#Brentwood Era

[theresamouseinmyhouse]

tim + brentwood characters as boys i was legitimately friends with in high school and think of every single day:

Buzz- Jake (fake names for all of my friends bc privacy reasons) who complained about hanging out with nerds, got into a fistfight with someone else on his football team bc they called us nerds, was thoroughly convinced he'd run laps faster if he was hopped up on pixie stix (i held his backback while he got sick in the bathroom👍👍), he tried to hit on my older sister and she laughed at him, he was so put out he contemplated becoming a monk for a week

Wes: Max, who i helped sneak an entire bottle of orange juice on to the bus to our choir competition, but was unaware he brought a full bottle of vodka as well, ended up crying on our choir teacher for the three hours after the comp and i bought him a box of donuts after school, he did not stop doing this and had severe beef with a kid he knew in 5th grade and hadnt seen since but also hadnt forgotten their name and last i knew, was still awaiting for a dreaded confrontation to eventually come

Kip: Eduardo, who we all thought was studying during lunch but was actually filling his notebook with weird facts he observed about us and also managed to chew several packs of gum at once throughout our math class before the teacher noticed him, didnt know the plot to the clockwork orange so i lied about it for 5 weeks before he read it and called me just to tell me "you lying frog" befire he hung up

Ali: Ángel, who lied several times on separate occasions to the campus security about where people smoked, forgot what chihuahuas were twice, and almost drowned when he was swimming except his older brother got him and he immediately called me while waiting for the ambulance to tell me he almost fucking died, randomly sang a song about crabs he made up throughout the day

Danny: Ben, helped me with my biology homework because i helped him with essays, once released a live rat into the computer classroom because he had beef with the teacher, once texted me at 11 p.m. because he was having a mental breakdown over his chem work before he realized he was actually looking at trig and i told him id shoot him with a tranq gun if he woke me up like this again, kept forgetting how to tie his shoes

Tim: Teddy, he catfished 6 men over the age of 30 by pretending to be a 13 yr old girl and lured them to the part of town where there is an absurd amount of wild dogs that evade animal control and are known to maul humans, i watched him lockpick the english teacher's door so he could take back an essay he wrote bc it was actually a slash fic he printed out and turned in by accident, we hung out at a dennys once and he accidentally put his hand in syrup, looked me dead in the eye and said "i did that bc im gay" and wore pastel pink for a month bc it pissed off the hall monitor, his dad, and also six teachers he didnt even have class with

[lemonlimestar]

this is still funny to me. buzz is so sick of their gay asses

[byrningstars]

tim drake !! this took me 10. hours and 30. minutes!! very proud of it tbh ^_^,,

[aliteralchicken]

Tim:…I think I have a crush on Danny

Buzz: oh thank god, that took way too long

Wes: congratulations Drake you’re officially the last to know

Kip: guys come on be nice

Tim: thank you

Kip: it was kind of obvious though

[spookyprime]

Heyyy it’s my entry for @timdrakeflipzine written by the ever lovely @silk-scarlet-ribbons

We got assigned to the canon side and she came up with a concussion story set in Tim’s Brentwood era. This was tremendously fun comic to work on and I’m very glad I got to participate in such a fun Zine

[mzminola]

Okay I love the Helena & Cass dynamic, and I love Babs' rage.

I am also stuck on the fun bits of "it’s only on the condition that Jason enrolls in a boarding school where it’s safe" potentially giving us Jason taking all of Tim's Brentwood stories.

Star as a fellow wheelchair user showing him how much fun you can have in a skatepark. Jason making use of school security cameras to figure out the Langstroms are living in the belltower. His first roommate being a prince that's being stalked by a demon. Practicing adaptive swimming techniques with Lagoon Boy, which comes in handy when Danny Temple is kidnapped.

Okay, I'm finally returning to the AU where Jason and Barbara are swapped so that she dies in a Killing Joker and Jason is paralyzed in A death in the family.

The simplest way to set up this AU (and why over-complicate things yet?) is to have it so that when Barbara Gordon opens the door, the Joker shoots to kill. However long later, when Jason is beaten half to death by the Joker, he survives the bomb, but he’s left paralyzed from the waist down. The Doctors say he’ll never walk again.

For now, Barbara Gordon is dead and we shall leave her there. She doesn’t haunt the narrative in the same way that Jason did. She was an adult when she died, removed from her former mantle. She wasn’t Bruce’s daughter. Her death weighs on Gordon, but then Sarah Essen returns to his life and his dead daughter fades into the background. Bruce, Dick, and Jason remember her, but there is no Batgirl memorial in the cave. She is just another symbol of the dangers they face. She comes up in vague aborted references and heavy silences.

