Today is a momentous occasion…besides some great jokes I’ve heard and played…involving two big facets of my life.
Firstly, it’s the 37th birthday of Apple formerly known as Apple Computer. The “Computer” part was dropped several years ago thanks to the iPhone’s success. Besides, Apple sells more than just computers these days. This corporation has also been my employer for a third of my life. I achieve my fourteenth anniversary with them in a couple weeks. I think the old joke about Apple going out of business finally ended when its capital worth exceeded Wal-Mart.
The other landmark is Waterloo Records turning 31. These days the music industry is a shadow of its former glory when customers were gouged $18 for a CD because they were locked into buying entire albums. The unfortunate casualty in the digital fallout has been the independent record store. Few tears were shed over Tower Records, Sam Goody/Musicland and Warehouse Music. Plus the consolidation of the six major labels into three (or is it two) only made the rich richer while screwing over non-arena-packing artists, non-rich employees, indie stores and most of all, the customers. Despite the gloom, I’m confident in Waterloo’s future. If they’ve weathered this much, helped initiate the Keep Austin Weird campaign and continued to have the best attitude through a notably rude SXSW 2013, we’ll be celebrating their 40th and 50th birthdays.