stickypants: March 2012

Hey guys.

Finally, after over 5 years, my dad and I got our old jukebox working again. My grandparents bought it for their old, old cabin, and when that was sold, it ended up at our house. It worked fine for years, until one day it just stopped. I was pissed, so one day I got deep into the depths of google trying to find anything about a 1964 Rock-Ola jukebox. Well, it took me a long time, but I finally found some stuff, and then ripped into the box to figure it out. One of the motors seized up, and it wouldn't work. I found some guy on a forum who rebuilds things like that, and after talking to him, shipped it off. He was pretty good, got it back in about a month. He said it would have been sooner, but he was in the hospital for a bit for some problem. Anyways, he sent the motor back and instructions for lubing it and putting it back in. Great, right? You'd think I'd just throw it in and all would be good? But no. I got a little lazy, and the install was more in-depth than the removal, so I was a little nervous doing it myself. So then it got put on my dad. Who also got a little lazy. And then we just kind of forgot about it. My brother and I would think about doing it at really random times. Him, usually during a party here and usually high. And me, at 3 in the morning really wanting to listen to it. But it never got done. Until now.

Finally, my dad found the motivation and time to put it all back together. So I come home one day and it's all together, but it still didn't work. Something else was wrong. So my dad spent the last week diagnosing it and fixing it. I got super excited (a little too early) and went on ebay and started buying all the 7 inches I ever wanted that I could get my hands on. All the records that were already in the jukebox were either my grandparents, or my parents. But because I'd grown up with them, I loved a lot of the songs. But some of them I couldn't stand, so I wanted to replace them. My goal was to make a punk rock jukebox. It kind of worked. I spent about $250 on records, and all but a few have shown up. So now about a third of the records are punk. Which is fucking awesome!

Anyways, to the point of all this. As I'm sure most of you know, I haven't exactly been the happiest person for the last month or so. Some things have helped to cheer me up, like my birthday, but overall I just wasn't doing well. I even went up to my aunt and uncle's on Sunday to get away for a night. That helped a lot, and I was relatively happy for a day. But once I got back home, and back to work, things were basically back to how they were.

But today, the jukebox is completed, and I got to listen to all my records, old and new, for the first time. Hearing all the old songs again brought me a pleasure I wasn't sure was possible. Some of the songs I'd heard on the radio, or youtube, but it wasn't the same without the vinyl pops or coming from the jukebox. But when I heard specifically the song 'The Wars End' by Rancid through the jukebox for the first time, I couldn't control my happiness. I had a huge grin on my face and I was jumping around all crazy like. This is the first thing to make me genuinely happy in a long, long time, and I can't get over it. I've been listening to all the tracks since about 8 oclock tonight, and it's almost 4 AM. I'm realizing that it's hard for me to convey the importance of all this to you guys, but I really don't care. It's so fucking cool! My mom was laughing at how excited I am. But I don't care. This is the first thing to go right in a long time, and I'm going to enjoy it, damn it!

I'll leave you with some pictures.