A Visit From Jacob

A few months ago I had a visit from an interesting guy.  He was from Israel and had a way of talking as sometimes people from that country do that was quite intense. He talked about issues affecting the music industry in a very knowledgeable way and told me things as if they were certain truths rather than opinions. He spoke about the future as if he had seen it rather than predicting it and suddenly I realised he rather reminded me of a character from “Lost”.

He was in for some time and it turned out he had given up a well paid job in computing 10 years ago to become a travel correspondent for National Geographic. He would spend 10 months roaming the world’s most interesting places and then in his spare time he visited record shops. He would then return home for two months writing up all his visits while playing music  bought on his visits on a radio show. He would then start all over again. 

He had a lot to say but his opening line was a bit of a stunner. He just walked up to the counter and said “I’ve visited 78 countries and been to hundreds of record shops and yours is the best shop in the best location I have ever seen”. I should add he then qualified it by mentioning a lot of great shops that just didn’t happen to have a nearby castle and a such a great location. He had been in the shop for a while and heard me talking to customers and went on to say how important shops like Avalanche were, that for now customer service wasn’t always appreciated but there would be a time when people tired of the internet and realised just what they had been missing. I had  to bide my time, maybe for two years, and stay open.

Don’t worry I certainly didn’t get carried away. I’m sure the castle as with others was the biggest factor in his opening statement but certainly his views on the future matched my own thoughts.  He was a very interesting man and spoke at length about other things always as if he was telling me certain truths. As he prepared to leave I tried to remember exactly who it was from “Lost” he reminded me of. He shook my hand and repeated that I should hang on in there and that better times would return. “I’ll be mentioning your shop he said, who should people ask for ?”. “Kevin” I said “and what is your name ?” “My name” he said. “My name is Jacob”.