Unpacking My Collection

Yes

WB: "I am unpacking my collection. Yes, I am."
Adorno and Horkheimer: "Oh no you're not!!"
WB and panto audience: " OH YES I AM!!"
Brecht (to audience, in undramatic fashion): "And this would be where I say 'It's behind you!')"

When some of my music is in storage and I finally move and get to unpack records I haven't seen in some period of time I just get completely wild and sit in front of my stereo for hours listening to my favorite tracks from albums I've wanted to hear for God knows how long and haven't been able to and then I go out and buy new records to celebrate moving into new place and then I listen to them and then I make plans to move again just so I can do the whole thing over again. Is this giddy joy?

Guilty? Nevah! I have tried putting money on the recordplayah but it never sounded groovy. Money is meant to be spent. I rather give it to something I love. Actually I find much pleasure in re-discovering musick.

All these and more of course- the sheer joy as you pour over them, so lifeless with only the spine showing but spilt out on the floor,how can you resist- there goes a morning, oh and the guilt, try having a big music collection and being Catholic, ahhh.

Ha ha Tom has not confessed to his REAL saddo reaction upon unpacking and categorising his cds by genre.

When I unpacked all my records I was shocked to find a lot of them (okay well about five) weren't actually mine (sorry Lixi).

I did too confess it on the indiepop thread.

Did you do the "hmmm what should the First Song I Play in My New House?" thing?

I always do that and I always feel like a nerd, but it usually does sounds really great and makes it feel like your house.

Yeah it was "Wuthering Heights" I think!

Unpacking boxes and seeing my CDs all piled up together gives me a thrill. Last time I moved, I had some CDs mixed in with non-CD things in other boxes, so as I continued to unpack I would come across more--"Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. . ." They really do seem more impressive to me as I am unpacking them than they do while they are sitting on their shelves.

I am so obsessive about moving the records that I still have the same set of moving boxes I got from a record store I worked in over 15 years ago. They're perfect, and I have developed an elaborate packing protocol to go with them. Every time I move, I break them down and stick them in a closet til next time.

That said, actually moving them is no fun at all. I severely damaged a few friendships the time I moved all thirtysomething boxes of LPs and CDs from a third-floor walk-up to a fourth-floor walk-up. A sweating, puffing pal was heard to remark, "What's next--his vintage brick collection?"

It is always nice to get them all out of the boxes and load them into the shelves, though. You always turn up something you haven't heard in forever.

I just did this a couple of months ago back -- and it was guilt and horror made worse by making the leap to purchasing proper adult uniform storage shelving units for all. Felt a bit odd to have spend this money housing these items on which I've already spent far too much of my money. (the good bit was that I traded in a load of things I hadn't listened to in ages/CD singles/7´´'s, which was also sort of a bittersweet epiphany; I had $250 in credit at indie rockin' Reckless and kept picking things up like the Walkmen and making faces and ended up only leaving with the remastered "Voulez-Vous" and "More Specials" and a Kaito 12´´ thinking, 'I don't like the guitar that much these days, do I?')

I moved in bits and pieces from my flat of four years to one w/my fianceé. In both cases I merged collections, removed doubles, etc. and cuz much of my other communal stuff was still in the first apartment, the splitting up of mine and former roommates' CDs was sort of the 'whoa, this is over' moment -- which is a bit pathetic, I admit.

I get pissed off because the boxes are too damn heavy.

Last time I moved was about five years ago, and having moved around all my life I'm both used to the procedure and thrilled about it in my own way -- it's fun to set up in a totally new place.

That said, given how many CDs I've got since then, I really don't want to think about whenever I move next. Ack.

I've only moved house twice, but the first experience of moving - leaving my parents for my first house - was so traumatic that I HAD to buy a new CD that day to document it, as you do (y'know, memories of music and thoughts intermingling etc). So I got the Spoonfed Hybrid CD, and it was the last CD I played before I moved and the first I played once I'd moved and unpacked (saddest thing of all, I set up my music room and unpacked all my records before I unpacked any of my clothes or kitchen utensils). And after that it became a tradition (in that I've only done it once more), but the last record I played in the old house was Spoonfed Hybrid, and the first I played in the new house was the same. Only this time I had a fiance going "For God's sake Rob, do you really need all these records? And why do you want to play that one now?"

Some people just don't understand.

First track played in new pad should've been something by the Camberwell Now or Markus Popp. Oh well, KB IS from South East London, just about.

House? I'm twenty two. I don't have a house.

Tom suddenly has a lot of cardboard boxes going spare - you're saved!

I'm going to be moving soon: horror at the numbers and (the records particularly) the weight. I don't know what 1000 slabs of 12" vinyl weigh, but I have more than that. Thankfully most of what I have is on CD or tape, and that's less backbreakingly heavy.

When you move in w/ your lover and sell off all the double records you know you're ready for a lifetime of commitment (I did this about 3 years ago). Keep those doubles around & there is trouble looming; you're not ready.

I've moved 6 times in the past 9 years..... Asolute nightmare

Last big move was from England to Austria. Had to ship send my collection of 1000+ LP's plus singles, CD's, tapes and Hi-Fi via land freight. It took a week and nothing got damaged (apart from my back hauling the lot into a 5th floor apartment...)

The only time I ever touch 99% of my records is when I move.

As stated elsethread, am moving at the end of the month but not worrying too much because all the CDs and LPs are pre-packed in handy-dandy easily-movable wooden crate shelving. When I first moved to Toronto 4 years ago I had plastic milk crates (shipped them all by freight on a skid wrapped in plastic wrap....yeeeeehaw), and when I finally kicked the crates back into some sort of stereo stand the first thing I played was the Long Journey Home soundtrack. (Since I was moving away from home for the first time, after 28 years, that probably spoke loads about psychological state.)

Last time I moved from one coast to the other I was broke so I sent all my records 4th class book rate (as well as my books). It was incredibly cheap, but I worried that I would never see them again. There's no way to track that stuff, so if my boxes were lost that would have been it -- the entire collection gone. Everybody arrived safe & intact in less than a week, though.

Everybody arrived safe & intact in less than a week, though.
Everybody, eh? Do you give members of your collection special names, or just the ones on the spine?

I was pretty worried shipping virtually everything I owned via freight, but it was also very cheap (one quarter the cost of a moving company) and as it was all wrapped together I didn't have to worry about pieces going missing. It actually also arrived before I did...took three days for me to drive, but the freight people apparently don't sleep.

I wonder what the first thing I'll listen to in the new place will be? All I know is, since I'll be moving the music myself (moving people for the big furniture only), I'll be listening to whatever it is kicked back on the bed with a heating pad on my back, probably.