One gadget helps you hide your valuables on the beach, the other protects your grandchild, and the third one can save your life. I don’t know if you should truly depend on these gadgets, but I wanted to tell you about them if you are a beach lover.

I live on Miami Beach. While I don’t sit on the sand to bake myself in the sun, I do watch others. Everyone is focused on having fun. Please have a safe and happy summer,

This is a collector’s item. Save it. We all know that bookstores are a thing of the past. The Culture Trip, an app, just did a wrap up of 50 unique independent bookstores that are still around the country. My lovely friend, Anne Bloom, just posted the bookstores and locations on Facebook.

So what did I do? I quickly copied her post to deliver you a keepsake. I’m definitely filing this post in a safe spot because I love visiting bookstores. I want to know which city has what. I used to spend hours every weekend roaming through book and record stores. It was my social life. It was cheap, informative and fun. 

Now, we will have Amazon taking over where the independents left off. I don’t know how much fun Amazon will be, but I do know the independent bookstores always offer a different twist in marketing.

Most of the listings below give you the state, the name of a bookstore, a store description, the address and phone number. One or two may be missing a headline, but the copy will give you all the information you need.

Have fun! 
o

I thought audio cassettes were dead. I never wanted to see them again. My friend, Richie Grand, had several walls in his Queens, NY co-op lined with cassettes, neatly stacked in custom-made bookshelves.  I used to tell him to get rid of them. It looked old fashioned.

I even told him to digitize all of his music so he could easily access his albums from the convenience of his smartphone. He eventually listened to me, or to someone else, because one day he announced that they were all gone. Richie is a big music lover so this was quite a major transformation.

Now Forbes Magazine reports cassettes are getting popular again. Folks admit they like their sound. Billboard claims that the best selling cassette of 2016 was the Guardians Of The Galaxy with 4,000 copies sold. The other big cassette hits were Eminem’s The Slim Shady LP, and Prince and the Revolution’s legendary Purple Rain.

Artists with big budgets will probably produce cassettes for some new albums. The only trouble is that most Americans discarded their players and they are not buying new ones. 

Vinyl is another story. That format is really doing well again and is showing a lot of promise for the future. Americans just love their music on Vinyl because of the superior quality of the sound. Check out why some believe Vinyl is the most consumer-friendly high-resolution format around. Click here.

I promote high resolution music players like Astell&Kern. I predict that hi res will be the winning format as prices come down for the players. It’s the truest studio sound quality. It’s just a matter of time.

The Verge, a popular news site, also covered the audio cassette popularity story. I suggest you read both stories for a better perspective on the subject.