This hip multi-media swap shop – the only one of its kind in Tampa – is nestled in one of the USF area’s abundant strip malls, its interior made cozy by the organized clutter of too much stuff crammed into a space not quite big enough to house it all. Though it only opened in January ‘07, Mojo has already garnered a reputation for its generous, varied selection of vinyl (rare, obscure and collectible included), DVDs, new and used CDs, books – nonfiction and popular fiction, classical lit, current textbooks, Cliffs Notes – and all manner of pop culture goodies: posters of famous works by Ralph Steadman and Salvador Dalí, of Michael C. Hall as serial-killing Dexter, the Rolling Stones, Sid Vicious and The Goonies; lit posters featuring Dorothy Parker, Catcher in the Rye and Things Fall Apart; unique alternative t-shirts for The White Stripes, Funkadelic, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Sonic Youth, Flight of the Conchords, Edgar Allan Poe, the Pixies and 2001 A Space Odyssey; gaudy New York Dolls and Blondie handbags, kitschy-cute Yellow Submarine figurines, “action figures” of Kiss and Kirk Cobain, even a talking Ed Grimley doll. The prices are reasonable, the used merch is in fair to pristine condition, and Mojo even has a frequent-buyer rewards program – every $10 you spend gets you a stamp, with a $10 store credit after stamp numero 10.
Gift this: Little Thinker dolls. “They’re not stuffy intellectuals — they're stuffed intellectuals!” Pictured: Frida Kahlo, Nietzsche, Gandhi and Charles Darwin, $15.99 each. Mojo Books & Music, 2558 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, 813-971-9717, mojotampa.com.
See other stops on CL’s Indie Holiday Shopping Spree here.
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2008.
