AMOEBA ART SHOW 2012
Friday, May 4th
6pm - 11pm
2928 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA
MAP
In what has now become a Bay Area tradition, Amoeba Music throws killer annual art shows to exhibit

Michelle Guintu

Grace Cooper

Billy Sprague

Trixy Grace

and celebrate the creative works of its multi-talented staff from all three Amoeba locations. For our fifth annual Amoeba Art Show, we are taking over the future home of The Black Spring Cafe in sunny Oakland!

The new, cool looking line of Amoeba Music guitar picks may be priced at just 50 cents per pick, but in the world of guitar pick collecting some avid collectors will pay many times that amount for a heavily desired pick. As reported by the Pick Collecting Quarterly about a month ago, one guitar pick collecting fanatic forked over $1063 in an eBay auction for a Kiss (circa 1974) black on white Ace Frehley / Pastore Music guitar pick. Yes, as any serious guitar player will tell you, guitar pick collecting can become as much of an obsession as guitar playing itself.

Guitar picks, which are a type of plectrum designed for use on a guitar but often used to play other string instruments too, such as mandolin or banjo, come in all kinds of shapes, styles, and are made from numerous types of materials including plastic, rubber, felt, glass, tortoiseshell, and stone, and can range in price accordingly. Although picks have been around for centuries (early ones been made out of bone, shell, wood, metal, amber and other materials), it wasn't until the 1920's that they were mass produced. A relatively more recent phenomenon is the customized pick. Traditionally made by rock bands, with Rick Nelson of Cheap Trick been one of the first to famously toss out dozens of them during concerts, more recently entities such as Microsoft, MTV, Verizon, and Budweiser, have all emblazoned their names on guitar picks. Right now there are thousands upon thousands of customized guitar picks out there with legions of avid collectors following them.

Friday, January 25th brought San Francisco a rain storm of biblical proportion. The incessant downpour superseded “dogs and cats” within the first few hours of daylight and went straight for much larger mammals – blue whales and pre-historic beavers? Believe me, it was bad.

Given that Californians aren’t known for their hardiness in torrential rains, it was a pleasant surprise – perhaps even an artistic triumph over nature – to find San Francisco’s sleek and urban Space Gallery packed that night with art connoisseurs, Amoeba employees, and friends for the Amoeba Music's Second Annual Art Show’s reception.

It’s apparent to anyone who has perused the stacks at any of Amoeba Music’s three locations that it’s much more than just a record shop. A friend of mine actually admitted that he refers to Amoeba as the “Wish Store” because he always finds whatever rarity it is that he’s been obsessing over. There is a magical aura of sonic wish fulfillment radiating from Amoeba, and the employees (from cashiers to managers and owners) are responsible for creating this musical wonderland on a daily basis.

It can be of no surprise that these same employees possess multiple talents beyond mastery of arcane musical knowledge. The 112 works on display at the Space Gallery from January 22nd through 26th proved that the staff is a formidably gifted team. The selection offered a wide range of formats, emotions, and influences, as well as levels of experience -- a variety befitting a cross section of the Amoeba crew.