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Revolution Records in Torrington has the largest selection of vinyl in the area.
Theo Maniatis
“When I opened this store, I wanted it to feel like my bedroom when I was a teenager,” said John Dibella, who founded the shop six years ago before handing it over to his lifelong friend, Ted Pirro. Pirro, a music lover with shoulder-length silver hair, has spent most of his life working in record stores.
More than a retail shop, Revolution Records has become something of a community center. Pirro calls his most devoted customers “hall of famers” — regulars who arrive without fail every week and chat for hours.
“There’s one gentleman here who’s a huge Beach Boys fan,” said Pirro. “He comes in every Saturday at six like clockwork and we’ll talk about the Beach Boys, how he discovered Brian Wilson.” Another regular, “Magic Phil,” comes in Fridays to discuss the Mets.
The store has also become a meeting ground across generations. Parents and grandparents bring in college-age kids getting their first turntables, bonding over their shared love of music.
“A lot of them are basically rebuying their youth,” Dibella said. “They want to hear it the way they remember hearing it.”
Dibella and Pirro remember when vinyl ruled in the mid-80s, with bustling stores on every block of the West Village. But starting in the 1980s, CDs and cassettes upended the industry. By 2006, album sales had plummeted, and famous record stores shuttered.
“We bought albums from those days marked down to $2.99 that are now worth $35, $40,” explained Dibella. “That’s how much people had no interest in vinyl.”
Ted Pirro has spent most of his life working in record stores and now runs Revolution Records in Torrington.Theo Maniatis
Now, from the brink of extinction, vinyl has been revived. Album sales reached 43.6 million last year for the first time since the 1980s.
Part of old-time records’ appeal lies in the treasure hunt. Dibella’s greatest find came from a box someone rescued from the town dump. Most of it was junk. But, he says, “Second to last record in the box is a King Crimson white label promo of their first album.”
Only 300 were ever made, with maybe ten surviving in good condition. Dibella bought it for a dollar. The actual value? Over a thousand dollars.
Vinyl’s other appeal is the warm, dynamic sound that can’t be captured in digital format. “If you’re listening on YouTube or Spotify, the sound is very compressed,” Pirro said. “You’re not getting the full, rich experience.”
Maybe the greatest appeal of records is the tangible, physical experience: admiring the cover, gently placing the stylus, and those few seconds of static before the music plays.
Running an independent record store is not easy, however. Pirro works six days a week, and the worries of the job linger with him on the seventh day too. There are slow periods after holidays when people travel, and the challenge of finding quality collections to buy.
But for Pirro, it is more than worth it. “I put all my energy into this thing because I don’t want to work for anyone else again,” he said. “The fact that I get to discuss my number one love in life every day is just awesome.”
Fixing Louie’s bridle
Caitlin von Graf
The Club’s current membership includes children from the towns of the Northwest Corner of Connecticut, as well as New York and Massachusetts, representing a broad range of ages (7 to 18) and abilities, from beginners to advanced riders. Although some members own or lease their own horse, owning a horse is not required and most members use the stable’s horses, or the dedicated Pony Club horse, Quincy.
The Club is led by parent volunteers, with support from both the national and regional offices. There are certifications, much like scout badges, as the kids are tested for their knowledge of horses, stable management, and riding skills. Since the knowledge testing involves oral presentations, the kids learn how to stand up and present to their peers. They also learn marketable skills—horse care and stable management—that they can parlay into earning extra money by working at Riga Meadow and other area barns in need of help. Some go on to become professionals in the equine industry, while others pursue careers in medicine or veterinary school. The Club produces some real high achievers!
Pony Club offers opportunities for members to participate in local and regional competitions. A highlight is the annual Halloween party, where Pony Clubbers and their horses are in full costume, competing for prizes. There’s also summer camp — a concentrated week where younger riders are mentored by older ones, and everyone learns and competes in a supportive environment.
Here are some of the things the Club’s kids have said about their belonging to Pony Club:
“I love to meet all the different people and learn new things with people who share my passion.”
“It’s like a family – everyone is there for each other.”
