When I first arrived in Berkeley to attend the UC, Rasputin was my second home. Way back then they occupied a basement space under what is now Hot Topic. When Rasputin went upscale and built a glitzy palace on the corner of Durant (now a glorified t-shirt store), I wandered down Telegraph and found a true audiophile's dream. Amoeba cared not for looks or glamor... they were all about the music. It was the poor kid's swapping mecca; you'd take the cds and movies you'd gotten tired of and trade them in for someone else's castoffs. Sharing and recycling at its best. And the staff were all hardcore music people themselves, many whom were musicians, who knew history and could appreciate a rarity and were all too happy to suggest other artists to explore.\r
That was all back in the day though. The older clerks have mostly been replaced by young hipsters more interested in how cool you appear than in the music you are buying. I've often gotten less than enthusiastic help in finding things, and
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