... or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bed Bugs
by Kliph Nesteroff
Strictly Oompah! That was the name of the very first vinyl record I ever owned.
I started collecting records when I was fifteen. I discovered a store in an obscure, small Western Canadian town that I will not name, as it remains a goldmine. You could trade in a coveted cassette tape for three vinyl LPs. So with each passing week I fell increasingly out of love with my juvenile musical tastes and purged myself of my tapes. MC Hammer? Legit enough to trade in. Stone Temple Pilots? Have a nice flight. C&C Music Factory? Your entire workforce has been laid off. Bring on the records.
Eventually I found myself scouring phone books and writing down the addresses of out of the way thrift stores and planning elaborate bus rides. It got to the point where I once quit my job because I felt it was interfering with my thrifting schedule.
Over the course of many years I accumulated thousands of incredible albums. There was no other twenty-something kid in all of Canada with a record collection as immense as my own.
That was then. This is now. A few months ago my home – and in particular my record collection - was invaded by bedbugs. This is the sordid tale.
Listen to Kliph's interview on Lanarama: