One of Lady Matilda's recent acquisitions is a gorgeous Philco turntable cabinet we picked up during the estate sale for Arch Mage Frido Basquit. We knew Frido loved his music and so this 1949 turntable was in impeccable shape when we brought it home. He had installed a variant of Slowglass technology back in 1948 so that it preserved and played radio signals it collected 70 years ago across all AM frequencies in Peabody, Massachusetts. He kept meticulous notes on key programming over the years and when we could expect to hear the sounds of the past emerge from its massive cabinet speaker. The 70Y Slowglass alone was worth more than the truck we brought the cabinet home in, but we got the coven discount for all those years we worked together.
Of course, with such a pristine item in our care, Lady Matilda caught the vinyl bug and wanted to start collecting all the old records she had as a kid. While passing through Middletown on a weeknight, we stopped into KT Media, which was staffed by a friendly and helpful young woman aided by a well-mannered puppy. The store has a large inventory well organized in a small space. The store is, itself, a throwback to the classic merchant storefront style with front displays packed with nostalgia and beautiful reminders of when radios and media players were as much works of art as what they played. I was enchanted before I even got inside.
Lady Matilda caught up on her Stevie Nicks records, threw in a couple of Taylor Swift albums on vinyl, and spent some time digging through their vast collection of 45s. They had some "ancient tech" in the form of laserdisc players and VCRs in the back near some random collectible toys that I sorted through. I picked up a few random weird albums. Nothing mystic or mysterious, but there were definitely enough memories here at reasonable prices that we will be back. read more
