D. W.
Yelp
Some of the very worst changes, to my mind, in the history of Sugarhood, were the changes that forced this place downtown and Experienced Books (RIP), two of my most favorite haunts, either out of the area or to the dustbin of history. This is the survivor and it moved to a not very convenient place and I spent a lot of time meaning to, but constantly forgetting, to go check it out. A few other times, I tried, but couldn't fight the parking enough in the time I had. Once I finally made it there...
...ok, look. The Sugarhood space was nice and large and full of stuff, including a lot of the textiles that this place is similarly full of. All to the good and it was cruelly ripped away to make...a hole. This place is not anywhere near as spacious, which means a whole lot less of things and dammit...
Anyway, this place is a severely truncated version and like all places in the area, lots of the downtown wildlife strolling on by. Inside is a smattering of CDs and even some cassettes, along with a lot more vinyl, some very cool collectibles, a shit ton of local stuff and, of course, lots and lots of store merchandise in various wearables, apparel and other textile product. I've lost count of how many bands I've discovered here and indeed, there are monitors playing live DVDs, which happily hearkens to my metalhead sensibilities, yet because of those discoveries, this current state I can't help but find tragic on some level. There is no online storefront, aside from the wearables and while I'm glad it's still around, thanks to the absurd power of nostalgia, I wish it could have continued at that level. Still, it's part of the fabric, the pulse, the history of the city and I did a bad thing staying away so long. We all should support it; we all need to support it. When it's gone, there will never be another like it.