Gayle Somers

I loved this documentary! First, I learned so much about the store itself, what it meant to people with a great passion for music, the kind of fruit that hard work, creativity, commitment, and dedication to providing a source of great happiness for others can bear. There was courage in it, too—not being afraid to open a record store right across the street from Tower Records. There was belief in investment in human capital in the people hired to be on the staff. There was honesty from the owners, who were able to admit their stumbles along the way. There was love for a community, for a neighborhood, with great understanding of its importance for people trying to live a human life in a city like New York. And one of the things I most appreciated was the prescience of the owners, who recognized what was being lost when the store had to close—not just a record store, but the way that technology, for all its value, is stripping away, bit by bit, our need for flesh and blood contact. It’s not just neighborhoods that lose their soul when small businesses are shuttered that way; it’s our own souls that can get lost as well.