Waterloo Records holds a store-wide sale twice a year. It’s been a while since went to the sale as a customer instead of an employee, so I’d forgotten about a strange phenomenon that occurs when I try to shop at that time, which happened again this past weekend.

So far, with little failure, the following things occur when I go the Waterloo Records store-wide sales:

  • I don’t remember the mental list I made to myself weeks back about albums I wanted to get during the sale. (It helps to write it down, huh?)
  • If I remember an item on that forgotten list, it will most likely be out of stock.
  • The item that’s out of stock will be something I want more than the other items in that newly-remembered forgotten mental list.
  • The albums that are in stock are ones I’m not in the mood to listen to at the moment.
  • I will end up walking the aisles for a long time trying to jog my memory about what I wanted.
  • As I walk the aisles trying to job my memory, I come to the realization that nothing really grabs me.
  • I spend money anyway because it’s a sale at a record store I like very much.

This time around, I walked away with:

  • Explosions in the Sky, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever. It’s because I’m watching Friday Night Lights on TV. The shows uses quite a lot of Explosions in the Sky.
  • Envy, Insomniac Doze. I downloaded this album from eMusic. I think I’m turning into a post-rock sycophant.
  • Patty Griffin, Living with Ghosts. Just because I remembered writing about Patty Griffin a few days ago.
  • Ernesto Lecuona, The Ultimate Collection. I played "Cordoba" from his Andulcia suite for a piano recital in my senior year of high school. I’ve never heard a recording of the song. Man did I play it slow.
  • Now It’s Overhead, Dark Light Daybreak. Andrew LeMaster was featured in the Advocate. I wanted to listen to something entirely new, too.

I actually wanted to get Envy and Explosions in the Sky, so sometimes I do find what I want at the sale.

Here’s what I couldn’t find:

  • Craig Armstrong, Piano Works. I didn’t feel like paying full price for this CD, so I waited for a store-wide sale. Oops.
  • Elvis Costello, My Aim is True. Same excuse. I found it strange, though — Waterloo is seldom out of stock of Elvis Costello.
  • Steve Reich, Phases. I wasn’t going to buy it so much as look at it. But I couldn’t even do that.