(Now that I think about it, in a world where Barbara Gordon’s dead, I bet Helena ends up as Dick’s second primary love interest…)

Meanwhile, with Jason, we have a fairly standard Jason Lives!AU with the slight caveat that he’s in a wheelchair and can never become Robin again.

We’re not going to spend long on that because it could go any number of ways and I don’t want to be here all day, but to his some major points:

A Lonely Place of Dying doesn’t get triggered. Batman without Robin when Jason is paralyzed is worse, but not bad enough for Tim to feel the need to interfere. His parents probably still die in Rites of Passage because Batman is highly unlikely to leave Gotham to chase after some random kidnapping for ransom when he’s being overprotective of his recently paralyzed son. Or just have the Drakes die in a plane crash and skip the racism.

Jason as Robin is a character who doesn’t have many ties outside of Batman. Stuck in a wheelchair, he struggles even more with dilation. Barbara’s dead. Dick’s around more, but he still spends most of his time with the titans. He can’t be Robin and that means that he feels like he can’t be part of that community, losing the few connections he had there. On the civilian front, his injuries lead him to being held back a year. He doesn’t know any of his classmates, and stuck in the hormonal battleground of high school, he acutely feels the way that being stuck in a wheelchair makes him different.

I still need to read Oracle: Year One, but Jason is initially attracted to computers because of the anonymity the internet offers. On it, he can pretend to be normal; people don’t see the chair before they see him. From there, it expands into a way he can still help Bruce and be involved in the mission. Bruce says he doesn’t need to do anything, but with so much of their relationship tied up in being Batman and Robin, Jason wants to.

There is another Robin eventually. Dealer’s choice as to who. You can make an argument for Tim (the classic option), Steph (Girl power + Steph & Jason friendship) or, I don’t know, Lonnie ( I know he has fans, though, in full disclosure, I am ambivalent towards him). Whoever the choice, it’s alternatively important that they have the approval of both Dick, who originated the mantle, and Jason, who left it vacant.

But that’s enough about Jason. You want to know who I really want to talk about in this AU? You guessed it! Helena Bertinelli and Cassandra Cain.

It’s time for No Man’s Land baby~ (absolutely no one is surprised.)

Bruce leaves on an international guilt trip and brings his son with him, much to Jason’s annoyance. It’s over three months before he’s able to convince Bruce to return, and even then it’s only on the condition that Jason enrolls in a boarding school where it’s safe. (Jason is so looking forward to turning 18 when he can finally prove to Bruce that he can take care of himself.)

Meanwhile, Huntress is the sole vigilante presence in No Man's Land. It isn’t long before she recognizes the limits of her own mantle and takes on the mantle of the Bat. In this universe, she is called Batwoman.

It is as Batwoman that she runs into Cassandra, who has been living on the streets of Gotham.

No wait, better idea. Headcanon time: In between acting as two separate vigilantes, Helena also somehow finds the time to run a makeshift classroom for some of the kids stranded in No Man's Land. She recruits them to do odd jobs and in exchange,, she shares some of the food she has stashed wavy and tries to make sure they have at least some education. 

Cassandra is curious and comes first for the food and then for the stories and the reading/writing lessons she doesn’t understand. When she sees Batwoman for the first time and makes the connection, she becomes even more intrigued.

When Batman enters and starts working with Helena, Cassandra saves them both in a handmade costume and ends up as the new Batgirl.

Helena remains as Batwoman after the end of No Man’s Land in this AU. She misses being the Huntress, at the end, but she has Cass to look after now. They grew close in the chaos of No Man’s Land and now the girl’s moved in with her. Helena needs to be better for Cass. She can’t go back to killing because, on one level, Cass wouldn’t let her. On another, she doesn’t want to betray her trust. So she holds the line. She stops her more self-destructive tendencies and tries to do the best for Cass despite the fact that she doesn’t understand her on a fundamental level.

This all leads to her being a more integrated part of the batfam. She's featured in more Bat comics and plays a major supporting role in Batgirl.

Post-No Man’s Land, Jason turns 18, moves off to college, and starts his own Birds of Prey type team. Bruce stalks him, Jason yells at him for it, etc etc.

And now, we’ve arrived at the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Red Hood!Barbara Gordon!

