Bob Schwartz

Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently-owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today, Record Store Day is celebrated at independently-owned brick-and-mortar record stores around the world.

For many years I posted about Record Store Day, but not recently.

I should feature it every year.

I would not be who I am without the hours spent in record stores, chain stores and independents. If you go to a concert, you are surrounded by people who love particular artists or particular types of music. In all those record stores, big or small, you are surrounded by people who love music.

The record stores of my youngest years included two different record buying experiences.

One was in the next town. The stores on the avenue began with a Woolworth’s on the north side and a tiny record store on the south side. The Woolworth’s was where I bought albums, the other was where I bought singles.

The other experience was the cavernous Sam Goody’s store at our local mall. Sam Goody’s still has mall stores, though these are mere storefronts. I am talking about huge. It wasn’t a store. It was a world of records. It wasn’t about what I had heard on the radio. It was about whatever was playing and whatever I could hear, what these dozens of other people knew about and were listening to. That was the formative lesson internalized. Music was legion and, in the words of the much later George Michael album title, I learned to listen without prejudice.

Back to Record Store Day 2026. Visit a record store today, talk to other music freaks, buy something. I hear that following the resurgence of vinyl, CDs are coming back too.

Music is good for us. Different kinds of music are good for us. Another back in the day music reference is to David Crosby. The first track on his If I Could Only Remember My Name album says “Everybody’s saying that music is love.” It is.

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April 17, 2026

Joke Break: Duck Walks into a Drugstore…

We need a break. So here’s something from the joke file.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t stupid, tragic and completely unnecessary things going on in this country and the world. That’s exactly what’s going on—but we still have to live. And laugh.

Great jokes don’t have to offend sensibilities, but they sometimes do. So a blanket apology in advance if you are put off or offended—maybe if you are sensitive about ducks or pharmacists, or are one yourself.

Duck walks into a drugstore, asks for some Chap Stick. Guy behind the counter says, “That’ll be fifty-nine cents.” Duck says, “Put it on my bill.”

Next day, the duck walks into the drugstore, asks for a package of condoms. Guy behind the counter says, “Would you like me to put that on your bill?” Duck says, “Hey, what kind of a duck do you think I am!”

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April 17, 2026

Which is a better obsession, Trump or AI?

We are experiencing mass obsession. Both Trump and AI have found their way/forced their way into seemingly every moment of lives in America and the world.

One major distinction is that while Trump is the same old Trump, devolving as he becomes omnipresent, AI is evolving exponentially.

Another distinction is that while Trump will not be with us forever, despite his attempts at legacy, AI will be with us forever in some form at some level of capability.

Which obsession is better for us?

For those of us able to resist, as much as our real lives make it possible, the less Trump the better.

On the other hand, our interest in AI, regularly approaching obsession, can be good for us if we approach it knowingly, intelligently and conscientiously. Knowledge and intelligence about developing matters always seems to lag and for some sometimes never catches up.

Think of learning about evolving AI and applying it beneficially as an alternative to learning about Trump, about whom there is nothing more to learn, no matter how obsessed we are.

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April 16, 2026

Solution for the craziest in the administration: The Trump commune

Crazy runs rampant in the Trump administration.

Gregg Phillips, a senior FEMA official, among other wacky incidents, claims to have been teleported sixty miles to a Waffle House in Georgia. Today, a new book reveals that DHS Secretary Kennedy once cut off the penis of a roadkilled racoon to “study it”. These are just two of many examples. Not to mention the one at the top of the pyramid.

What might be done? Here is a creative solution.

There are plenty of ultrarich people in the administration. They could afford to buy any land they wanted anywhere. Or they could use land they already own.

Establish a commune on that land for the craziest members of the administration. Not a bare bones commune. More like a luxury resort. It could include whatever facilities are appropriate. A teleportation area. A museum with a collection of animal skeletons and genitals. A place to practice spiritual “doctoring”. Whatever.

The crazies will have a unique opportunity to exchange interesting ideas, where they are no danger to themselves or others. America will have a chance to live without them. Making America Sane Again.

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April 16, 2026

Essential reading for insane times: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson

“He who makes a beast of
himself gets rid of the pain of
being a man.”

—DR. JOHNSON

Read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream now. If you’ve already read it, read it again.

The last time I wrote about Hunter S. Thompson was during the 2016 presidential campaign (Hunter S. Thompson and Political Journalism) and right after the election (If Hunter S. Thompson Was Here).

At the time I thought we were experiencing political insanity, which Thompson was so good at reporting. Now that we are experiencing total insanity, Thompson is the one to tell the story—even if he originally wrote that story more than fifty years ago.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas appears to be a drug-saturated tale of a journalist and his lawyer covering a motorcycle race in Las Vegas. Some consider it a commentary on the craziness of the sixties. But as the title says, it is about much more. Whatever Thompson saw as the dark heart of the American Dream in the sixties he would now find in the insane heart of the twenties.

The epigraph of the book from Samuel Johnson might be about Thompson himself. Or it might be about the people he found himself among, in Las Vegas and in Washington D.C.

“He who makes a beast of
himself gets rid of the pain of
being a man.”

—DR. JOHNSON

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April 15, 2026

Spring Love Thing: Slinky Spinwheels

If you’re lucky enough to love somebody, and even luckier to have that somebody love you back, you’re always thinking of little things that say I love you.

