Hoodlums Music and Movies

We take over our new space on August 1st.  School starts August 4th.  Knowing that we face a staggering amount of work, the family took a July vacation.

We headed for Ocean Beach (which is in Fire Island, NY) to visit family.  It’s a mellow little beach town (except for the huge row of bars downtown… but a town needs bars, eh?).  It is really simple: Eat, drink, read and bum out at the beach.  It’s not fancy, but neither are we, and we feel lucky to be there.

We took a side trip to Boston to visit friends and be tourists.  Plus I visited Heath (see Hall of Fame hoodlums) in Brooklyn, which included a night of entertainment by Zychal and Nadine.  Except for the ill-timed (not that it would ever be a good time) passing of our beloved dog Willie Walter (God bless Will - you were a champ), it was just the kind of refreshing break-before-the-storm that we needed.

Of course, I had to do a bit of record store hopping while I was out there.  As I tell my wife - it’s work.  So I went to see the original, legendary Newbury Comics in Boston, and the new and improved Looney Tunes in Long Island.  As expected, both were really impressive.

I had an especially great time at Looney Tunes - thanks to the touring and commentary of our friend KJ, who co-owns the joint.  Those Long Island guys crack me up, and Looney Tunes rebuilding job (picture links story) was even bigger than ours is going to be, so how could I not be inspired?

But we are opening a new store… with a new concept… in 2008!  It’s like starting over.  I have to PULL FROM MY COLLECTION AGAIN!

So one more trip might in order…

Generally that’s one of those questions that people think in their heads, but don’t actually say to us.  It’s OK, we understand if they are thinking that way.  It’s not an entirely illogical thought process.  That’s sorta what we thought when our friend KJ rebuilt Looney Tunes after they burned to the ground.  That was less than a year ago.

We thought about it plenty when debating about whether to reopen Hoodlums or not - I assure you.  It’s a tough business in a tough economy.  However, when it comes down to it, this is what we do.  After twenty years each in the biz, it’s who we are.  Our passion is entertainment.  Our experience is entertainment.  We are small businessmen, and we like being small businessmen, so it’s worth the risk.

What it really comes down to is confidence.  We love the new location, and we think we can do it.  And we think we can do it well enough to connect with our community and survive.

When we opened in 1998, I remember eating dinner with our then-Sony rep, a friend of ours.  He said, “How are you going to survive during the slow summers at ASU?”  We weren’t sure exactly how we were going to do it, but we were confident we could pull it off.  Ultimately, we did (note: Kristian deserves truckloads of credit for navigating us through all those slow summers).

The same goes for our new endeavor.  We’re not sure exactly how we are going to do it - but we think we can do it.

Thanks for your support,

Steve