Barbara Gordon’s Under the Red Hood arc is a narrative commentary on fridging and is ideally written by a female author. In this universe, Barbara Gordon was a character who was killed off and vanishes from the narrative. She was a thing pre-crisis but never really a presence post. She is a tombstone next to Sarah Essen. A name mentioned when arguing about the Joker, quickly forgotten to focus on his paralyzing of Jason.

She comes back loud and angry, insisting on being remembered. Look at me, she shouts. Look at my pain. My story should be about me. She sets up a series of circumstances and clues all point to her. To the terrible things that happened to her. Bruce and Gordon have made her death about them, she’s taking it back. Reclaiming it for herself.

She also torments and antagonizes Helena and Cass. They replaced her, they took her place. They don't even know what they've done. They are the first to see her face and they don’t even recognize her. They don’t know the legacy they have claimed. Barbara Gordon rages.

And then, of course, future writers ruin that shining star of an arc by making her ~evil~ and ~crazy~. It’s probably all because coming back from the dead made her infertile and she can’t ever be a mother. Women, am I right? (eyeroll)

Anyway, I want a Red Hood!Barbara Gordon arc now.

[ectonurites]

also even though I posted something on his birthday, I'm also giving a day-after-Tim's-birthday art offering of: my piece from the @timdrakeflipzine !!! took me a bit to track down which external hard drive I had the file stored on 😅 but this is my little ode to the Brentwood era of Tim's solo <3

[dc-polls]

Biggest DC Misconception

Round 1 - Match 5

Tim Drake grew up next door to the Waynes

Misconception: that Tim spent his entire childhood living next door to the Waynes, in a suburb of Gotham rather than the city itself. Canon: In the post-Crisis pre-Flashpoint era of comics, Tim Drake's family had at least one residence in Gotham City on the island itself, and are never directly referred to as living anywhere else. After Tim's mother Janet dies in the comics, Tim convinces his father Jack to buy a house in Bristol (a mainland suburb of Gotham) next door to Bruce Wayne (Alfred found the listing for the house and passed it along to Tim). A few years later in-universe Jack, Tim, and Tim's stepmother Dana have to sell that house (referred to as Drake Manor) and move into an apartment once more in Gotham City on the island itself. Some fans see Tim living in Bristol for part of his comics, or see other fans mention it, and assume that Tim grew up in that suburb next door to the Waynes his entire childhood. This leads to misconceptions about his family's relationship to the Waynes, Tim's relationship to Gotham City, and what his early childhood experiences may have been like. It can further lead to fans insisting Tim has less connection to Gotham than other Bat team members.

And another submission...

Fanon constantly puts Tim at Drake Manor as a child but he didn't move in until after Jack woke up from his coma. Alfred gave him a newspaper listing for it. Bruce made a secret tunnel to the Batcave under a cistern in the basment. And they had to sell it after Jack made some bad investments in the stock market, lost Drake industries, and they had to move back to the city. Tim was at Brentwood during this and had to go to public school and wasn't rich anymore, just upper middle class. (Also he didn't inherit Drake Manor as his father didn't own it when he died)

--

Stephanie Brown is from Crime Alley

Stephanie Brown was solidly middle class when she was introduced. Although a lot of her problems (pill popping mother, villan father, teen pregnancy) were viewed as "poor people problems" she was not. She had a regular house in the suburbs and had her own motorcycle and equipment (although she could have stolen it from her villan father). (I think she was supposed to be relatable in that these problems can happen to anyone but fannon has taken that away from her and said that those are poor people problems so she must be poor)

And another submission...

The misconception is that Stephanie Brown (Spoiler, later the 4th main continuity Robin, later Batgirl) is from Crime Alley, also known as Park Row, or sometimes other impoverished areas of Gotham City such as The Narrows. In the Post-Crisis Pre-Flashpoint era of comics, Stephanie is canonically from a mainland suburb of Gotham, not the island city itself. In her introductory arc, the Bats specifically track her down to the "Manchester suburb" which is seen as having a low skyline, unlike the tall buildings of Gotham City. In a later comics, Stephanie describes herself as Spoiler as the "defender of the suburbs", pointing out that Batman and Robin focus on the city. Why it's important to know: fans who place her childhood in Park Row or the Narrows are often drawing direct parallels between her and Jason Todd or Duke Thomas, and a contrast to non-urban-childhood characters, completely inaccurately, ignoring her actual canon experiences. Suburbs of Gotham still deal with similar issues, but they aren't interchangeable with the urban center itself. Characters can have parallels without having grown up in the exact same place as each other; the misconception flattens and simplifies all of them. Additionally, this era of comics had Stephanie dealing with stigmatized issues such as a criminal father, a drug addicted mother, a teen pregnancy, and childhood abuse. The canon made it clear these are problems kids in the suburbs may experience. The misconception that Stephanie is from Crime Alley reinforces the stereotype that crime, drug addiction, and teen pregnancy are only urban issues. Reinforces the classist myth that suburbs are "nicer" and "safer" than the city.

