i scored a dream job at a record store

and in this store – besides all the great records cassettes and cds – were all these amazing people, all of whom taught me priceless things about the music we were selling.

the two most famous employees from Licorice Pizza in West LA at the time that i worked there were probably Gary Calamar who rocks the mic at KCRW on Sunday Nights and he also is the music supervisor for some of your favorite shows like Dexter, True Blood, and House where he picks the sweet tunes.

the other was Gunnar Nelson, the long haired blonde drummer and guitarist of Nelson, who i remember clearly asked for some time off so his band could perform as the musical act on Saturday Night Live. (to the chagrin of the many struggling musicians who also worked at the store.)

but one of the more interesting characters i’d ever met was one Tosh Berman who exuded class. not snobby class, just the opposite. class like he’d been somewhere and he wanted to share his badass exotic discoveries with you.

some people make you feel dumb when they teach you stuff, tosh made you want to just listen and listen and listen.

turns out Tosh went on to bigger and better after Licorice Pizza – as many of us have. and who knew he was the longtime book buyer for one of the best book stores in all of LA – Book Soup?

thanks to the magic of video + facebook + a cool blog named SinningInLA i got to see and hear Tosh exactly as I remembered him, just a tad grayer around the temples, giving a nice tour of the best book store on the Sunset Strip.

heres a photo of tosh and i with our coworker kara way back in the day.

i believe im tapping along to the dulcet tunes probably being played live by the ridiculously talented Willie Aaron of the Balancing Act.

it was Willie who turned me on to The Replacements, Lou Reed, and John Coltrane among others.

and yes i do believe thats a wine cooler in front of me. i told you it was back in the day!