Addressing the elephant in the room: I am not a sports fan, but I am ecstatic about the events of the weekend.

Today was an exciting day in the world of vinyl, as well. Sabrina Carpenter's webstore exclusives restocked and I decided to grab her Feather 7" after missing out on it the first time. It's a really fun song and I enjoyed her performing as an opener for Taylor's Eras Tour. The thing is: does it really have to be $23 + shipping? Dual Lipa's Houdini was half that price.

I also received word today that my Noah Kahan Stick Season opaque green vinyl is on the way from the U.K.! I can't wait to get it and surprise my sister, who loved the Stick Season 7" single when I brought it home and even showed it off to her boyfriend. 

This weekend I also ended up using my Shop rewards to purchase the Smokey Grey variant of Conan Gray's Kid Krow from a Utah record store that had it on sale, so it ended up being less than $30 shipped for the LP. Which, in today's economy, is a great package price for an album! It should be out for delivery today and I cannot wait to open it and replace the Target red one I have as my spinning copy. Something about the color red just doesn't give Kid Krow.

Yesterday I printed out three new protoype 7" single outer sleeves I designed myself: Dua Lipa's Houdini, Hozier's Take Me To Church, and a non-existent Overdrive by Conan Gray sleeve. Houdini and TMTC are meant to replace the boring die-cut sleeves they already came with, but Overdrive I made mostly for fun because it's my favorite song of all time and I love looking at it. I'll put one of my vintage 7" singles in it and pretend Conan finally released it on vinyl because, let's be real, it's long overdue. Please!

I'm not one to complain, but this hasn't been the greatest day! Unrelated to vinyl, I sustained an injury today and while I don't explicitly hate gore, it was not a pretty sight and now I feel a little incapacitated.

The tracklist of The Tortured Poets Department leaked yesterday, which sucked for Taylor and her fans. Undoubtedly, she was hoping to rollout her tracks slowly and in a fun way to her fans, so it's upsetting that we won't get that anymore. This also happened to Speak Now (Taylor's Version), so this isn't even the first time this has happened. Disappointing all around. 

On a more personal level, yours truly woke up this morning to an email from Assai Records, who has cancelled my order for the signed Indie variant of Noah Kahan's Stick Season. I'm upset, and just sad because this would've made my little sister so happy as the biggest Noah Kahan fan I know. So I wish nothing but the worst for Assai Records for their inability to ship to forwarding addresses when it doesn't affect them in the slightest and I don't want to hear whatever bogus reason they have to not ship it there. Insert really sad face emoji here. I hope the green variant makes it to me so i can give it to her, at least. She still wants green vinyl so she can decorate her room.

Yesterday I also pulled the plug on the new Aqua and Yellow vinyl variants from his webstores because I realized that they were going to be commercially available for way cheaper from record stores. I hate paying double digit shipping prices on top of hiked prices so I was kinda just over that order and cancelled it.

That being said, my local favorite record store from my hometown, Joseys Records, engaged in some anti-Taylor Swift content on their official Facebook the other day and honestly it's put a sour taste in my mouth and I'm now looking elsewhere to speng my RSD. It's not even just the fact that they engaged in anti-Taylor content–undoubtedly between two middle aged men who think that Swifities aren't real music fans–it was the fact that iwas done on their public Facebook page. What an immature and unprofessional look. I won't be going back until they make it right, and something tells me that they don't care and/or that won't be happening anytime soon.

Any professional and Switiftie-friendly record stores anyone can recommend that won't take me an hour to get to? Preferably female-owned because I can't stand middle aged male-owned stores because I just get the ick when I walk in there.

On the only bright notes this weeks, I received my copy of Varese Sarábande's Lost (Season 1) Soundtrack Vinyl in the mail. It was unsealed, which was horrifying to see, but it was in great condition.

Last but not least, my Reneé Rapp signed Snow Angel CD has finally shipped and it's on the way. I can't wait to have it and get to display it.

If you watched last night's broadcast, you already know what we're here for!

Billy Joel's return single!

Just kidding. I really enjoyed it, though. But many will tell you that the biggest buzz of last night came from Taylor's absolutely unexpected and surprise announcement of a new–no, not a re-recording–a new album that she's kept secret for over two years: The Tortured Poets Department, coming out on April 19, 2024.

