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The Beginner’s Introduction to Amoeba Music
Since 1990, Amoeba Music has been the place to go for lovers of pop culture media. Buying, trading, and selling all sorts of knick-knacks and media across vastly varying platforms, Amoeba describes themselves on their website as “a meeting place for California’s most colorful community of progressive and creative minds.”
Amoeba Music was originally a response to the endless lines of corporate chains that began to devour the sales market and devastating independent stores in the 80s and 90s– they “arose out of that community of music lovers that wanted a better place for music than a corporate chain store.” Today, with that mission as a foundation, they have evolved into a cultural landmark for the residents of Los Angeles and all visitors of the city of stars.
Located at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Avenue, Amoeba Music’s grand sign glows in red and yellow and invites anyone with a passion to come inside and get lost…
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Records and Movies and Posters, Oh My! A Virtual Written Tour
Now that you know what Amoeba is all about, allow me to take you inside and show you around a little bit.
When you walk in, you’ll immediately gasp at the mere size of the place – don’t worry, this is only natural. Look around and you’ll notice the gymnasium-level high ceilings and the absence of blank walls, covered by posters, media, live event schedules, concert adverts, photographs, even rare albums, signed by artists, maybe out of print or lost in time, some listed for hundreds of dollars.
(Don’t worry – I can’t afford that either! There’s more.)
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Memorabilia
From left to right, you’ll see an array of miscellaneous memorabilia– candles, mugs, keychains, knick-knacks, doohickeys, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, all surrounded by the hustle and bustle of young and old alike, cinephiles, music lovers, musicians, families, and pop-culture explorers.
While looking for the newest Brockhampton CD, you might run into a bobblehead of Bob Dylan or a candle with John Waters’s eerie smile staring right up at you. Above that, you’ll see signed concert posters next to t-shirts that somehow promote your favorite underground band you were sure nobody else had heard of.
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Endless Rows of Music
As you move forward, you’ll stumble unwittingly into a jungle of new vinyl records, old forgotten records, still-wrapped, brand new vinyl from 1966 or Father John Misty and Mazzy Star’s newest outings, all together in a dense bundle of ecstatic customers, saying to themselves: “There’s no way they’ll have… THEY HAVE IT!!”
Personally, I recommend digging through the record clearance section a little further back into the store. Flip through countless, and I mean countless, records both unrecognizable and iconic– you just might find a hidden gem. Imagine that!
The CD section is just as dense as the record section, if not more so. Pillars hold the place up, and on those pillars are displays of signed albums, special editions, and rare and jaw-dropping finds. Look up, and you will realize Don Henley’s signature is five feet from your face.
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By the Books
Keep moving forward, and you’ll feel smaller and smaller as you realize just how outnumbered you are by titles and pictures. Walk up a flight of stairs, and suddenly, you’re in a library. Maybe you’ll find Charles Bukowski’s poetry or David Lynch’s book – or a random copy of Alexander Dumas’ famous works or a Jane Austen book. One row down, you’ll find autobiographies and photography books.
Oh, and then right next to those little books – sorry, I forgot to mention: the walls of this little section are ALSO saturated with posters, leaving literally not one inch of the wall uncovered. I walked in one day and said, “Oh! There’s Lana Del Rey! …Leonard Cohen?! Michael Jackson! KISS!”
(If you want any of the hundreds of posters displayed on the wall, pull your phone out, take a picture, and walk up to the cashier. They’ll run off and grab you a fresh copy and send you happily on your way.)
There are about six little bins with different kinds of posters. Concert venues, horror movie posters, 80s movie posters, band posters. A ‘Back to the Future’ poster is likely less than two feet from a Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’ poster.
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Movies
Keep walking. You’ll find yourself surrounded by DVDs and Blu-rays of all languages, cultures, shapes, and forms. There is one aisle called the ‘Directors section.’ Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, John Ford, John Huston, Howard Hawks– the list goes on and on and on. A Kurosawa masterpiece, right next to a Harmony Korine flick, both of those in between a Francois Truffaut and an Andrei Tarkovsky.
Keep going. You’ll find a world cinema section, a ‘Criterion Collection’ section (all of which are extremely affordable), and then a Blu-ray section of comedies and dramas. A western aisle across from a sci-fi aisle is bookended by a war movie aisle, which is not too far from the all-4k section on the back wall, full of collectible box sets and steel books.
In the back corner, there is a row of films labeled “SMUT.” Across from that is the cult movie section, filled with alien invasion and silly-sexy B-movie exploitation flicks.
In the middle of this is a back section with black-light posters and trippy cult posters, followed by two different shelves of VHS movies– I’m telling you, this place is like a time machine. Next to a section of newly imported movies and clearance movies (I found a Blu-ray copy of ‘Lost Highway’ for $4.99) is an assortment of miscellaneous merchandise, concert films, box sets, long-since discontinued collectibles.
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Amoeba Records is the Place to Be
Walk down the middle aisle, check out with your purchases, and you’ll walk out into the fresh air of Hollywood Boulevard, proud of your purchases and your exploration in a cave of music and movies unrivaled by any place elsewhere in California.
Amoeba Music’s Instagram posts little showcases of new albums and fun posts of interesting random items they have as well as announcements for live events going on. Oftentimes, Amoeba will hold signings for artists, as well as live performances– that back section with the collectibles and box sets is cleared off and turned into a stage every now and again.
Earlier in the year, Amoeba held a signing for Rian Johnson and Nathan Johnson, and more recently, a Rexx Life Raj LP signing. Coming up soon is a listening event for Lana Del Rey.
If you find yourself living in or visiting Los Angeles and walking down Hollywood Boulevard, make sure to make your way to Amoeba Music, a beautiful world condensed into one big store, and eat up a slice of creative life among fellow lovers of pop-culture media.
Put Amoeba down on your bucket list so you can cross it off when you inevitably visit this world of fun.
By Ben Brown
Click here to read The Hollywood Insider’s CEO Pritan Ambroase’s love letter to Cinema, TV and Media. An excerpt from the love letter: The Hollywood Insider’s CEO/editor-in-chief Pritan Ambroase affirms, “We have the space and time for all your stories, no matter who/what/where you are. Media/Cinema/TV have a responsibility to better the world and The Hollywood Insider will continue to do so. Talent, diversity and authenticity matter in Cinema/TV, media and storytelling. In fact, I reckon that we should announce “talent-diversity-authenticity-storytelling-Cinema-Oscars-Academy-Awards” as synonyms of each other. We show respect to talent and stories regardless of their skin color, race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, etc., thus allowing authenticity into this system just by something as simple as accepting and showing respect to the human species’ factual diversity. We become greater just by respecting and appreciating talent in all its shapes, sizes, and forms. Award winners, which includes nominees, must be chosen on the greatness of their talent ALONE.
I am sure I am speaking for a multitude of Cinema lovers all over the world when I speak of the following sentiments that this medium of art has blessed me with. Cinema taught me about our world, at times in English and at times through the beautiful one-inch bar of subtitles. I learned from the stories in the global movies that we are all alike across all borders. Remember that one of the best symbols of many great civilizations and their prosperity has been the art they have left behind. This art can be in the form of paintings, sculptures, architecture, writings, inventions, etc. For our modern society, Cinema happens to be one of them. Cinema is more than just a form of entertainment, it is an integral part of society. I love the world uniting, be it for Cinema, TV, media, art, fashion, sport, etc. Please keep this going full speed.”
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