OT -- Shaman Drum Closes
Stumbled on this:
http://annarborchronicle.com/2009/06/09/shaman-drum-bookshop-to-close-j…
Note Brian's comment on the linked page.
Favorite Shaman Drum memory: waiting over an hour on those stairs, finally getting up there and being misdirected by a confused, patchouli-smelling refugee from the summer of love, locating and purchasing a $90 textbook for a Chinese history course -- authored by the professor -- that was both unavailable anywhere else and also never used. Good times, good times.
Now where do I go to get a leatherbound, acid-free paper edition of "The Communist Manifesto"?
Dave
Bummer it closed. Now I may never again buy a book from a woman with more armpit hair than I have. And I have a lot of armpit hair.
have been a woman...it was always hard to tell at that place. I never really like that place. Between the painfully long lines, strange smell, jacked prices, and retarded return policies, it kind of sucked. Oh...wait...that is every college-town bookstore and the one to follow it will no doubt be the same. (maybe minus the smell)
it's about time, I hate that awful store
Once I wandered into the upstairs of Shaman Drum during the summer, maybe a month before fall classes started. I don't remember why but I wanted to browse textbooks for something or other. So, after a couple minutes up there someone approached me and told me to leave. They said they couldn't allow me up there browsing around because I could be a spy for one of the other bookstores. This amused me. The end.
it was a great bookstore. It is one of those few remaining independent stores in America. Borders/Barnes&Noble and the internet and running these types of places out of business. My wife loved this place more than anything. We were going to Stucci's for ice cream when we saw the going out of business sign and my wife said "Oh noooooo!" in such a way I thought someone got hit by a car.
She went there Sunday and said it was like a funeral. Huge bummer.
I used to just walk right to the top of the line and walk right in. People thought I owned the place or something. It was great.
what was the correct pronunciation? I walked by the store on Friday and my friend said "Sha-man" as in "shave your armpits" but I had a professor who pronounced it a la "sham-a-lama-ding-dong." I thought it was the latter.
I've always said it Charmin-in-a-Boston-accent as opposed to the long A.
I always remember there being lines, but since I only took a couple of LSA classes, I rarely had a reason to go there. That said, it had a charm that the big box stores never had, and I am going to miss it. I was just back in town a few weeks ago, and the campus is changing faster than I ever expected. I just hope it doesn't become like most college campuses (looking at you, MSU), dominated by chain stores and a few cheap bars. A2 is a great town, and these little independent shops are a big reason why.
I would have preferred if ulrichs was the bookstore that closed instead.
On one hand, this is sad because it was an independent, quirky place, and I don't like to see the city lose those. I must say, though, that SD was by far my least favorite place to buy textbooks. Standing in incredibly long lines that snaked through multiple narrow rooms on the second floor of a non-air-conditioned building . . . that, I don't miss.
i agree with the sentiment brian left on the original website. i couldnt stand when i had to go buy textbooks there
The Dawn Treader FTW
Shaman Drum existed because they could rip off students. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate local bookstores that support authors and literature and offer great selection of books a lot of other stores don't carry. After 4 years of getting unabashedly ripped off by their high prices, absurd return policy, snooty staff, and limited hours, i have no sympathy for them.
They were able to be get by because most students had to go there to find out the books they had to buy, and their staff was hovering to make sure you weren't writing down any detailed notes about what the books were. When the University required professors to publish their reading lists ahead of time so students could explore alternatives to purchasing their books, Shaman Drum threw a fit because they knew their game was up.
Good riddance, Karl Pohrt. A generation of students' bank accounts do not thank you.
Whatever "independence" or "quirkiness" that place had was built on ripping off immense loads of time and money from the student population. To be sure, Borders is a dull, corporate behemoth -- but unlike Shaman Drum it never gave me a full prostate exam with both of its hands on my shoulders.
Didn't Borders originate in Ann Arbor? Correct me if I'm wrong, but if Shaman Drum had followed their lead they may have turned out to be another corporate behemoth - or bought by Borders. Either way, they apparently had some difficulty evolving.
Borders is an A^2 original, and I believe still hq'd there.
Yes. Border's was started in Ann Arbor. the original store was where the MDen on State Street is now. I remember when it was still there, before Borders had music, movies, or coffee.
For that matter.