We're in the movies, sort of...

Here at AQ, we're often writing things about Harvey Milk. But, being AQ, it's always stuff about the band Harvey Milk, and not the man for whom the band was named.

So, we encourage everyone to go see the new the new movie, Milk, which opened in theaters today. Directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn, Milk is about the life and times (and tragic assassination) of '70s San Francisco supervisor and gay rights leader, Harvey Milk, the nation's first openly gay elected official. We're looking forward to seeing it, and plan on doing so at the Castro Theatre, naturally, where it'll be playing all month.

And not only do we know a few fellas who were extras in the film (including one of Allan's housemates, and one of the guys from Sic Alps) but Aquarius itself gets some screen time! Well, not our actual store here on Valencia Street, but a Hollywood re-creation of our storefront exactly where it used to be back in the day on Castro Street, where we started off, right next door to Harvey Milk's camera shop. That's what's pictured above.

When the film was shooting, someone from the Milk production team actually called here to see if we had an old sign they could use... we didn't, so they made their own. It's supposed to be very '70s psychedelic, though it looks kinda rave-y to us. If you look closely at the posters in the window, they're all for made-up bands.

We asked old AQ owner Butch if the Milk version of Aquarius looked at all authentic. He said, nope. But it's still cool they tried!

The Milk folks did their best to give the whole Castro area a retro makeover for the filming. Our pal Matt Wobensmith blogged a bit about it here when it was happening. (That's where the picture above came from, thanks Matt).

And on the New York Times website today, there's a photo essay slide show thing about Milk that includes a shot of the "fake" old AQ.

So, on a related note: does anyone have any old photos of Aquarius on Castro St. they'd like to share? We'd be curious, we've never seen what either of AQ's early incarnations on Castro St. looked like (we were in two different locations there in the '70s before moving to Noe Valley in the '80s and then over to where we are now in the Mission in 1996).

Jinxed it

Dang, the Joust machine is already acting up. The screen seems to be on the blink. We probably jinxed it by blogging about it the other day. Fortunately, we're grateful to have a friend, Brett, who knows a thing or two about vintage video game machines (he has an arcade's worth of them in his house) and he's gonna be coming by soon to take a look at the Joust and the Rastan and see if he can fix 'em...

Tapes!

Here's a close-up view of our cassette cabinet (which, we forgot to mention when we described how we fit a new arcade game and new LP rack in the store, we moved from near the listening station, over to the wall next to the new metal cds). The usual lo-fi black metal and floorcore noise cassettes, which primarily populate this cabinet, have been joined by some South American and Indonesian '60s garage psychedelia reissued by the new cassette-only label Plus Tapes...

Between-lists new arrivals roundup

Here's some (but not all) of the stuff we got in since list #305 went out. Some (but not all) of these will be reviewed this Friday on list #306.

One of the more eagerly-awaited items you'll see listed below is the Jewelled Antler Library box set. We have just a few of those left over from the shipment we received, 'cause we had so many pre-orders! So if you didn't preorder it, and want one, better let us know asap! (Those who pre-ordered it should have heard from us already, and in most cases we've already shipped your Jewelled Antler Library box off to you. Thanks!)

There's also the Buddha Machine II (new loops, new colors, and pitch control!!), a few new Mississippi releases, that trilogy of Hawkwind tribute split 7"s on Trensmat, a new issue of The Wire, a new NWOFHM effort from Steel Mammoth, and well, see for yourself, kinda crazy...