[silvyysthings]

Could you tell me more about the brentwood hat?🥰Why is this hat associated with armie?

I wasn't around at the time so I asked to my friends and my one of my best friends here sent me this link , Armie lived in this area of La ( brentwood) and then the hat apperead on our Timmy's head and during cmbyn era

[salsae]

some yj4 doodles from twitter:

the first one is based off a pokeani screenshot bec kon = scorbunny; bart = grookey; tim = goh; cassie = inteleon AM I WRONG!!!

they've been on yelp for the past 15 mins tryin figure out where to eat.

2nd one is tim's brentwood era which is v impt to me.

anyways their reunions in yj19 make me emo except for cassietim's cassie deserves justice & better writing

[theresamouseinmyhouse]

i re-read the Brentwood Arc for the 13th time in the time of this ao3 shutdown (praise be the ao3 otw volunteers yall are based and deserve the world) oh my god i have IDEAS for a tim drake/danny temple crackfic that i may never release into the wild

Do u know how fucking funny i could be if i ever decided to write a Father of the Bride (the 1991 one specifically) AU. Like,,,ik thats a rather niche AU but like,,,i could. Father of the Bride would work EXTREMELY well as an au.

Lemme explain: this could be a no capes au OR just a canon divergence post Red Robin 2009 bc i never read further past that bc it didnt spark joy

No capes au? Tim comes back from overseas after doing a business trip for Bruce as a 21 yr old (letting my boy outta dc's forever 17 basement) or going off to college as like,,,a CompSci student for a whole year and now has to break it to his fam he's engaged to a really sweet herpetologist (or geneticist either/or works bc wow he was WEIRD as hell too why was this 14/15 yr old reading about genetic sciences) aka my LOVE Danny Temple that he met at college. bonus points he's the first one in the fam to make the leap for marriage bc thats SO fucking funny (i only do things for comedy)

Post-RR Era canon divergence au Tim decides he needs to take some time and figure out his head bc oh god my boy was a MESS holy shit and somehow (hes a nosey ass/affectionate) ends up in Kobra Cult messes and reconnects to his old friend Danny Temple. Fast forward at least several wacky hijinks, a Danny Tim Road Trip 2.0, long distance pining, some personal crises, emotional revelations and like,,2 years later, tim brings danny home for dinner and hopefully not a funeral bc they both decided they wanted each others disaster selves. More shenanigans.

[lemonlimestar]

new theme because i remembered i like the color pink and tim drake also

look at this guy

[pegasussomnus]

Hiii I just wanted to tell you that I had the time of my life scrolling through your reblogs and commentary– I was giggling the whole freaking time, you're so funny to me.

The lengths the lot of you Bernard Antis will go to shit on his character and attempt to invalidate him and timbern fans is honestly almost impressive, kudos for that!

Everything I said is accurate about timber. And laughing isn't really a reply. The way you timber fans refuse to acknowledge the misogny of it is truly a sight to see but oh well.

Anyway read this on why timber fails

A. There is no real good reason to have him paired with Tim. He only appeared in six issues and none of his interactions with Tim gave us insight into who Tim was as a character or lead to any meaningful developments. The whole 'he represents the War Games era of Tim in terms of uncertainity' or 'his civilian life before losing his dad' that was used by the author, is just untrue as we never see Tim seriously appreciate his friendship like he does with say Ives, or the people at Brentwood as something that keeps him grounded or as a distraction from the hero life/normaly he needs nor do his interactions with Tim show said uncertainty like the struggle of balancing the civilian/hero life that we saw his above friends do. All of his appearances are either comic relief or a springboard/exposition for more important developments such as Tim's relationship with Darla.

There is also how he wasn't a close friend of Tim and more often than not, Tim was shown to not like him too much. At best they were casual friends and none of their interactions went beyond that. The nicest thing Tim said about him is that he "THINKS he's going to END UP LIKING" him not that he actually does so which at best shows Tim is willing to give him a shot.

At worst? Well

Yeah. The first panel is his first impression of him while the last three are the LAST interactions/mentions Tim has with him and occur after saying he 'thinks he's going to end up liking him'.

