say, this CD kicks ass!)

Now, being in the proper frame of mind, I decided to check out other
local CD stores and ensure that HF was readily accessible elsewhere (and,
in the meantime, I got to spin the CD another 1 and a half times before
returning home).

First the local (again, Burlington MA) Tower Records.  Based on some
previous research, I fully expected to NOT find HF in the store.  Well,
I did happen to find it - about a dozen copies as a matter of fact (all
priced at $17.99!! - which seems to be what most new CDs at Tower
are going for) - however, they were NOT in the main racks, but
underneath them, where they typically keep the extra CDs.  "Well,
this is incredibly LAME" I thought, "Who's going to see them down
THERE?"  So, after putting a few behind the "Blue Oyster Cult" divider,
I spied the space above the racks where they often put popular, new,
or sale discs.  Figuring that no-one really wants to buy Mary Blige CDs,
I put a bunch up on top where the much-debated cover could be
prominently seen.  Then, I snuck the remaining 4 or 5 CS onto Tower's
rack of new releases near the front of the store.  "MUCH better" I thought.

I then drove to Cambrige (just north of Boston) and checked out HF
availability and visibility at Newbury Comics, Tower Records, and HMV
there.  As in Burlington, I made sure copies of HF were displayed
prominently (who's really worried about buying a copy of "The Best of
the Blues Brothers" in 1998 anyway?).  Again, Tower had several copies,
Newbury Comics had only 1 (!!), and HMV (selling them for $16.99) had
3 or 4.

A song by song quick reaction will soon follow...

At long last the wait has ended.  Thanks BOC, for (finally!!) releasing
this music!  Given the climate of today's music, who knows for sure if
it will really be a mega-hit or not, but certainly most BOC fans will be
incredibly pleased to have this CD in their collection.

So, when's the NEXT one coming out?  ;-)

John