Which is great until it’s time to buy a record sight unseen on eBay, Discogs.com or elsewhere, and then suddenly those vinyl grading terms mean a hell of a lot more.

This video is one point of view on grading vinyl records, and the background music is fun, too. There is a great amount of personal preference built in to grading vinyl records, but once you get used to the grading systems and know what to look for this whole topic is much easier to deal with. Again, some of this is really down to personal preference–how much wear is acceptable to you?

–Joe Wallace

The Flint Horror Con people did it 110% right and really went the extra mile–I highly recommend checking this show out the next time it’s run as it was top-notch. Good people, great venue, a really good experience all around. Sadly, I missed all the films because I was running the Turntabling Booth (with much help from my good friend Jeff Runokivi, who had to endure vinyl junkie talk all weekend long–thanks, Jeff!)

The people who attended the show were awesome too–highlights of the show included an appearance by someone wearing a Count Chocula costume (See below) and the man-nun made my weekend.

I met plenty of great people including Glen Birdsall, who’s working on a poetry volume of work inspired by Italian slasher films, Lucifer Fulci who’s a horror novelist and musician, and illustrator Roger Scholz who has some really great Dr. Who-inspired poster art among many other things. And it’s always great to see artist and one-of-a-kind horror t-shirt designer Steven Bejma, who has an amazing collection of oil paintings and tees–high quality stuff.

Thanks to everyone who visited the Turntabling booth, talked shop about cool records, and supported the site by purchasing some of our rarities and hard-to find titles in The Turntabling Collection. You awesome people are the ones responsible for keeping this site going year after year and I couldn’t do it without you.

There’s plenty of catching up to do around here and much prep for the last Turntabling booth appearance of the year  this November at Horrorhound Weekend in Cincinnati. Details on that coming soon…plus an announcement promised last week that I STILL need to deliver on…stay tuned, there are interesting things in the works at Turntabling!

–Joe Wallace

Turntabling.net will have a booth at the Dark Carnival Film Festival this weekend (October 22-23) in Bloomington Indiana. This is an indie horror film festival located at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre at 114 East Kirkwood. The festival starts at noon. Turntabling will be there with hundreds of rare, obscure, freaky and awesome vinyl and CD titles.

Check out the official site for more info on the Dark Carnival Film Festival and I look forward to seeing you there!

–Joe Wallace

I promised a trip report on Cinema Wasteland–one of my favorite conventions to set up the Turntabling booth at. This time out there were plenty of vinyl junkies to talk shop with, and as usual, the entire weekend flew by faster than you really want it to.

For those who have never been, Cinema Wasteland is, as the name implies, a movie expo featuring underrated, indie and otherwise non-mainstream films, stars, memorabilia and ephemera. There are a lot of indie filmmakers at the show representing their latest work and plenty of well-recognized luminaries signing autographs.

For me, Wasteland is a chance to put the Turntabling Collection in front of a lot of people who haven’t seen it before and rub elbows with my favorite artists, bloggers and filmmakers. This year Turntabling hit the road early to spend some time in Cleveland before the show craziness started.

Here’s a little collection of images from the trip–I’d like to say thanks to everyone who supported Turntabling by purchasing vinyl, CDs, or one of our hand-silk screened record totes or t-shirts. We had a little collection of tees and bags that sold quite well and have gone a long way toward supporting the site–THANK YOU! And special thanks to KitleysKrypt.com, Don and Nina England, Ken and Pam Kish (the organizers and hosts of Cinema Wasteland) and many others for making the trip so amazing.

Why yes, that IS a copy of “What Do You Know, Deutchland?” by  KMFDM. That’s also a Christian Death album, right next to the Legend soundtrack. Tasty.

Local color…I wish this place had been open when we were there…looks fun! There are LOTS of great places to shop in Cleveland, including the crazy retro shop that carried this Richard Wagner action figure:

There was just too much awesomeness in Cleveland for ANYBODY to call it “The Mistake By The Lake” as we’ve heard so often here in Chicago. Pay the scoffers no mind, Cleveland and Cleveland Heights are wonderful stops for a vinyl junkie and retro fiend.

The Turntabling Collection is made of hundreds of CD and LP titles that are, as mentioned above, rare and hard to find or just plain cool. Everyone who purchases from Turntabling is making a direct show of support for the site since all proceeds go to keep the site going.

Your support is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks to all who came to see The Turntabling Collection at Cinema Wasteland this weekend and we look forward to seeing you again at the next show. An updated appearance schedule will be posted shortly.

Browse the Turntabling Collection.

There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing people like those in this video getting enthusiastic about vinyl records–not just interested, but REALLY into it. Some of the best moments in this are when turntablist Swan is doing his thing–but especially when he’s explaining why his vinyl has stickers all over it. Pretty awesome stuff.

There’s been such a great, positive response to the vinyl and CDs I sell at Horrorhound Weekend, Flashback, and elsewhere that it seems like the right time to expand the amount of stuff I’m bringing to the shows and the number of shows I bring it to.

That’s why I’m very pleased to be part of two new-to-me shows. Dark Carnival in Bloomington, Indiana is one I’m catching in October (details below) and I just committed to doing Days of the Dead in Atlanta in March 2012.

Cinema Wasteland, September 30 – October 2 2011 in Strongsville Ohio. It’s at the Holiday Inn at 15471 Royalton Road in Strongsville.

Dark Carnival Film Festival, October 21-23 2011 in Bloomington, Indiana. For ticket and location info call (812) 323-3020

Horrorhound Weekend November 11-13 2011 in Cincinnati Ohio. This one is at the Crowne Plaza Hotel 11320 Chester Road.

Capricon is a fun sci-fi show in Wheeling, Illinois held February 9-12 2012. I had a table two years ago and the experience was a lot of fun, so I look forward to getting back there for another go in 2012. This year Turntabling plans to co-host a party room and there should be a lot of mischief, mayhem and fun. Did I mention there will be an open bar?

Days of the Dead Atlanta is March 9-12 2012. This is my first Days of the Dead show so I look forward to getting to meet a lot of you who haven’t made it to the shows I normally do because they’re so far away. Turntabling will bring hundreds of rare, weird, sought-after and collectible records and if you’re in the Altanta area, you should NOT miss this show. Sid “Captain Spaulding” Haig is already confirmed for this show and word has it he’ll be taking photos in the makeup again. Yes, you need to be at this show!

As always, thanks for your support at these shows–I really love meeting people who read the blog and vinyl junkies in general. Thank you!

–Joe Wallace