It makes no sense why Tim would even want to reconnect with him let alone date him. Tim's opinion of Bernard went from "I guess we can be friends but this guy is sus to "maybe he's not so bad and deserves a shot" to "nah screw this guy". It's telling we keep getting sold a false meta history of them being super close friends and have Bernard essentially replace Ives to try and sell the pairing.

B. Like it really doesn't do anything for Tim at all.

Bernard doesn't help Tim grow as a character, or even as a person relationship wise as Tim is still doing the same faults he did in past relationships with civilians not telling them he is Robin, keeping secrets, cutting dates/missing them, etc). but they are "resolved" by just making Bernard some ultra perfect guy who knows Tim's identity

Aka the resolution he had with Stephanie in terms of the civilian/hero life balance of having someone who knows both, so Tim is getting a balance he already had and not to mention you can't even say Tim progressed in this manner or learned from his mistakes as he never revealed his ID in the first place, so it requires no growth on his end) (never explained how he does, not to mention watering down Tim's competence in keeping his ID) so it's all moot.

Tim also doesn't progress in his civilian life at all. Like he lives on a boat and (it is said that Bernard helped motivate him to do this but never shown/explained at all and all we see is Bernard saying he likes it and the people there)? Like he doesn't even meaningfuly develop a connection with the people there aside from friendly neighbors at best. As an example There was this "subplot" of them being in danger of being evicted but Tim just doesn't care at all or do anything. Like why not use some of his wealth from his dad or something to like buy people's boats and resell them at a cheaper price so the people can stay?

The people on the boat don't even offer him a meaningful civilian connection as like I said he just doesn't connect with them and even then that civilian connection is kind of moot in the last issue when they all know his identity as Robin so that balance or finding a solution is rendered moot for the same reasons as above as he already found that balance with the Batfamily/YJ friends who know both aspects of his life and again he didn't even it reveal it to them.

Like what do they offer him? People to chill in a non-vigilante way? Like he can already do that with the Batfam/YJ and not to mention that as the series showed the Marina got involved in a lot of Robin related stuff because of Tim's ID, so it's also moot.

Another point is how Bernard for a 'relationship for Tim beyond Robin' really is a relationship where the substance largely comes from Robin. Like aside from Robin is how they got together which Bernard even states in issue 3, in the beginning of issue 7 when Bernard list why he likes Tim all the things he likes about him are reflective of his role as Robin. Like his whole trusting Tim to keep him safe, Tim being special, and Tim being his lucky charm, the examples he uses are of Tim saving him as Robin/being Robin.

And issue 7 also shows like I said above that what saves the relationship is Bernard knowing that Tim is Robin. Not to mention how he really only opens up to Tim/confides in him seriously when Tim is Robin as shown in issue 3 and 9. Hell in issue 3 when he talks about wanting to help Tim, knowing that he knows his ID, when he talks about Tim 'taking too much on his own and not asking for help and loosing himself or whatever' we know it's about Robin.

And issue 10 the grand saving moment for their relationship after the 'falling out' in issue 9 was Bernard saving the day in a Robin related mission and getting the ID reveal (but not really)

Issue 7 highlights how Tim really doesn't do anything for Bernard as Tim. Like all he does is tell him that his parents suck, he's great to make him feel better, and tell us a bunch of stuff about Bernard we've never seen before.....twice and given how the issue kept emphasizing this point (to the point where villains commented on it) and how over the top his parents/with Bernards heroic it felt generic and like the bare minimum and Tim felt like an exposition device.

Tim never really talks to him about his issues with his parents or actually substantially helps him as after Tim does the above it immediately cuts back to their relationship for cute moments. Like Bernard giving him the necklace isn't even connected to Tim 'helping' as he was gonna do that anyway.

Tim as a civilain is just the BF and the real substance comes from Robin (as it was a Robin related mission and Tim saving civilians as Bernard which lead/inspired Bernard trying to save his parents and oh look Robin once again is tied to their relationship)

TLDR: Bernard doesn't make sense as a pairing, doesn't do anything for Tim as a character nor fulfill the purpose he was supposedly brought back for

[aliteralchicken]

Tim only referring to Danny temple as “my partner Danny” which leads Jack to believe that he’s got a girlfriend called Dani, in a similar way to when Alfred thought Ariana was a guy called Adrian in the knightfall novelization

set during Brentwood so Jack still has his money, the drakes get invited to a a classic fanfiction gotham gala, Tim gets a plus one and Jack is very insistent that Tim brings his partner along

