I’ll admit it. I dance.
Right before we open the store, while still doing the morning cleanup, I’ll boogie down as I run the vacuum or windex the countertops. In both of the comic shops I’ve had the honor of being employed at, having music playing was huge and competitive. I happen to work with now some really interesting and savvy pop culture enthusiasts (including me!) who have weird and eclectic music tastes. I think it comes along with the appreciation for art. It used to be CDs, but when the player broke down and the store manager got an iPod, all bets were off and the store was full of dance.
No music input device, we tune it to a local station playing rock or ‘trendy indy’ when we have commercials running. And it makes a difference; when the store’s speakers are out or we haven’t turned on the stereo for the day, it shows. We’re like a tomb, a memorial to a bygone era. With the music thumpin’, it’s a whole different store.
I’m not saying that Metro’s throwing lightswitch raves or anything, but we tend to play a variety of hip and interesting music that sets a mood in the store. When ‘mashups’ hit the radio scene, the store manager and I were on the ‘net, bringing the sounds of Stevie Wonder and Destiny’s Child (with a bit of ‘Sledgehammer’) into the store. On slow, rainy days, we’ve celebrated with Tom Waits. Anytime a place like the FuMP finds funny music about my fandoms, I throw it on the mp3 player and share it with the store.
Yesterday, I was struck by all this as I worked along to Word Balloons’ podcast with Ed Brubaker, thinking of how cool it was to be listening to comics while working with comics in a comic store and how that little.mp3 drive of mine was kind of important. No matter how many times I get taken ‘off the air’ at Metro when my copy of ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ by Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa plays.
It’s all about expanding horizons, right?
