a bunch of new CDs

Since I'm in class this week, I get "out" of work earlier than usual. Class ended at 4:45 yesterday afternoon, so I was on my way uptown for orchestra rehearsal an hour early. That extra time gave me the chance to go to Tower Records in Lincoln Square. Tower is closing their New York stores (I don't know if they're closing anything else) and they've marked down all of their remaining inventory. Right now the discount is at 25% off everything. I don't listen to much popular music anymore, so I went straight to the classical department. I had a mental list of composers and works that I needed to fill out my collection. Unfortunately, the selection has already been well picked over. I found a number of CDs anyway, but I had to lower my usual snobbish conductor/orchestra/label standards. Here's what I picked up:

Mozart: Symphonies 39, 40, 41 (Gunter Wand, NDR Symphony Orchestra)
Bruckner: F Minor Mass (a bunch of people I've never heard of before, it was $12 before the discount)
Bruckner: Symphony No. 2 (Eschenbach, Houston)
Stravinsky: Petrushka and Pulcinella Suite (Bernstein, NY Philharmonic)
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring and Firebird Suites (Ozawa/Chicago and Leinsdorf/Boston)
Strauss: Don Quixote and Schumann: Cello Concerto (Rostropovich on cello, Karajan and Bernstein, Berlin Orch. and Nat'l Orchestre de France)
Dvorak: Violin Concerto and Piano Quintet (Sarah Chang, Colin Davis, London Sym. Orch.)
Chopin: 2 piano concertos and some other works for piano & orchestra (Skrowaczewski, Alexis Weissenberg on piano)
Mahler: Symphony No. 7 (Barenboim, Staatskapelle Berlin)

They also had one copy of my grandfather's recording of Vaughan Williams' Tuba Concerto. Eight years ago, when EMI released the CD, I bought five copies of it at the same Lincoln Square Tower Records location on a weekend trip to New York because I couldn't find it anywhere in DC or online. At this point my father has three or four copies of it, my mother has two, and my brother and I have at least one apiece, so I left Tower's last copy on the rack.

I got nine CDs for a little over $100. The receipt said I saved $32, and I'm not sure if that's much of a bargain. At rehearsal my stand partner pointed out that I could pay $10 for CDs on iTunes or just download the same music illegally. I'm aware of both of those options, and I prefer to have physical copies of all of my music when possible. That way I have the original source material should I need to re-rip or restore my electronic copies of my collection. I've ripped all the CDs and put them on my iPod, but so far I've only listened to part of the Chopin disc. I'll get out earlier this afternoon, so I'll check out some of the others as I'm wandering the UES looking for bits and pieces of my costume for Saturday night's Halloween party. What I can find will determine what my costume turns out to be.

Still no word from the laundromat. Not only are they still closed, it doesn't look like anyone has been in there. I may be buying more clothes over the weekend to replace what's being held hostage.