Dana has been critiquing Jack for not spending time with his son and for sending him into Brentwood in the first place, saying he doesn’t listen, and now Jack has to pretend to both her, Tim, Tim’s boyfriend and all the 00’s era rich gala guests that he did, in fact, know Tim had a boyfriend

it does not help that jacks sorta parental nemesis Bruce Wayne, also present at the gala, clearly already knew (thankfully he and Tim seem to not get along right now so small wins for him)

[ourladyofomega]

I was getting deeper and deeper into everything electronic and industrial, all during my one-year break in-between the Brentwood era and community college. The UK electronics invasion, MTV's Amp, and Wipeout XL were the major influences that led me to that point. I was starting to have an endless appetite for music, and one thing I learned about myself that I could be interested in anything and everything. I already had an affinity to golden-era hip-hop / rap and alternative. The seeds of hardcore started to grow, so there would be no stopping me at this point. There were so many genres, artists, and sounds I was getting into, and I wanted to keep up. I had a position at a department store in the shopping mall, then later at a movie rental store, so I could afford to buy titles for whatever cash I had in hand.

I didn't have a desktop with internet to find independent stores. I had yellow pages instead: thick phone-books listing hundreds upon hundreds of pages of local businesses, their addresses, and their phone numbers all in minuscule print. That's how I discovered them back then. It was a year after visiting my first-ever independent record store, Commack's Mr. Cheapo's. Then came West Babylon's Looney Tunes before the holidays. Still enthusiastic in discovering the vast unknown, I wanted to find more. Port Jefferson's Music Den would be the next destination.

I already felt like an outsider when I arrived on campus. It was a different type of demographic I was used to. I looked around and I'd still see cliques, circles, and other "exclusive" groups of students that I felt I wouldn't be included in. I'd meet newfound friends who'd introduce me to their friends, but it felt forced, and they didn't seem to care. I was crazy for Atari Teenage Riot because they showed me exactly what techno always should've been: deafening loud, criminally high-speed, and maniacally all over the place. I tried looking for people who were in them, and observed what types of music the majority were into. Simplistic, manufactured, predictable dance hits. Boring weekend club-mashers. Formulaic radio chart-toppers. I wasn't impressed. The people who were into that were shallow, superficial, judgmental, needlessly competitive, and at times just unnecessarily mean. Drama artists and attitude jockeys all over the place. That's why they called community college "13th Grade". Now you'd see the disgusting distaste of the late-Nineties music scene I had. But, I did have a couple of good cards given to me. I joined the campus newspaper which I'd write music reviews for. An attractive brunette, Sandra, randomly stopped me to strike up a conversation, and wanted to get to know me better. She was also a Jesus freak. I also made another friend I met on campus who decided to set me up with an Irish blonde acquaintance of his, and we hit it off right away. Even then, I'd deal with constant games, rudeness, and random acts of ego during my time there.

The newspaper meeting ended one late October Thursday night. I finally had the opportunity to drive out eight miles from campus to the Port Jefferson Music Den for some shopping. I walked right in, and started digging. I'm not even there for two minutes and I already find gold: the import version of Alec Empire’s The Destroyer for only $9.00 used ($22.00 brand new otherwise). That was a huge deal for me because (once again) I was an Atari Teenage Riot / DHR fanatic. Right after that? Another label release, this time from EC8OR. I'd finally discover all those artists I heard about on the internet; thirty-minute download times of grainy 480P-resolution video and all. I was really starting to like this place. I start scouring the used CD bins, and I’d stumble upon KMFDM’s banned version of Naive for $8.00 - back when used copies on eBay were selling for…$80.00 each! Then came Pigface’s Washingmachinemouth and Ministry’s The Land Of Rape And Honey for a few dollars used. I copped Fluke’s Risotto because of Wipeout XL, and I’d snatch Skinny Puppy’s Back & Forth Volume 2 and Cleopatra’s Industrial Revolution: Third Edition, all for regular price. Finally, Coldcut’s "Atomic Moog 2000" / "Reboot The System": the first-ever multimedia CD I'd ever own.

