http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_9d51774e-8210-11df-8fdd-001cc4c002e0.html
Store owner wants to help change the culture here
June 27, 2010
By PETER STRESCINO
pstress@chieftain.com
A new Puebloan says he's tired being late to the party. This time,
this place, he wants to start the bash and lead a Bohemian renaissance here.
Dave Ray and his wife Rachel Shulman are renovating Record
Reunion in the Mesa Junction, hoping to establish a place where
hipsters can meet and the Bible according to Bukowski, and others,
can be spread.
Shulman's father, Mark, ran Record Reunion for years at that
location. While Mark Shulman was dedicated to the preservation of
rock 'n' roll through vinyl, his daughter and son-in-law want to go
deeper into America's counterculture, back where it all began (in the
second half of the 20th century, anyway), the Beat culture.
"I always seem to be reaching a place that was past its prime,"
said the much-traveled Ray, a self-described military brat. "To me,
Pueblo looks like Southern California in the late '50s, and we wanted
to be here in the beginning. There's a lot happening here, there's
potential here. It's growing fast."
By "it" Ray, 39, means a change in attitude, a move toward a
more free, accepting posture. And in the Mesa Junction he is in a
place where Pueblo's small Bohemian enclave might begin, ending at
the east end of Union Avenue.
In recent years the Union Avenue area and Mesa Junction have
changed to a more relaxed section of the city, with coffeehouses and
good restaurants, the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo and other
amenities. The beautiful Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library and its
high usage certainly hasn't put a damper on things.
"Pueblo can be like Eugene, Oregon, was 30 years ago," said a
hopeful Ray. "There's a percentage of this town that is progressive,
and I don't necessarily mean politically."
What Ray and Shulman, 37, want to do, after extensive work on
the building at the corner of Abriendo and Union, is build a place
where vinyl recordings will continue to be sold and books will be
added. The books will be dedicated to art and counterculture materials.
Mass-market best sellers need not apply.
Ray and Shulman recently sold Bart's Books in Ojai, Calif.
Together for nine years, the couple met while they both worked for
America Online.
"Vinyl sales have increased in each of the last three years,"
Ray said. "It's still a small part of the market, but kids are
getting into vinyl. Digital doesn't seem real to anyone.
"I have not read a book on my Ipad."
Rachel Shulman was born in Pueblo and spent some time here,
attending Centennial High School and graduating from then-University
of Southern Colorado. She returned to Pueblo with her husband partly
because they wanted to carry on her father's legacy. The couple has
purchased a home here and bought the building where the newly named
Beat Pharm will conduct its business.
Ray expressed many opinions on his adopted home. He sees a new
Pueblo, one that will evolve into a counterculture haven, complete
with great music, art and learning. Pueblo is in a nascent stage of
that development, and he mentioned towns like Albuquerque, N.M.,
Austin, Texas, and Boulder, as well as Eugene and Southern Colorado, as models.
His store will feature vinyl recordings and what he considers great books.
" 'On The Road' changed my life," he said of the Jack Kerouac
classic. "And the works of many Beats like him, Charles Bukowski,
Gregory Corso, Hunter S. Thompson and others will be here, as well as
the music of Miles (Davis) and (Charles) Mingus, (Jimi) Hendrix and
(Led) Zeppelin, too."
He anticipates book readings and live music, including an
appearance by his friend Ryan Bingham, who co-wrote and performed the
song "The Weary Kind," which won the Oscar for Best Song this year
from the movie "Crazy Heart."
He mentioned that he'd like his place to have the intellectual
and cultural energy that City Lights Bookstore, owned and operated by
poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, did in 1950s San Francisco.
"The city's got a kind of random weirdness here, an eclectic
weirdness," he said of Pueblo. "I want to be part of a cultural
shift, teach people and create a scene. You can do it here.
"Pueblo's a poor man's Shangri-la."
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