sealed

It’s a quest that probably will never have a completion.

Never have a happy ending.

It quite possibly could be impossible. I have no idea.

Maybe it's like love. You always want it to be like in the movies. Those 87-minute or so pieces of celluloid that always end happily. You never see the other, oh, 60, 70 years.

But it doesn’t mean I won’t stop looking.

What the fuck am I looking for? (Randy, why do you have to cuss so much?)

I’m looking for an unopened, sealed shut, copy of INXS’ cassette tape “Listen Like Thieves.”

Why?

Because I still remember the way it smelled when I opened it one day back in 1985. That smell now is a curse, because I can’t describe it. Which is why I want to find a copy of the original pressing of the tape. Sent to a Sam Goody’s or Peaches or Tower Records that year.

It’s got to be a clear cassette tape. Not black. Not covered with a sticker. Or any of the other ways it was released over the years.

I still have my old, very worn copy of LLT. It’s been through the ringer of my high school days. Of road trips and cross-country moves. Of being in blizzards and in 120-degree days without air conditioning.

Will I find one? I can always hope so.

There was a Canadian version on ebay not too long ago. I thought about buying it anyway, but didn’t. It might even still be there. It’s not the one I want. Or, to be silly, what cha need.

So, I will keep looking.

I probably would have had better luck in the late-1990s and early 2000s. When record stores started to die in a fast way. Much like newspapers, right when I was deciding to go to work (for the rest of my life!) at one.

Idiot.

Or not.

Depends on your perspective.

I’m not going to make it to 750 words.

I need to sleep.