Minute-by-minute, I'd slowly discover all sorts of wild and unusual sounds and artists they had on the racks. The Port Jeff- Music Den carried all the rare, unusual, and obscure stuff no other store on the island did. Sure, there were plenty of used CDs and vinyl bins in pop, metal, alternative, shoegaze, indie, hip-hop, and jazz. It was their industrial, noise, electronic, and experimental selections, however, that would be the all-important tie-breaker. They had all what I was looking for. I remembered seeing titles like Gescom’s Minidisc on the racks, Coil’s “Autumn Equinox: Amethyst Deceivers” 7", tons of Clock DVA, Controlled Bleeding, plus some Oval and Microstoria albums. It was wild. I felt stimulated because I found plenty of abnormalities that I never knew existed, instead of the expected, typical, calculated fare that did absolutely nothing for me.

90 minutes later, I took my short stack of CDs, placed them on the counter to be rung up, cashed out, and wrapped up what would be my first visit to The -Den. $82.00 later, I leave fucking satisfied.

With each visit after, I’d continue to score big victories where I’d find them. They were Phil Western’s debut album The Escapist, Muslimgauze’s Hamas Arc, Mike & Rich’s Expert Knob Twiddlers, Aphex Twin’s Analogue Bubblebath 3, Merzbow’s Pulse Demon, and Sam & Valley. I’d nab more DHR albums from 16-17, Shizuo on vinyl, Fuck Step '98, Give Up on 12", and Alec Empire’s Squeeze The Trigger. The best? Autechre / Gescom’s “Keynell” 12" that I found under the vinyl bins and hidden inside the cabinet underneath. It was stickered for $17.00 - another record where second-hand copies sold on eBay for $125.00. I also managed to pick up a few of their 12" EPs, mainly Chiclisuite and Envane.

All these finds made The -Music Den the most unforgettable store I had the privilege to visit. They were like nothing else on the island. Sadly, they closed down after the turn of the millennium, and no store that came after was half-as-good enough to fill the hole they left behind. Believe me, if any of you reading this would’ve shopped there, you’d feel amazed and blown away like I was. I’d still have a tough time dealing with all the constant, petty drama on campus over the next couple of years. At the Port Jefferson Music Den, however, I knew that was a place where I felt like I’d belong.

[omegaremix]

For anyone of you reading this, I’m going to say it right now to all of you here: don’t ever take up music collecting. Each and every one of you. I am not fucking around. I started collecting during the Brentwood era. Like everyone else, cassettes and CDs were given to me as birthday and Christmas gifts, then getting one or two here and there as I got into my favorite artists more. A swirl of radio airplay, word of mouth, and magazines meant there was a new music frontier to discover. It wasn’t until after I graduated that I started getting addicted to it. I'm open-minded in discovering and hearing new artists…and I'm also compulsive. I had to get my hands on everything by every artist - even if I was unemployed and didn’t have the money. Finding lower price tags on what I bought made my habit worse. Then I acquired my driver’s license. I discovered vinyl (which started way before this trendy "boom", no thank you) not just on my own but through my dad who salvaged entire collections after being thrown out. Then came the dawn of the internet which lead me to albums and releases I never knew existed. Napster amplified my tastes in music and acquisitions exponentially, and I had plenty of friends who gifted me mixtapes and mix-CDs. I managed to hold onto stable positions and made more money. And, I discovered college radio, when finding a couple of key artists that forever changed my collecting trajectory. I never looked back. I didn’t care to find a cure. Just a few years ago when I laid in bed recovering from my life-saving shoulder surgery that I had an idea of a ‘record-store victory tour’. I promised myself that when I fully healed, I would hit up each and every music store I could on Long Island and spend hours grabbing anything I missed, heard about, or interested me. Nothing was hands-off and no regrets spending.

Promise fulfilled. 275 titles and $1,500.00 later, I was a new person. I did it again four years later and went for broke. I walked out with 560 titles totaling - drumroll, please - $3,000.00. I was the happiest man I knew walking the Earth whose addiction turned into a fucking crisis mode. You wouldn’t have known it if you saw it. But, like all addictions, they eventually get you into trouble. It’s great having all this music when you’re a radio dee-jay as I am. You’d figure I’d take what I have in my music library and use it for all of my broadcasts. Not quite. It’s my constant every-day involvement of audio-editing, auditioning incoming music finds, maintaining multiple pages (this, Ω+, Ω WUSB, Our Lady Of Ω), and Real-Life Syndrome that makes it almost near-impossible to catch up on what I purchased and yet listened to.

