Russia's Medvedev [hearts] Vinyl

I came across this post from the Washington Post's Reliable Source blog today and knew I had to post. How often, on a day the U.S. government raids a Russian spy ring (SERIOUSLY) can you also fit the Kremlin's own Dmitry Medvedev into a blog post about vinyl records?

Answer? Never.

But that's what we're up to here. Apparently, when Medvedev was in Washington for his powwow with President Obama, he sent out a few members of his staff to do some crate digging in the wonderful shops D.C. has to offer.

Why, you ask?

Apparently Medvedev and I have similar (and similarly awesome) taste in music. He's a big fan of Duke Ellington, B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix, among others. In sum, the Medvedev staffers dropped $150 at Washington's own Som Records. I don't know what's more amazing to me about this story though. The fact that Medvedev, who is 44 according to The Post, is into vinyl enough that he'd send staffers out during a diplomatic trip to Washington specifically to a record store. Or, on the other hand, that somewhere between working in the Kremlin and sitting atop the Russian oil monopoly Gazprom that he developed such great taste in music, although Wikipedia says he was a big Black Sabbath (!) and Deep Purple (!!) fan in high school.

Anyway, I don't have much else to say on this, mostly because I can't believe it actually happened. That, and I really wish it would've been Vladimir Putin who was over here crate digging by proxy -- I wonder what kind of vinyl he likes to spin after a long day out riding horses on the Russian countryside.

[Photo cross-posted from Post story.]

Contradictions.. or welcome to the blog.

Welcome to this experiment I've taken to calling Wax Fanatical.

Basically, this blog will comprise stories of crate digging, ecstatic posts when I find *the perfect* record, my take on the record stores in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area, thoughts on the records I already own and just general musings on the idea of collecting records in the time of the iPods, MP3s, illegal downloading and that sort of thing.

To the last point, the inherent contradiction in running a blog on a subject some see as utterly arcane and out of date is not lost on me. But since I've started collecting records about a year ago, I've seen each purchase as one step along some kind of journey toward some ideal record collection. Now, thanks to these things we call the Internets, there will be a record of my attempts to get there.

Finally, a caveat: While I love collecting records, to me it's more about the music than the endless search for some obscure, super-rare record. So, yes, some of my collection might be cliche, or ordinary or whatever. But I consider myself a regular person's record collector. I routinely look for some of my favorite records, and if I buy any new albums, it tends to be on vinyl. That means I've got quite the array, from Vampire Weekend, Brother Ali and Wu-Tang Clan to Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan and The Ramones. I hope that keeps it interesting, and I hope you'll agree.

Photo: Unfortunately, not my collection or my photo. It's the BBC's.