Sweltering heat and crowded sidewalk and competing blasts of distorted Spanish music from every adjacent storefront. A blanket on the ground covered with weather-beaten old books and records for cheap. One LP from the early '60s shows a guy sporting a crewcut and a cardigan sweater, crouching along the seashore at sunset, looking introspective. The record is titled, "Anybody Got Room For Another White Guy?" Another LP, this one from the mid-'70s shows a woman with an afro looking disoriented and clutching two beaten up suitcases at the Greyhound bus station. The record is titled, "I Should Have Stayed in Beautician's School - Greatest Hits, 1970 - 1974." Nearby is a book of short stories from the early '90s titled "Please Lord, Who Allowed His Only Son, Jesus Christ, To Be Sacrificed Upon The Cross For Our Sins, Don't Let This Book Wind Up As Just Another $3.99 Remainder At Strands!" Intrigued, I open the book to the inside dust jacket and find a photograph of the author changing a flat tire on the Garden State Parkway in the rain, smoking a pipe. "Hey, what are the prices on these things?" "The records are all a dollar. The books are fifty cents." "You ever see anything come by from a band called The Twenty % Tippers? They're supposed to be pretty good." "Never heard of them. But good or not, it's only a matter of time before they'll be on my blanket." THE TWENTY % TIPPERS at C.B.'s GALLERY 313 Bowery (off Bleecker Street) FRIDAY, AUGUST 16TH 11PM FOR A FREE TWENTY % TIPPERS CASSETTE CALL (646) 335-3390

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