Aah, the Serendipity!

February (main): Songs of Rachmaninoff, Columbia Masterworks, 1946In the first week of January I belatedly went shopping in the city for a calendar. After making the horrible discovery that one of my favourite bookshops and calendar stockists had closed down*, I tramped all over Melbourne hunting for a calendar in every likely store. I found very few, and none that I liked. I gave it up as a bad job and went and bought a dress on sale instead.

Then just last week I found a calendar on sale for $9 in an art supply shop. There were two designs to choose from: photos of New York of indifferent quality, or a Taschen calendar of vintage record covers designed by Alex Steinweiss, the inventor of the modern record cover. This was far more interesting, and a viable subject for the Sketchbook too, I decided.

Oddly, the designer chose to include a second small image on the calendar half of the page. At first I thought these were the flip sides of the main image, but no. It’s as if the designer couldn’t decide which cover he or she liked most, and thought, why not use both?

They are great though, so this calendar was a serendipitous find. Happy February!

*Happily, I’ve since discovered that Reader’s Feast has merely moved to the iconic Georges store on Collins St.

February (inset): Gaité Parisienne, Columbia Records, 1942

Out With January!

(January main): John Kirby and His Orchestra, Columbia Records, 1941(January inset): Piano Concerto No°5 in E-Flat (the Emperor Concerto), Columbia Masterworks, 1942