memory's outbox

Kai Haaskivi, Chris Vaccaro, Desmond Armstrong, Brian Bliss, Bernie James, P.J. Johns, Ali Kazemaini, Victor Nogueira, Joey Raduka, the Schmetzer brothers, John Stollmeyer, Carl Valentine…

Another legend of my youth and, unlike the Lancer, I spent untold hours at the Record Exchange recycling my music collection, bringing in CDs I no longer wanted and receiving credit which I could use to buy albums I coveted.  We still call it the “Record Exchange” though it has gone through many name changes and is now the CD and Game Exchange.

Photo circa 1985 courtesy of The Cleveland Memory Project.

The Lancer was a legend (certainly in my mind, and by the looks of all the cars parked akimbo on Saturday nights, in real life as well).  About half way between downtown Cleveland and my home on the east side, it was one of the only remarkable things on my travels down the Carnegie corridor.

For me, Carnegie was a way to get home from downtown or the airport.  It was a liminal place.  The Lancer, was a waypost, a mark that I was half way home.

A visit to the Lancer has been on my list of Cleveland holiday visit to-dos forever, sitting just north or south of a stop by the The House of Swing (Where Jazz is King!) another legend from my youth, and a place I only saw from car windows.

I never got to go to the Lancer.  I’m gonna go to the House of Swing next time I am home.

ps.  Check out the large version of this photo, taken by Cleveland SGS.  Stunning.

Reminiscing about iconic images and characters from my childhood that I had forgotten about.

The buzzard from 100.7 WMMS

The question he is answering is, “What do you want to do before you die?”

The answers are then streamed on a screen just outside this photo to the left.

It’s an ad for The Buried Life on MTv.  I passed this somewhere in the mid-forties on 5th avenue on my way to lunch.

Twitter trending topics on the TV in my elevator at work.