“I love riding with a group of friends.”
“I love the ability to try new things and learn through experience.”
“I love the team competition and being able to help each other.”
Finally, mark your calendars. The Club’s annual horse show, the Lakeville Open, will be on the Riga Meadow property on Sunday, September 7. The show runs all day and admission is free.
For further information and updates on this event, visit facebook.com/LakevillePonyClub/.
Caitlin von Graf
Pony clubbers learn how to groom a horse
At long last, a good look at Bigfoot. That he looks like your basic rock band bass player matters not one whit.
Provided
Seems a Bigfoot has been terrorizing a remote mountain area for years. The prof decides to investigate with his anthropology students, three of whom just happen to be young attractive women.
At long last, a good look at Bigfoot. That he looks like your basic rock band bass player matters not one whit.Provided
The gang piles into a boat and heads down the river with a couple of tents, a coffee pot, and no backpacks. What could go wrong?
Along the way we meet Mr. Carlson, the gun-totin’ mountain hermit, and Crazy Wanda. And a backwoods demon cult. And flashbacks within the flashback of Bigfoot attacking nekkid people in vans.
We’ve got gratuitous jazz flute music. Gratuitous plaid shirts. Gratuitous Bigfoot attack flashbacks. Gratuitous science facts.
Plus a mutant Bigfoot baby that looks like a jumbo order of General Tso’s chicken.
Grocery and dollar stores often carry DVDs and Blu Rays and can be good sources of schlock. One particularly good score was a two-fer disc with “The Howling”, installments V and VI. Oddly enough, V’s release date is two years after VI.
VI has got most of what you want in this type of film, except gratuitous nekkidity.
Now I don’t expect great writing, but can’t we do a little better than this roster of stereotypes? Sheriff who is automatically suspicious of foreigners; peckerwood pol in polyester; preacher/weirdo; preacher’s daughter, anxious to get a little sinning in while she can; evil villain who might or might not be Satan and dresses like a member of the Hellfire Club.
We’re talking cat swinging. Supernaturally evil villain in charge of a circus. Tight pants and checked frock coats on same, which for some is the true horror. Alligator boy. Lycanthropic transformation scenes shot on a very tight budget. Werewolf who looks like the late Michael Jackson after a long night in the Magic Kingdom. Yokels. Guns. Some blood but not as much as you’d think for a werewolf flick.
The immortal Weng Weng, all two feet nine inches of him, had a brief but memorable career, starting with “For Your Height Only,” the flick that, in 1981, took the first ever Manila International Film Festival by storm (which annoyed festival organizer Imelda Marcos).
Weng Weng is Agent 00 and/or Agent 3 ½, depending on the dubbing and subtitles.
Either way, “For Your Height Only” is the greatest film ever made.
You can have your “Citizen Kane” and “Battleship Potemkin.” Spare me your “Rear Window” and “The Third Man.”
Why? Because none of these so-called great films has a tiny secret agent who escapes the bad guys by parachuting from a high balcony with a parasol.
Agent 00 (or 3 ½) is a big fan of the groin punch, the groin being the handiest area on the personal bodies of his assailants for a man of his stature.
“For Your Height Only” has many memorable scenes, but this one might be the best.Provided
And he’s proficient with the mini machine gun and the mini samurai sword.
The flick also features atrocious dubbing in a variety of dialects — Long Island Lockjaw, British dowager, Brooklyn hood.
And the main villain clearly studied at the Moammar Qaddafi Institute of Fashion.
We’ll wrap this up with 1991’s “Karate Cop.” Armed with his sawed-off shotgun and “Special Police” ballcap, John Travis is a post-apocalyptic knight errant, righting what wrongs he can in a hopelessly compromised world, which in this case is Stockton, California.
No nekkidity, for an automatic one-star deduction if Schlock and Awful gave out stars.
Mutant cat man with a speech impediment. Gratuitous police car destruction. Magic motorcycle that never needs refueling. Chain swinging. And the Crown Prince of Schlock, the late David Carradine, and his famous “jacky rabbit stew.”
