![]() ![]() Later as an older kid, when I had earned some money, it was stamps, coins, marbles, even military insignia (patches, medals), ordinance (spent shell casings and grenades), and war memorabilia – that was until I became anti-war in my teens. I used to take those cards out of a shoe box and re-read the ones from my dad’s travels. Plus I liked the exotic or far away places conjured up by my cocktail “swizzle sticks” or postcard collection from all over the world. In the city with my mom, it was little treasures I’d find in the trash in the alleyway behind our apartment, like bottle caps, or I’d maybe stuff my pockets with junk I collected from the muddy bottom of the ponds drained in the Boston Gardens (a park) in October – you never knew when you might need some string or a tampon applicator – it was all free and fascinating. I used to collect shells in all the Caribbean places we stayed, or leaves and rocks from the forest in Vermont at the commune I stayed at for a while, or stuff like geodes and cactus branches from the desert in Arizona where my grandparents and uncle moved to after they left Cuba. I think what prompted me to do it was tat I just loved having material examples of things I was interested in so that I could come back to them time and time again – to play with them and later to study them, from rocks to toy cars. ![]() Q: What prompted you to start collecting? What age did you start? Was there a specific event in your life, an era, which signifies your transition from music lover to a collector?Ī: Well it was interesting – I think I have always been into collecting things, from back as far as I can remember. Note the racist kitsch illustration, but it does point to the Afro-Cuban origins of the danzón and cha-cha-cha. One of the classic 10” records my dad smuggled out of Cuba on that fabled New Year’s airplane ride. Babalú, Miguelito Valdés, is not so well known in the Anglo world ‘cos he never had a sitcom with Lucille Ball. People used to mistake my dad for him he once got a free cab ride from a guy who refused to believe my pops wasn’t Ricky Ricardo. Desi Arnaz, the Latino Elvis (white man imitating black man). Andy González and Manny Oquendo = La combinación perfecta!Ī great one dollar flea market find, Mr. But I say what about one of those mad Japanese paper sleeve jobs, where they recreate the original album exactly but in miniature and the sound is great? My favorites are the reproductions of the Hipgnosis covers for Led Zeppelin.Ĭosmic salsa album cover for Libre, one of the best bands of the 70s-80s, by unsung genius, Walter Velez, ex-design partner of Izzy Sanabria. Some complain about CDs, how they are little and sound bad. The morning raga was great for Sunday in the a.m.! I was into funky music as well as rock! I also used to take my dad’s 8 track tapes to listen to in my room, especially the first two Santana and this Ravi Shankar live album from California. First record I actually bought with my own money was probably a 45 by KC and The Sunshine Band or Sly and The Family Stone’sGreatest Hits. I used to just love putting it on my little portable record player, dancing to it, or sitting looking at the amazing cover art and trying to imagine the Beatles coming to play right there in front of me. I was like 6, so I guess it was around 1970. But my first record I chose myself, I stole it from someone, well, “borrowed” it and never returned it, I forget if it was from my parents, a friend’s older sibling, or a babysitter. Q: What was your first album? How did you get it? At what age? Can you describe that feeling? Do you still have it?Ī: I would have to say The Beatles,Revolver. ![]() If you girls and boys are into Latin music, then this one is for you!! So here is Bongohead, and he’s quite a music head, and he’s from Northhampton, MA.
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