The great Amoeba Hollywood enigma that is  “The 45 Room.”  Some simply refer to this veiled   room as the “used 7 inch pricing room,” but for others:
“Vinyl Shangri-la.”

Does it really exist, and if so, where? What goes on in there? Who are they?

Questions abound yet few answers come into the light under ampoule fluorescente compacte.

Enquiries try to penetrate this mysterious place of secret societies revolving/evolving from a tiny room, hidden from public view, but to no avail.

There are so many myths. Startling tales and conspiracy theories abound, sounding not unlike the outlandish yarns associated with Area 51, Skull and Bones, the Bohemian Club or the Maury/Vashon Island incident of 1947 (look that puppy up!!) ….

One 45 room rumor has a ceremony involving a stack of power-pop 45’s sacrificed at the feet of a giant forty-foot statue of Murry Wilson (aka Daddy Beach Boys). Can this be true?

What about the reported appearance of “men in black” canvassing, i.e. shopping, in the area and the complex chain of events dating from last July 2, on what would have been Murry Wilson’s 90th birthday … once again, there are no coincidences….  Management promised those fellows were just from Accounting. Really? 

Well, let’s look inside this long misunderstood milieu (a den of vinyl antiquity, if you please) and analyze The 45 Room culture. Western anthropologists argue culture is “human nature” and that all people, even record store employees, have a capacity to classify experiences and encode classifications symbolically. Let’s start with an appreciation of their art and how The 45 Room decorates primitive white cardboard boxes, used to display 7 inch records, in an attempt to define a multitude of music genres’ hysteron proteron.

Yesterday evening (Friday August 3rd) I attended both the Amoeba Music, San Francisco instore with super skilled turntablists DJs Platurn and Golden Chyld (pictured left) and also the San Francisco Bay Guardian's 'Best of the Bay" soiree at the de Young Museum, in nearby Golden Gate Park.

I hadn't been at the de Young Museum since it moved locations to its impressive new state-of-the-art facility in October 2005.  Come think of it, I hadn't been in Golden Gate Park, for about as long. And after seeing on local TV news and reading all the recent newspaper reports  about the "homeless problem" in the park, which made it sound like there were homeless people camped out under every bush in the park's confines with dirty syringes poking out of everywhere,  I was anticipating stumbling upon a sort of New Jack  (tent) City  which I didn't.  Instead I only witnessed a small gathering of poor unfortunate homeless down by the Stanyan end of the park (not far from Amoeba).   


But anyway, regarding the homeless situation in SF - I really see both sides.  I feel bad for residents (especially  those with little kids) who have to endure such things as street people pissing in their doorsteps or leaving dirty needles in their front yards or near playgrounds in the park.  But I also feel bad for individuals who have substance abuse problems or who are mentally ill and who have no option but living on the streets (dating back to Reagan as Governor of Cali).  And never do I forget the fact that most of us are just one paycheck away from joining them.

If you are a regular at Amoeba Music you may have already seen the silk screened poster art of Forest Stearns who has done several pieces specifically for Amoeba events.  Or maybe you've been lucky to catch Forest doing his art live at one of the interactive music-and-art Amoeba instores he has been a part of over the past year.

These include one with DJ Shadow (San Francisco Ameoba instore) and two with Cut Chemist (San Francisco and Hollywood Amoebas).  He has also done live interactive art with hip-hoppers such as Z-Man and at other events such as Reggae On The River.

Additionally the NorCal artist, who is just about to move to San Francisco, designed the poster for the Noisettes instore show at Amoeba San Francisco which reportedly everyone loved including Universal who Forest says want to take and flesh out to make an animation based on the illustration.  I recently caught up with the aritst to chop it up about life and art, and art and life. For more information visit his website: draweverywheredotcom.


AMOEBLOG: What inspires you to make art?

FOREST STEARNS: Art is what I do. It is a way to be myself. It is exciting and thought provoking, it creates a dialogue and has a lot of history to build from.


AMOEBLOG: And what keeps you doing art on the shitty days?

FOREST STEARNS: The shitty days are cool. I can sleep in then have some tea then by that point I can do some art and the day turns out pretty nice. The shitty days are when you work for someone else and hate it. I work for myself and work with others on projects that I get to choose. I am an optimist, so shitty days can usually be squashed by either looking at the art of others or getting down with some art of my own.

If you've ever checked out the murals on the outside walls of the three Amoeba Music stores (Hollywood, Berkeley, San Francisco) you may have noticed a similarity in styles between all three. That's because the same two artists, Larry Smulian as designer and Brian Blesser as art executor, contributed their art to the outside of all three music stores.  "Larry does all our ad art, and Brian did our murals on the front of Berkeley way back when, and the side of Haight street, and the top of the front of Haight," said Amoeba Music's Marc Weinstein.




Note that these artists contributed to the Ivar side of the Hollywood Amoeba (not the Cahuenga side of building - more on that art and the artist who created it in a later amoeblog) and that they are not responsible for the graffiti art side of the Haight Street store.





 Most of the pics displayed here in this BLOG are from the Haste Street side of the Berkeley Amoeba Music store and are chosen because they are among this blogger's favorites for many reasons including the historical content's significance -  mainly being the fact that they represent the period during the 1960's history of Berkeley's Peoples Park - which is steeped in radical political activism - not to mention that People's Park is directly behind Amoeba Berkeley in the same block bordered by Telegraph & Bowditch and Haste & Dwight.

No doubt you're already aware that Paul McCartney played a surprise free show at Amoeba Music Hollywood on Wednesday, June 27th.

Check out on this website how Paul McCartney Rocked Amoeba Hollywood in a great review by Marcus Kagler that also includes pics from outside the store as fans lined up to see Sir Paul. And also check out AMOEBLOGGER Miss Ess (All The News That's Fit to Sing) review (with great pics) nearby here on the AMOEBLOG.

The ex-Beatle instore got tons of media coverage including the Los Angeles Times and Access Hollywood . In fact some media outlets reported that McCartney's Amoeba appearance upstaged Paris Hilton's appearance at the CNN building, where she was Larry King's exclusive guest, literally right across the street on Hollywood's Sunset Blvd. In addition to all of the TV coverage there are also already several first-hand video postings on YouTube -as of Saturday a search under "McCartney Amoeba" netted 21 video links,  many of which are not the best audio-video quality but regardless capture the vibe and excitement of the day- makes you wish you were there if you were not one of the lucky ones to make it. There are other Paul McCartney Amoeba Hollywood clips found on YouTube including one with Ringo Starr (yes he was in the house but didn't perform) in the parking lot and one of Paul on the Amoeba instore stage saying "thank you....Amoeba -  a great shop or wot?"  Note that the must-watch video below of Paul @ Amoeba is good professional quality as it is courtesy of McCartney's YouTube Channel.