Once everything became computer files and made all old entertainment obsolete it caused DVDs and CDs and LPs and BluRays and cassettes to rain down like manna from the heavens to overflow upon the cramped aisles of glorious mini-flea markets like Trax N Wax.
Stacks and stacks of vintage recordings and movies and TV shows of decades past populate this packed to the gills emporium. Here and there they've got new and newish recordings still pressed onto silver discs, too, and the price tags really stand out since they're well more than five bucks. They've got a whole video game selection, too, natch, though I haven't been much of a gamer since the days of the first NES. Plus there's odds and ends like buttons, blank cassettes - including the classic clear, pink, blue and yellow Memorex joints - and whatever the hell it was I took a picture of.
The only stumbling blocks to the maximum five star rating? 1. Parking is a pain. The lot here is puny and usually full or close to it. Plus the store is situated right next to a giant bend on Harper so pulling out can be a trepidatious affair. 2. It's too easy to spend too much money here. Yeah, I'm sure they found the best locale they could for their business with the funds they could secure and the latter one is just me blaming them for my lack of impulse control but hey, those fives are special. I try to save 'em.
I got some DVD box sets of TV shows and a couple CDs the first time I was in here. I picked up season one of Dead Like Me which I gave to my sister for Christmas. I was gonna give my dad season one of Friday Night Lights cause he loves sports and I thought I could trick him into watching a TV drama but after watching about half of it I concluded he really wouldn't dig it that much. I kind of have mixed feelings about it myself but there are a lot of good elements to it. Definitely not a bad score secondhand. The best set I got though was the HBO docudrama from The Earth to the Moon. If outer space exploration interests you at all it's definitely worth a watch. I also snagged season one of Heroes as I'd heard it's really good, and is in fact the only good season of Heroes. I can't weigh in on later seasons as I'm going to trust their bad reputation and not watch them but I did enjoy season one.
All that set me back less than $40. I think I might have got a CD or two as well, I really don't remember.
On my most recent trip to TnW I treated myself to a giant stack of CDs, mainly nostalgia from the 80s, 90s and a bit of the 00s. I set aside some Bruce Hornsby and the Range and Mike and the Mechanics for my mom's birthday, too. Topping out at over $60 it was a bit of sticker shock at the register but I really did grab a lot. Not everyplace can rock the big $5 grab bags of rummage extravaganza at Our Lady of the Scapular down in Wyandotte but that's a once a year affair and neither here nor there anyway. The music selection wasn't as good there anyway.
So yeah, I've been playing Busta Rhymes, They Might Be Giants, The Beatnuts, The Ocean Blue, Alan Parsons Project and more, all from Trax N Wax in my ride and the work van. And somehow I haven't even got into Jurassic 5 yet. And y'know, I didn't really look but it's funny they didn't have any classic Industrial recordings from Chicago label Wax Trax! prominently displayed. Cause, you know, the name and all. There is, however, a big cardboard stand up of ICP in the front window. WOOP WOOP read more