Bud’s is great…if you like jazz. And the Lower Queen Anne Easy

Bud’s is great…if you like jazz. And the Lower Queen Anne Easy Street isn’t that far to walk…if you can afford to take a two-hour lunch break. Which means for downtown, Borders is about all there is for CD’s. It’s certainly the only place in the urban core where I can purchase the new Robert Plant/Alison Krauss disc and Mark Knopfler’s Golden Heart (okay, I’m really 53, not 33) in one shot. Believe me, I tried, but the independent store (which shall remain nameless) near Pike Place Market where I tried to find these albums not only didn’t have the Plant/Krauss record, it didn’t have any Mark Knopfler records.That’s crap. But what’s crappier is the dearth of non-niche record stores downtown. I know everyone has an iPod nowadays (except me), but is real estate in, say, Pioneer Square or even the ID really so cost prohibitive that some well-heeled rock whiz with a flexible landlord couldn’t make a go of it? There’s got to be some place where this wish can come true, because I fucking hate having to patronize Borders.