Hello all of you lucky and loyal subscribers,

My favorite words today are “ten thousand.” As in, 10,000 spins of a favorite record on the turntable. As in, Land of 10,000 Dances. If you do anything 10,000 times, it’s gotta be good, right? With that number and what it means in mind, today I’ve got 10,000 reasons to celebrate.

Having just reached a happy, heartening milestone of sorts — 10,000 visits to the “RPM: Jonathan Perry’s Life In Analog” blog-website-story archive since I launched last summer — I just wanted to say thanks to each and every one of you who has swung by “RPM”  once, twice, or 40 or 50 times since we hit the Interwebs eight months ago. I deeply appreciate and am grateful for your company, your comments, and your impeccably good taste. Seriously, thanks for checking it (and my ongoing work-in-progress) out, sharing my posts, signing up, and maybe even telling two friends (who told two friends, who told two friends, and so on, and so on … yeah, referencing ’70s TV commercials is part of what we do here), and staying for the party.

Nothing goes with a nice social evening with good friends in than a stack o’ wax on the Hi-Fi and some refreshing libations (Martini & Rossi on ice, perchance?). Now that’s nice!

There’s a lot more to come in the weeks and months ahead, and I’m very much looking forward to this exciting adventure building, adding to, and refining the “RPM” blog — and, hopefully, entertaining (and maybe even inspiring) you guys along the way. I know you’ve entertained and inspired me. Please keep checking back, and keep your thoughts and comments coming (and by “comments” I mean 1,000 words of unadulterated praise, to paraphrase a writer’s preferred reader response from Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury”).

To commemorate reaching the 10,000 visitors mark, as a special Thank You gift to subscribers, “RPM” would like to send you a little celebratory souvenir and token of my appreciation: namely, a strictly limited edition, personally picked, curated, and assembled CD-R of some of our (and, hopefully, your) favorite music tied in to a few of “RPM”‘s favorite posts, all from our private, 30+-year collection of more than 7,000 LPs and CDs. Perfect for a road trip or hanging out reading “RPM” (natch!), or hanging out and imagining your road trip.

A corner of the “RPM” offices.

Participation and receiving the gift is, of course, completely voluntary, so if you’d like one of the following below, please be so kind as to leave your name and address either in the “comments” section or to my e-mail in the “request line” (roughgems@aol.com). We’ll get your gift out as soon as they become available (i.e., we personally burn them the old-fashioned way).  Nothing is for sale, of course, nor is intended for sale. Just a nifty little giveaway promo item for my readers. Please feel free to choose one of the following, stay tuned, and by all means keep reading! And if anybody out there sees this post, has their interest piqued at the posts or the swag, and wants to BECOME a subscriber (it’s free y’all!), by all means we’d love to have you join the party. And if you stick around after happy hour, I just may send you something.

Poly-knit, track suit, dry look, and bonus! Devo Fans!

DOOR NUMBER ONE: Brian Jones & His Rolling Bones (selections from the Brian Jones-era Stones 1964-68

DOOR NUMBER TWO: Nasty Boots & Speed Freak Jive (selections from the Mick Taylor-era Stones, 1969-74)

DOOR NUMBER THREE: Fuzztones & Feedback (seeds & stems from ’60s American and European Psych, Pop, and Garage)

DOOR NUMBER FOUR: The ‘Oorrible ‘OO’s Quadrophic Headache (The Who live in concert, 1973).

DOOR NUMBER FIVE: A Pre-Fab Four Primate Primer Platter (A barrel of Monkees 1966-69)

DOOR NUMBER SIX:  Shaken Not Stirred (What Three Martinis Sound Like: JP’s indie/alt-rock mixer)

DOOR NUMBER SEVEN: Chef’s Choice (something delicious plucked from the “RPM” archives and sautéed to perfection…to help me gauge your palette, feel free to let us know what your favorite food, er, post was and we’ll try to accommodate with something accordingly tasty from the analog kitchen)