Acid Mothers Temple And The Cosmic Inferno / White Hills "Sonic Attack (Psychedelic Warlords)" (Trensmat) 7" $5.98
Animals & Men "Never Bought, Never Sold" (Mississippi) lp $10.98
Aidan Baker "Letters" (Basses Frequences) lp $17.98
Bible Of The Devil "Freedom Metal" (Cruz Del Sur) cd $11.98
Bible Of The Devil / Valkyrie "The Auld Dirt Road / False Dreams" (Heavy Birth Vinyl Records) 7" $5.98
Blood Ceremony "s/t" (Rise Above / Candlelight) cd $13.98
Brethren Of The Free Spirit "The Wolf Also Shall Dwell With The Lamb" (Important Records) cd $14.98
William S. Burroughs "Break Through In Grey Room" (Sub Rosa) cd/lp $14.98/$16.98
David Byrne & Brian Eno "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today" (Todomundo Ltd. / Opal Ltd.) cd $14.98
Colossal Yes "Charlemagne's Big Thaw" (Ba Da Bing) lp $13.98
Dara Puspita "A Go Go" (Plus Tapes) cassette $5.50
Dara Puspita "Green Green Grass" (Plus Tapes) cassette $5.50
Dara Puspita "Jang Pertama" (Plus Tapes) cassette $5.50
Dragging An Ox Through Water "The Tropics of Phenomenon" (Awesome Vistas) lp $14.98
Earthless "Live At Roadburn" (Tee Pee) 2cd/2lp $14.98/$15.98
Fennesz "Black Sea" (Touch) cd $15.98
Flaskavsae / Light Shall Prevail "split" (E.E.E Recordings) cd-r $13.98
FM3 "Buddha Machine II : Brown" (FM3) battery powered soundbox $26.00
FM3 "Buddha Machine II : Burgundy" (FM3) battery powered soundbox $26.00
FM3 "Buddha Machine II : Grey" (FM3) battery powered soundbox $26.00
Grouper / Inca Ore "split" (Acuarela) cd $21.00
Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid "NYC" (Domino) cd $15.98
J.T.IV "Cosmic Lightning" (Galactic Zoo Disc / Drag City) lp+dvd $24.00
Jackie-o Motherfucker "The Cryin' Sea" (Awesome Vistas) lp $14.98
Jarboe "Mahakali" (The End) cd $12.98
The Killers "Day & Age" (Island) cd $15.98
Kinski / Bardo Pond "Sonic Attack (Lords Of Light)" (Trensmat) 7" $5.98
Los Holys "Sueno Sicodelico" (Plus Tapes) cassette $5.50
Mudhoney / Mugstar "Sonic Attack (Motorheads)" (Trensmat) 7" $5.98
The Rats "s/t" (Mississippi) lp $12.98
Sacros "s/t" (Shadoks) cd $17.98
Sad Horse "North Portland Music Series, Volume #2" (Mississippi) 7" $3.98
Sorc'henn "Faro" (Crucial Bliss) cd-r $8.98
J. Spaceman & Matthew Shipp "SpaceShipp" (Treader) cd $17.98
Steel Mammoth "The Kingdom Of The Golden Hammer" (SuperMetsa / Ektro) cd $14.98
Susanna "Flower Of Evil" (Rune Grammofon) cd $17.98
Ulaan Khol "II" (Soft Abuse) cd $14.98
v/a "Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture" (Soul Jazz) 2cd $25.00
v/a "Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture Vol. 1" (Soul Jazz) 2lp $25.00
v/a "Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture Vol. 2" (Soul Jazz) 2lp $25.00
v/a "The Jewelled Antler Library" (Porter) 4cd box $61.00
Watain "Rabid Death's Curse" (Season Of Mist) cd $14.98
Kanye West "808s & Heartbreak" (Roc-A-Fella) cd $15.98
The Wire "#298 November 2009" magazine $9.98
Wooden Shjips "Vampire Blues / I Hear The Vibrations" (Sick Thirst) 7" $4.50

A new addition to the family

If you've been in the store lately, you've already seen it. Joust! The classic video arcade game from 1982. We have one here at AQ now, joining our other arcade machines, Andee's Tron and Allan's Rastan (which is currently out of order, but hopefully soon to be fixed). Andee surprised Allan with the Joust for his birthday a few weeks back, and as far as Allan is concerned, it's about the best birthday present ever. Understandably, Andee says it's Allan's Christmas present, too... C'mon in and play! (Andee is the current high score holder, with 111,900 175,550 points.)

Of course, Joust is best in 2-player mode, wherein you try to cooperate and not accidentally kill each other (except during the "gladiator" levels), so at some point we'll have to have a proper tournament...

If you're wondering where we put this Joust machine in our increasingly crowded store, well we put it where the magazine rack used to be, with the Rastan beside it. We then moved the Tron into the window space vacated by the Rastan. The magazines all went on a new spinny rack. And, somehow, we were able to also fit a whole new LP rack in where the Tron machine used to be! So vinyl browsers will have an easier time of it, and we can stock MORE LPs, yay!

If (if? when!) we get more arcade machines, though, it remains to be seen where we'll squeeze 'em in. And Allan and Andee are planning to attend a video game auction next month, uh oh...

Speaking of new additions to the family, also, we should formally introduce our newest (and tallest) staff member, Nick Ott. What with Cameron leaving to move to NYC, we're really glad to have Nick on board.

Andee doesn't hate these bands

Just can't seem to stop blogging today... Thought some folks might want to take a look at this, it's the latest installment our pal Brandon Stosuy's metal column for Pitchfork, Show No Mercy. As a year-end wrap-up, he's got his top ten of 2008... along with similar lists from a bunch of cool folks with good taste, members of Krallice, Gates Of Slumber, Skeletonwitch, Ludicra, Matmos, Enslaved, and others. Among 'em, a metal top ten from AQ's own Andee! (And some of his picks, we even still have copies of in stock, maybe!).
Even cooler, one of the other top ten lists, by Cosmo of the Invisible Oranges blog, includes haiku about each album.

Bogner fun

Our customer Steven Johnson in Baltimore emailed to say: "Hey there Aquarians... as usual your new arrivals email is helping me tear off the sleepy cobwebs of an early Saturday morning after the work week is done. Ursula Bogner made my week! So inspired I was, I took a gander at the Faitiche website for more morsels. What I found may excite you - should you not already be aware! You can play all the tracks on their website. But more importantly, you can play them at the same time! So one can take Bogner to a whole new level - everyone can be a Bogner mixmaster. I am still messing around with combinations, but so far my favorite is tracks 1 & 2 in combination. You can adjust volumes as well. Perhaps you may want to cue "Aqua-world" in to this little bit of web-fun?!"

Thanks Steve, indeed we do, everybody check it out here: http://www.faitiche.de/catalog1_en.html

And while you're there, you can also read more about the fascinating Ursula Bogner... or perhaps we should say "Ursula Bogner"? The skeptical amongst us couldn't help noticing that there's a page on the Faitiche site that gives a definition of the label's name as being "a combination of facts and fetishes, and makes it obvious that the two have a common element of fabrication." Hmm.