But I'm jumping ahead. The night began with an incredible performance by Dua Lipa, who performed a mashup of her yet-to-be released single Training Season from her upcoming third studio album with the already released single Houdini. Trevor Noah told no lies: she really is one of the greatest performers of this generation. I'm so glad I per-ordered the Training Season 7" single, because that song is a BOP.

Several performances later, Olivia Rodrigo gave an incredible performance of Vampire, and I couldn't help but be so proud of her and how much her public performing has improved. GUTS walked away without any wins last night, but I think a lot of viewers will agree that her sophomore album did indeed beat the 'sophomore slump' allegations. With her tour starting in less than a month, I hope her popularity will grow immensely sooner rather than later.

Something random: if the Grammy's released a live recording on vinyl I would probably buy this year's. So many incredible performances! Especially Dua's, Olivia's and Miley Cyrus's performace of Flowers. Her performance was, what I could only describe as, a celebration of her well-deserved success and a fun time all around.

January was the longest year of a month, wasn't it?

Now that it's a new month, there's more pre-orders to be placed and orders to be delivered. Yesterday, I received my first order of the month: the 2-Year Anniversary edition of Olivia Rodrigo's SOUR. I ordered this one because I originally traded for my Target Blue version and that one was pressed extremely off center and it didn't sound good. I ended up exchanging it at Target so I could get a better copy, but the new one ended up being warped so now the only playing copy I have with me is the new picture disc. Go figure. At least when I go home I can spin my Walmart Magenta variant.

Also shipped this week was my pre-orders for 1) Varese Sarabande's release of the first season of the TV series Lost on Ocean Smoke Marbled vinyl and 2) Dua Lipa's Houdini 7" single. I have a fellow collector friend who wants the Lost one as well so hopefully they end up restocking any cancellations; it's limited to 500 so chances seem slim but I'm holding out hope for her. It's been so long since the Houdini came out that I feel like the hype has subsided but either way I'm excited to have it and make my own outer sleeve for it because the die-cut sleeve it comes with is so underwhelming.

Today I bought a couple of new pre-orders: Noah Kahan put out two new releases, being the new Yellow version of Busyhead and Aqua version of the highly sought-after Cape Elizabeth (you may remember it was the Black Friday RSD in November). Earlier in the day, however, Assai Records put out a UK exclusive signed version of the Indie Exclusive Stick Season Chestnut Brown vinyl. Even though it was limited to 500 and only available to UK addresses (physical and IP addresses, even), I decided that I don't follow those rules and I'll just have it forwarded to me in the states. My sister will enjoy having the signature I'm sure! If not I'm sure someone out there will take it off of my hands.

On the last day of January, Conan Gray announced his third studio album, Found Heaven, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching all seven variants come out one by one. The yellow transparent seems to be the standard version, but I was hoping for a pattern so I won't end up getting that one unless it's the signed version that may or may not come out, who knows. My favorite at the moment is the Urban Outfitter's Electric Storm (how awesome is that variant name?) which is a Yellow and Black swirl vinyl. Online comments suggest that it might end up being just black and only yellow when held up to a light, but I think I'll try my luck. The mockup is just so cool looking! Shout out to the Amazon variant that was so good that I placed an order for it before the UO exclusive was announced. The 'Oil Slick' variant sounds like it'll be a clear and black splatter variant so I'm interested to see how it'll look. I'm also very interested to collect the various posters because they seem to all be different between the various variants and vendors. Speaking of: it's really funny to me that Walmart got the red vinyl and Target got the blue. Did someone miss the memo about their brand colors?

I'm excited for Found Heaven. But don't let that distract you: he still hasn't released Overdrive on physical media in the US. I'm on my knees begging for an Overdrive 7" single. Please!!! I would wear out the grooves So So So fast. Lol.

Embarassingly, I should admit that last month I bought two copies of Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia and I can't seem to get rid of the extra one. I really backed myself into a corner for that. Especially when she's apparently releasing a new 2024 UO variant... whoops. Please, universe, take this one away from me.

I'm still waiting for this girl to ship my Fearless (Taylor's Version) vinyl to me, because she's already gotten her side of the trade. If I don't hear back in another week I'm going to be a little passive aggressive about it because she keeps making excuses and dodging around it. Ugh.

I need to take more photographs of some records I never added to this blog. I have four waiting in the queue. Hopefully tomorrow! 

One day at a time, for real.