aworks list :: tower record stores

Coolfer has the Tower Records liquidation news.

For the historical record, here is my list of stores to mark what may be the beginning of the end of the consumerist era, at least for me...

1. Mountain View. Once a month or more since 1987. Lost its mojo in the 1999 remodel. Used to have a sign in a prominent outside window promoting classical music books.
2. Classical Annex in Berkeley. I loved that store. Then, they moved to the second floor of the regular Tower and then they closed.
3. Tower Sunset Pop in Los Angeles. My first visit in 1984 may have planted the seed for moving to the Golden State.
   
4. Classical Annex on Columbus & Bay in San Francisco. For some reason, much of my percussion collection comes from here.
5. Tower Outlet on Third Street in San Francisco. Lots of cut-outs and strange books. Small but fun. I still have bargain CDs from here I have yet to listen to.
6. Columbus & Bay in San Francisco. Great neighborhood views of the Bay, of course and with their own parking lot.
   
7. Tower San Mateo WOW. Not so wow but the classical section used to be ok.
8. Tower Castro in San Francisco. Saw critic Allan Ulrich loading up on CDs there one day. The classical section used to be good. A trip to this Tower would always be coupled with a trip to Reprise Records on Market Street for used CDs. In the same building as that tiny parking garage.
   
9. Tower Records in Dublin, Ireland. Saw the amazing sight of 1000 young Catholic girls lined up for the Boyzone in-store visit.
10. Tower Records in Campbell. Classical section used to be the best in the San Jose area.
11. Tower Village in New York. For some reason, a 1994 visit is burned into my mind.
12. Tower Records Trump Tower. Lousy selection but I always ended up their anyway.   
13. Tower Records in DC. Made a point to swing by on the honeymoon.
14. Tower Records Stonestown in San Francisco. Classical section used to be ok. For a retail store, poorly lit.
15. Classical/Video on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Never felt the buzz here that I got from either the Pop store or the Berkeley Classical store.
16. Original store and (former) outlet store in Sacramento. The latter was in a cheesy shopping center and was by far the worst Tower I have been in. The former had morphed into just another store.

Others I remember visiting: Blossom Hill/San Jose (where the free Metallica concert got out of hand), Lincoln Center, Concord, Emeryville, Fresno, Costa Mesa, La Jolla, Pasadena, Tustin, Cambridge, Portland, and Austin. Cambridge, over the years, was the best of that list and the city of Fresno is the place I would least like to revisit.

Thanks to the Mountain View classical staff over the years, even if they never seemed particularly enthusiastic about all those contemporary CDs I was buying. And perhaps ironically, as I write this, I happen to be downloading my first TV video from Apple's iTunes store.