AMOEBLOG:   How long have you worked at Amoeba Music Berkeley and what exactly is your job there?
 
DEAN SANTOMIERI:   I started working in the record business in 1971 when I dropped out of SUNY Buffalo. I moved to the Bay Area in 1975, and although I thought I was through with the record business, unemployment was high and my friend Ivy got me a job at Tower Records in Berkeley.   In November 1990, I visited Marc (one of the Amoeba owners) the first weekend Amoeba opened and he offered me a job. I thought about it over the weekend then gave my two employers, Tower and Revolver Records, notice and started two weeks later. This would be late November or early December 1990. A year later I took a job running the Media Center at the California College of Arts, but continued to work Saturdays at Amoeba. In 1996, I left CCA and went back to Amoeba full time. I am a buyer and I work in the classical department. Most of my time is spent helping customers and pricing used CDs.

 

AMOEBLOG:   What makes working at Amoeba unique compared to other jobs you've had?                

DEAN SANTOMIERI:      I could say many things, but Amoeba’s generosity in accommodating its employees stands out, for example, many of us are touring musicians and are graciously given time off. But the lengths to which the owners, managers and Amoeba employees have gone to help each other in time of need is what I find most unique about Amoeba. It is also what makes me most proud about working here. We live in a time when the escalating cost of health care, salaries and pensions have caused companies to drastically reduce or eliminate benefits, but what the Amoeba family has done for Dax Pierson (Amoebite pictured above who was in a serious auto accident while on tour with his band) and others is unlike anything I have ever seen.

Hilly Kristal has died.

Apparently he had lung cancer. 

It's sad to me that after fighting for years to save the seminal punk club he founded, CBGB's, and losing that battle, he then lost his life less than a year later. 

He was 75 years old.

R.I.P Hilly.


Here's a performance by the Ramones at CBGB in 1977.



And here's Blondie performing there the same year:





It's lame and depressing how almost all the cool parts of New York City are being swallowed up by rents and landlords and all that gentrifying junk.

The first time I ever went to NYC I was 19 years old and super wide eyed and I dragged my friends to CBGB.  I coulda sworn I could still smell Lou Reed and Dee Dee Ramone in the dirt coating the street there in the Bowery.  We didn't have fake IDs and we were obviously too young to get in to the club but I went into the shop next door and got a shirt and wore it proudly for about 5 years....until Hot Topic started hawking them and every mall rat across America suddenly had one...Everything rock n roll started to feel even more hollow at that point.

So I am continuing watching the Tales of the City complete series.  Now I'm on to More Tales of the City! 

I have to say, it's not as good as the first series, just like everyone told me, but it is still highly enjoyable.


More Tales of the City is the second part of a 3 part mini series based on Armistead Maupin's novels about San Francisco and the lives and loves of some of its inhabitants in the 70s.

One of the most unfortunate aspects of the More Tales is that several of the characters from the original series Tales of the City have been recast, most unfortunately Michael "Mouse", one of my favorites from the first series. His replacement has a dimpled chin and a sleazy moustache.  Not exactly the sweet Brian Boitano look alike I so adored from the first series.  But whatever.  Brian, a sort of side character in the first installment, has been recast for More Tales by this aqua netted hair older looking dude. The character of Mona has been recast also.  I never thought I would miss scary tiger face lady Chloe Webb but now that she's gone I must say she added a certain gravitas to the flighty character of Mona that her much younger, less interesting replacement lacks. 

Mad brothers know his name....It's a daily operation

These infamous hip-hop words (above) are among some of the numerous memorable lyrics uttered by GURU (Gifts Unlimited Rhymes Universal) over DJ Premier's track on the February 1991 Gang Starr single "Just To Get A Rep" (Chrysalis/EMI) which, with "Who's Gonna Take The Weight" on the single's flip side,  is a true hip-hop classic!   Same for the January 1991 Gang Starr ablum, "Step In The Arena" - that "Rep" was culled from - each a key part of hip-hop's legacy with each phrase and rhyme known by heart to any true hip-hop fan.  Just to get a Rap harks from a time (late 80's/early 90's) that many agree was the "golden age of hip-hop" and a time that is very close to my heart as a longtime hip-hop fan.   And listening to Just to Get A Rep again  (see the video below and read the lyircs under video screen)  - brings back memories of that time when the single and the album had just dropped and when, like most new hip-hop albums back then, was brimming with amazing new hip-hop joints that (as a DJ) I was dying to play.  At the time I was doing Bay Area hip-hop radio and TV shows and interviewed Gang Starr many times. It was no big deal back then.   Back then (pre Dre's Chronic which ushered a new more mainstream era in rap's consumption) rap had still not gone 100% fulltime mainstream.  Meaning that if you were a Bay Area DJ on such independent small stations as KUSF, KALX, KZSU, KPOO, KPFA, or KFJC you could get artists like Gang Starr to make a live appearance on your show with little effort (today you are competing with David Letterman and People magazine).   Back at that time Guru and Premo made numerous trips to the Bay when they used to come to the Bay regularly to perform (EG at one of Dave Paul's BOMB Hip-Hop Showcases at the DNA) and do the rounds of local radio stations and retail outlets (big up to Leopolds in Berkeley and T's Wauzi at Eastmont Mall in East Oakland). If you have any memories of this hip-hop classic or wish to nominate one of your personal fave hip-hop classics - please do so below in the COMMENTS. thanks!