What I got today
Well I am trying to not buy too much on ebay, but it is hard. Today I bought a lot of 10 psychedelic bands for $18 including shipping. I really thought I wouldn't have a lot of other opportunities for such a reasonable price on some of these tapes:
1. THE STRANGELOVES - I WANT CANDY
2. SUGARLOAF - SPACESHIP EARTH
3. THE IDES OF MARCH - VEHICHLE
4. FEVER TREE - FOR SALE
5. THE HUMAN BEINZ - NOBODY BUT ME
6. SMALL FACES - THERE ARE BUT FOUR SMALL FACES
7. RASPBERRIES FRESH RASPBERRIES
8. THE TREMELOES HERE COMES MY BABY
9. VANILLA FUDGE - NEAR THE BEGINNING
10. SPIRAL STARECASE - MORE TODAY THAN YESTERDAY
The seller said he'd throw in a STEELEYE SPAN cart too, because I paid so promptly.

I also went into the used record store around the corner and bought 6 8-tracks for $8.50.
1. Sounds Like Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. This one tricked me. I thought it was a tribute, but it's actually them.
2. Judy Garland Live at Carnegie Hall, flat pack, melted pinch roller.
3. Marvin Gaye Live at the London Palladium
4. Golden Middle Years of Rock - Handsome Bootleg w/no info. Artisis include: Little Anthony and the Imperials, Dee Clark, Elvis, The Coasters, Billy Bland, etc.
5. Earl Gray - Winter Wonderland. Yay, Xmas music! Decca 6-4677
6. The Temptations Greatest Hits Vol. II Motown, GOR8-1954. A song called Psychedelic Shack on that one. Cool.

So my bid to not spend money is down another $26.50. Rats!

My Vision for the 8-Track Museum
If you're ever in Boston and you want to view the collection email me.

What it's not:
I'd like it to be a multi-media tour, where you'd walk from room to room with a tour guide pushing buttons that would run film clips or slides and 8-tracks with audio clips of different music and snatches interviews with famous people talking about what they remember about 8-tracks. I'd like to have a total 70s room display with the shag rug and lava lamps and all. And exhibits of ads for different carts and players. Maybe a classic car with a player in it. And a quadrophonic room where people could hear quad for that part of the tour. The history of 8-tracks explained. Four tracks, reel-to-reels, magnetic tape developed in WWII, etc. Muntz and Lear. And a display of head cleaner and 8-track related products. Splicers, cleaners, demagnetizers. 2xl would have to give part of the tour. Then at the end there'd be time for browsing before the next tour began. And you'd wind up in a gift shop that would sell carts and supplies for repairing them and t-shirts. I'd like to design a t-shirt with pictures of Muntz and Lear. And lots of different t-shirts with 8-tracks on them. And calendars.

Behind the scenes I'd have technicians repairing players and tapes, and acquisitions using the money we made on the entrance fee to buy stuff we didn't have, and creative production types planning new exhibits and attractions. Tonight at the 8-track Museum: Mandrill or Tom Jones or whoever. I live near Berklee College of Music so hopefully I could get them involved and use the Performance center for concerts if they were going to be too big.

Alas, I'm a Saggitarius, full of grandiose schemes and no follow-through. I hate work and obviously it would take a lot of work and money. I want someone to come along and say "That's a great idea!" and do all the work for me. Actually I'd like to be in charge of acquisitions. I'd surf ebay all day spending the museum's money. Now that would be a job!

What the 8-Track Museum Is Now
The Museum at present is taking up one whole room of my apt. and spilling into the hallway outside the door. It is wall-to-wall shelves. Portable players are on display on the top shelf and some of my fancier carriers. There's about 35 component-type players, some with turntables, stacked up on the floor against one wall and two rows deep under my worktable.

The work table has some other cool display items on it. Two players with little doors that look like toaster ovens. One plays three tapes one after the other, the other plays five tapes! They work poorly. The quality isn't the same from tape to tape and they have a hard time drawing the next tape in sometimes. They spit one out, but the next doesn't go in all the way until you give it a push. There's one of my 3 mostly non-functioning 2xl robots, an early 8-track-like tape cartridge system from Orrtronics for which I have one 'Tapette". It plays if I hold it in just the right positon. There's a pile of 8-track to casette adaptors and an radio tuner that you stick into an 8-track slot to play. There's an aerosol spray stereo cleaner that says for use on 8-track players on the label. I haven't tried it. 30 years of pressure built up in that can. I can't imagine it'd be the best thing fo rmy players right now.

The piece de resistance of the whole room is a giant fiberglass fake fireplace with an electric fake fire. Under the mantel (Surprise!) are a turntable and an 8-track player. Speakers fit inside on either side of the 'fire'. I found it on vacation in Wildwood, New Jersey in the trash. It's super heavy. My ex and I nearly killed ourselves lifting it into the truck. This behemoth has had all its wires cut, but I hope to restore it to its former glory one day.

In front of the cozy fake fire is a giant fuzzy chess board rug with pieces all ready to go. Somebody come play with me? I'm no good at chess, but I play anyway. On top of the rug is a blue butterfly chair. There's hardly any room to walk around and admire the tapes on the walls, so luckily the butterfly chair is the folding type.

