(Final update.)

Today (Sunday, August 12) is Vinyl Record Day, the anniversary of the date in 1877 on which Edison invented the phonograph, and focus of an effort to preserve and celebrate vinyl as a music medium. This weekend, a crateful of music bloggers is banding together to celebrate Vinyl Record Day. Visit them all; you won’t be sorry. Some of them have put up multiple posts, because once you start, it feels too good to stop.

• Flea Market Funk’s DJ Prestige observes a scene of domestic disharmony while crate-digging
• At Echoes in the Wind, Whiteray runs through his vinyl collection by the numbers
• At Funky16Corners, Larry tells about his early adventures in flea marketing
• Davewillieradio says not even Dr. Phil can cure the love of vinyl, and you can download a podcast that proves it
• Homercat at Good Rockin’ Tonight attends a vinyl barbecue
• Py Korry mixes six vinyl tracks, including one from a three-sided album
• It’s a twofer from It’s Great Shakes—Todd was inspired to do his first podcast, and Brian writes about learning to love soul music in the hospital
• At Ickmusic, Pete does the Tube Snake Boogie and shows that he’s raising his daughters right (Link wasn’t working before. It’s fixed now.)
• Jefitoblog offers the self-described “lamest post” of the whole swarm
• Vincent brings big Fufu: at Fufu Stew, he plays back some of the first records he ever laid hands on, while at Fufu Snax, he plays some of the first records he ever bought (One of them is my favorite song of all time; there’s more Fufu below.)
• At Lost in the 80s, go vinyl-shopping with John—but be careful what you buy
• At Three-Sixty-Five45s, Dave discovers jazz, thanks to Mr. C
• Everybody’s collection started somewhere; Doug at the Underground Vault of Records, Music, and All Kinds of Stuff started with the Batman theme
• At AM, Then FM, it’s seeds and stems and Shaft, and AC/DC in an 82-year-old man’s closet
• At The “B” Side, Red gives us an example of what Vinyl Record Day is all about
• At In Dangerous Rhythm, read about the Skeleton in Colin’s past—and dig not one, but two special Vinyl Record Day mixes
• You Must Be From Away explains how listening to vinyl keeps you healthy, and hints that Shellac Record Day should be next
• At Got the Fever, Kevin gazes at album covers
• Retro Remixes revists the heyday of the club DJs and pays further homage to its reigning goddess
• Bloggerhythms classes up the joint with A Child’s Introduction to the Orchestra
• The Stepfather of Soul reveals how he became the Stepfather of Soul
• And The Hits Just Keep on Comin’ gasses on about something

We’ll give the last word on Vinyl Record Day (on what is still Sunday afternoon here in the States) to Vincent at Fufu Stew, who put up an additional post memorializing his favorite vinyl shopping haunts from days gone by. To that list I could add places like S&O TV, Gibson’s Discount Store, and Victrola—and you probably have yours as well. (Some of the participating bloggers mentioned their favorite stores in their posts. If you’d like to add yours, put ’em in the comments.)

They said the Internet would make us into all loners—but this event proves that there’s a strong community of vinyl-heads out there, in several countries, on at least two continents. It’s been a blast for me to correspond with all the participants over the last few weeks, and to read what everyone’s contributed. My thanks to everybody who wrote, and to everybody who’s reading. We’ll do this again sometime, guaranteed.