The candy, the cards, the flowers, the stuffed animals are always appropriate. If you’ve been together a while, been there, given that. Then there is the Slinky Spinwheel.

Okay, it’s just a happy-colored mylar pinwheel. But consider this. The candy gets eaten, the card gets put in a drawer, the cut flowers wilt, the live flowers need water and when they don’t get it die, the stuffed animals cutely live on a closet shelf.

The spinwheel lives. It spins prettily and magically in the spring breeze. Or in the summer, fall or even cold winter breeze. Just like the one you love and who, if you’re lucky, loves you back.

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April 15, 2026

You can walk for peace with every step

This past winter a group of Buddhist monks walked across America for peace. The Walk for Peace captured the spirit and imagination of many Americans. Wherever the monks walked and stopped they were surrounded by followers, many who knew little about Buddhism but inherently and absolutely knew the value of seeking peace.

You don’t have to walk cross country as a Buddhist monk to seek peace. You don’t have to walk a mile or a block to seek peace.

Whenever you walk, putting one foot down, picking one foot up, or just moving any way you do, there is peace in every step. Peace in every step, in every word, in every thought.

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April 14, 2026

World Quantum Day

“I think I can safely say that no one understands quantum mechanics.”
Richard Feynman, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum mechanics

“God does not play dice with the universe”
Albert Einstein

Today is World Quantum Day, a celebration of quantum science.

Understanding quantum science is a tall task for most of us. Richard Feynman said, “I think I can safely say that no one understands quantum mechanics.” Feynman won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum mechanics. If he and his colleagues didn’t understand it, what chance do we have?

Understand we should try to, because quantum science is as important as any of our particular developments and achievements, including AI. Understanding AI, particularly the future possibilities of AI, is best done through a quantum lens. On just one point, the question of whether we can “control” the future of AI, a quantum answer could be “of course not.”

Einstein was not a fan of quantum science. “God does not play dice with the universe,” he said. A mechanistic universe might be challenging to describe—who better than Einstein to know that—but mechanistic it would appear to be. Or not. If everything is, or at least some things are, indeterminate, how can we talk about a unified reality? Unless there is no unified reality, at least not in a conventional sense.

Quantum science as a formal study is a recent development. But students of religion know that quantum thinking was long ago developed in various traditions, particularly but not solely in Buddhism. Jewish non-Buddhists, for example, can turn to the Book of Ecclesiastes/Kohelet for the perspective that everything changes and in fact may be illusory. Deal with everything as it comes and changes, and while you do, have a good time.

Roll some dice today. Consider that God might indeed play dice with the universe. Or that the universe plays dice with itself.

For quantum soundtrack, I am inclined to go with minimalist or ambient music. For edgier, maybe avant garde. Erik Satie, Philip Glass, Brian Eno, John Cage.

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April 13, 2026

Just realized that the Trump image he posted isn’t of him healing that man. He is raising him from the dead.

As mentioned in the previous post Trump now says that in the picture he posted, he is a doctor healing that man. This contradicts what everyone sees, a picture of him as a Jesus-like figure.

But looking at it again, it seems clear he is not healing that man with his divine superpower. That man appears to be dead and Trump is bringing him back to life.

Does that make any of this better? I don’t think so. It does make it stranger. Unless you are one who believes the president is capable of that, which makes it stranger still.

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April 13, 2026

Trump on the messianic image he posted today: “I thought it was me as a doctor.”

After even his biggest supporters criticized the above image posted by Trump today as “disgusting”, the post was taken down.

First saying he would not apologize, he then said “I thought it was me as a doctor.”

Many times over the seemingly endless years of Trump, I’ve referenced the DSM-5, the manual of psychiatric disorders, as applied to him.

Following is from the DSM-5, concerning grandiose delusions, a feature of Paranoid Personality Disorder. There is no clinical diagnosis of “messiah complex”. But professional designations aside, we know it when we see it.

Associated Features of Paranoid Personality Disorder

Individuals with paranoid personality disorder are generally difficult to get along with and often have problems with close relationships. Their excessive suspiciousness and hostility may be expressed in overt argumentativeness, in recurrent complaining, or by hostile aloofness. They display a labile range of affect, with hostile, stubborn, and sarcastic expressions predominating. Their combative and suspicious nature may elicit a hostile response in others, which then serves to confirm their original expectations.

Because individuals with paranoid personality disorder lack trust in others, they need to have a high degree of control over those around them. They are often rigid, critical of others, and unable to collaborate, although they have great difficulty accepting criticism themselves. They may blame others for their own shortcomings. Because of their quickness to counterattack in response to the threats they perceive around them, they may be litigious and frequently become involved in legal disputes. Individuals with this disorder seek to confirm their preconceived negative notions regarding people or situations they encounter, attributing malevolent motivations to others that are projections of their own fears. They may exhibit thinly hidden, unrealistic grandiose fantasies, are often attuned to issues of power and rank, and tend to develop negative stereotypes of others, particularly those from population groups distinct from their own. Attracted by simplistic formulations of the world, they are often wary of ambiguous situations. They may be perceived as “fanatics” and form tightly knit “cults” or groups with others who share their paranoid belief systems. (emphasis added)

Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)

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