There are also two windows with crazy-patterned vintage fabric curtains and the top sash glass is covered with old 8-track ads to keep the sun off the carts. I leave only tiny spaces for decorations. Between the two windows are two little 70s painted glass pictures, one says Led Zeppelin all in black and red with a sparkly silver blimp, the other says Ziggy and is gold foil and painted glass. There are three macrame wall-hangings, two owls and some flowers.

A hookah stands on tiny shelf by some 60s wall-hangings which are almost indescribable, but I will try. They are teardrop-shaped wood with aqua and white abstract paintings of vases or someting with little plasticky aqua doodads glued on in places. That's the best I can do. One large teardrop and two small. The theme color is aqua, the curtains match the wall-hanging, but the over head plastic ball lampshade is red and the fire is red, so the total effect is probably dreadful. I like it though.

I almost forgot the domed pedestal Electrophonic stereo. It is forgettable. Once a lovely piece, it was mangled during shipping to me. The wooden base won't hold it up. I had to bolt it to the floor. It tilts there forlornly, looking like it wished I had let it die. Hopefully the whole place will be brightened up one day soon by a black light poster, for which I have reserved a prime spot on the closet door.

More Carts Came Today
And these were a trade, 12 for 12, so I only paid in dupes and shipping. I have at least 8 boxes of dupes. Here's what I got:
1. Bakkar - Port Said for my World Music section.
2. Al Caiola - Percussion Espanol. Yay! Space Age Pop.
3. Al Caiola - Tuff Guitar
4. Cecelio and Kapono - Elua. Hawaiian?
5. Cold Blood - s/t. 60s Psych - Janis-like singer, Lydia Perse.
6. Cold Blood - First Taste of Sin
7. Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet musically interpreted, performed by the late Richard Harris aka Dumbledore.
8. Danny Hodgson - Hammond Goes Bossa. So cool.
9. Isley Bros. - Grand Slam. Oops, had this already.
10. Isley Bros. - Harvest to the World
11. Henri Mancini - The Theme Scene. More cool 60s pop instrumentals.
12. Renaissance - Scheherazade. A longed for favorite of old.
Another happy successful trade. Give it a try. Check out my lists and send me yours.

Swamp Rat's Ebay Gripes
I hate it on ebay when:.
1. They don't list the 8-tracks at all.
2. They list the artists but not the titles.
3. The photo isn't clear.
4. The photo doesn't come up at all.
5. They don't say anything about the condition.
6. They don't know anything about 8-tracks. (Occasionally this
works in your favor.)
7. They value them ridiculously high, especially when it's just a
case of country.
8. They don't accept paypal.
9. They don't know how to pack an item securely.
10. They say it's rare when I know it's common.

I may think of more.

Organization Shmorganization
So how many sections do you have? Do you all agonize like I do, about what section to put different artists in? Joni Mitchell? Rock? Women singer/songwriters? With Carole King, Melanie, Doris Day, Debbie Boone? Should I try to separate the vocalists from the writers? That means I have to look them all up and find out who wrote what. Ack.

Soul, R & B, Disco, Funk, Rap? Jazz & Big Band? Which section is Basie in? What if he's not performing with a big band? Male vocalists, soft rock, adult contemporary? Gilbert O'Sullivan, Dan Fogelberg, Gordon Lightfoot? Tom Jones?

I use like four reference books and the web, looking up groups I've never heard of...

Right now I have these sections:
Blank, Homemade, Country, Bluegrass, Trucker, Xmas, 2xl, Soul/R&B/Funk, Disco, Easy Listening/Orchestral/instrumental, Male Singer and/or songwriters, Female singer and/or songwriters, Rock, 50s/60s rock-n-roll, Jazz, Folk, Classical, Blues, Gospel, Polka, Kids, Tributes, Soundtracks, Musicals, Quad, 4-tracks, Reel-to-reel, automobile company tapes, k-tel and other 70s rock anthologies, Teenbeat Superstars try to sing, Cheesey 70s musical duos (Carpenters, Sonny and Cher, Captain and Tenielle, Tony Orlando and Dawn),Comedy, Elvis, World Music, Reggae, spoken word and sound effects. I'm thinking about making a cool 80s section, or punk/new wave, and 60s psychedelic, but I may not have enough examples to warrant whole sections for those. They're in rock now.

Each section is alphabetical by artist, with anthologies at the beginning alphabetical by title. (I work in a bookstore.)

Does anyone else worry about this stuff?

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOG

I just found out that Dick Hyman wrote the music for The Littlest Angel 8-track that I got a coupla days ago. Now to try and fix its gooey pinch roller. Oy!

Today I have been alphabetizing the country section and listening to Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash. Then I think I will organize easy listening since that's what I've been into lately. Other 8-tracks I've been listening to: The Ides of March - Common Ground (featuring Tie-dye Princess), Dylan - Desire, Gypsy - In The Garden, Different Strokes - Various Artists including Miles Davis, Laura Nyro,etc.