Acquisition has outpaced listening in that sense for years. I bought so much that I had a huge backlog of what I’ve yet to hear. It wasn’t like this before. I, like everyone, had more private time and lesser obligations back then listening to albums and still be caught up. This wasn’t an issue until I posted an INXS single on Ω+. A mutual of mine asked how deep I was into them. Not much, admittedly. Just the radio singles I grew up listening to. What made it sting was that for years I had four INXS tapes as a result from two cassette collections I inherited from my dad’s former auto-insurance agent and my bro-. It was that moment where I felt I should’ve been on top of them from the beginning; like I should’ve with must-have artists like The Cure, Radiohead, and The Smiths, whom most people should know by heart according to popular opinion. The seed was planted, and would grow larger as time went by. I realized I’m throwing money away on hoarding things and not using them. I expressed my frustration in how I’d tackle this new situation. Another mutual told me to take it easy and reach back for them when I could. Sounds great and I thank her for that, but again, I was short of it. I’m always pre-occupied with posting, editing, finding music, and auditioning outside of work. I didn’t have the opportunity to stray away from my constant finds and catch up. That all changed when I found @sheisthesisterofnight. She’s a massive Depeche Mode fan. That’s another band I’ve mostly missed out on. Her obsession with Dave Gahan made me take an initiative to catch up and listen to them. And, I did. I bought Some Great Reward and enjoyed it, then made the effort to grab everything from Ultra and earlier.

If she was the catalyst, then @tewz was the reaction. I never met anyone before her who was as obsessive and eclectic with music as I was, down to specific artists and even habits. She's the one who's given me a real run for my money! Have two friends on the exact same level and watch the trade-offs skyrocket to seraphim levels. I knew acquiring music online for my radio show would go on so long as I have it, and catching up on my purchases would still be on the backburner. Then this happened: our frequency’s program director gave me a one-hour slot down from three. Yes! Now I had only a third of the work to edit a single show and have more time to do other personal projects. Time was starting to open up. Now what to do with all of it? Digitize my entire music library. My cassettes, vinyl records, and discs. All of it. I thought of doing it for a few months. I download and stream music infinitely more than I listen to it physically. So, why do I still buy physical copies? They’re so nice to have, and owning your own copy means you can digitize it for private use. You don’t worry about streaming services taking down albums or deleting your purchases with a snap of a finger over contractual rights.

You do worry, however, about disc rot before CDs become unusable and degradation of chemicals that break down and deteriorate tape. As an archivist, saving my library is a must. But, the biggest reason I’m digitizing it is to offload it and make it more convenient to listen to. I can play catch-up in-between downtime discovering sounds and artists for my show with one click of a button. It took a few weeks to decide what portable storage to buy based on capacity, speed, and reliability. That was Crucial’s 4TB X10 Pro, their best one. It reads at 2,100 MB/s and writes at 2,000 MB/s. I had to go solid state, because there’s no way I’m suffering with hard-disk drive speeds. I’m Italian, impatient like a bull, and hate waiting for anything. Plus, it’s runs through USB-C to ensure I get close to those speeds as possible. I set aside at least two hours a night and take one huge pile of titles (that's either 95 cassettes, 60 discs, or 75 vinyl records) and download everything from SLSK as MP3 at 320kbps. Sources say there’s no difference between that and 196kbps, and most people are not worried about the small quality difference with high-quality MP3s and FLACs, so MP3 wins. Albums are downloaded as folders that can easily be named, and those names are copy-pasted into Excel. There’s a portable LG DVD/CD drive I use to rip discs into 320kbps for those I can’t download at that quality. I also have a Roxio VHS-to-DVD digitizer running from my Yamaha KX-400U to digitize tapes and from the Audio Technic AT-LP60X for vinyl records, too.

All those album-folders get shoved into the solid-state drive and that’s it. I estimate I’d be using 40.00% of the Crucial’s capacity after everything gets digitized, but it’s better to have more than get caught with less. (In reality, you get 3.6TB because the manufacturer’s -byte counts are converted and translated through the operating system’s.) It’s been more than a month since I started digitizing and everything is going smoothly, but it'll still take time. I give it by the end of the year when all is said and done.

So, remember when I said I was compulsive in collecting and buying? I was so hasty in buying up everything that I found duplicates. That’s why listing everything I have became a by-product of this project and I won’t buy the same album twice again. Now, guess what I did with those duplicates? I gave them to none other than @tewz, my closest competitor and fellow music aficionado. I took whatever extras I found and sent them to her as a Christmas gift. They now have a new good home where they deserve, just as she deserves it herself. Which CDs did I send her? You’ll have to wait until next Christmas for that. When my current digitization project is over, all of you will be the first to know the final numbers. Try not to piss yourselves while you’re put on hold.

(This is a redux and update of an earlier post we made.)