Sunday, April 10, 2011

DAY OF REST

Today is a day of rest in more ways than one.

For the first time in a few weeks, no going into the office.

A repreive from the A to Z blogfest.

And it's Sunday, the Christian sabbath.

I'm back to cataloging my vast collection of CD's and pulling the discs and artwork out of the little plastci jewel cases and putting them into little polyprene sleeves that will take up about 1/3 the shelf space.

Sound like fun? Well, I've gut upwards of 14,000 CD's so I estimate that this exercise will take two years at my current pace (started around the new year and I am working on the letter "D."

And it brings with it its own stress!

Like where do you file the band "And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead?" Zia Records has them under "T," but shouldn't it be "A?"

How about "Spencer Davis Group?" Is it under "D" for 'Davis' or "S" for "Spencer?' And if you put them under "S" what do you do with the Spencer Davis solo CD's? It seems like a pity to separate them.

The DB's are another dilemna. Are they under "DB" or "DE" since DB's is short for decibels?

Do you file classical discs by composer, orchestra or conductor?

Do you see the stress I'm under?

I need Monday to get here so all I have to worry about are mountains of work, two sets of auditors, and the A to Z posts.

Speaking of A to Z, and I was, we're 1/3 of the way through April. Time for the first trimester grades.

Okay, I know I did not contribute to any of the herculean work to promote or organize this event. I have tried to visit as many blogs as humanly possible considering my work load and considering there were almost thirteen hundred participants!

There were three blogs I wanted to call attention to, two for their creative idea and daily interplay, and one for probably being the most serious and polarizing A to Z subject that warrants a read.

First, I wanted to point out that  One Significant Moment At A Time and The Alliterative Allomorph have teamed up to present a very creative series where each blogger presents a short-short designed to convey a particular feeling or emotion that begins with the letter of the day. Each blogger agreed on the daily word in advance, and it is not disclosed until the following day. Very clever idea, ladies!

Second, I wanted to call attention to Stephen T. McCarthy's A to Z post, which he dropped in it's entirety on April 1. Those of you familiar with Stephen, especially on his political blog, know he's not afraid to tackle tough and controversial topics,nd he does not disappoint here. It is a lot to read, but I think it is important that everyone does read it, if only to see that it is dangerous to rely on soundbytes without question.

While I am not going into too much detail becuase I do not want to generate a political discussion on this, a music blog, I will say that I do agree with Stephen's opinion on the issues presented there and in fact gave him the idea and the link to the source material for his post. I'd be happy to discuss the topic in the comments section over at Stephen's blog, or on my own political blog, "Back In The USSR"

Most of our A to Z posts (mine included) are on light-hearted topics such as writing, movies, music. Stephen chose to talk about matters of life and death.

I hope you check out these blogs as you make the rounds. And don't forget to stop by Tossing It Out and give Arlee Bird a shout out. While he had help from many hardworking bloggers promoting the event this year, the whole thing was his idea!

Tomorrow, the "I's" have it!

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for that shout out, Larry.

    Your CD project is impressive, but sounds like a great idea. I don't have as many CDs as you do, but condensing space sounds like a great idea. One problem to me would be that you can't read the artist or album title on the spine of the case anymore if they are in those sleeves. How do you deal with that?

    Classical I almost always file by composer unless it's a compilation or something special that is more of a conductor or artist thing and I don't usually buy those.

    Great work so far in introducing me to artists I haven't heard of.


    Lee
    Tossing It Out
    Twitter hashtag: #atozchallenge

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  2. There are enough double CD's and special packages that the spine issue is not so bad as you'd think.

    It does take a little more time to locate something, but is easier (for me) than sorting through boxes in a closet.

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  3. I got a lot of records/music too. I think each one has their own way of categorizing their music, books, etc. The important thing is: Can you find what you want, when you want. Sometimes I can, and sometime not--and when I can't it's a bit frustrating to say the least. Recently I misplaced a movie I wanted to watch: The Iron Giant. At any rate, for bands, groups, ie. The Allman Brothers I place under A, and Beatles under B. So for the band, so And You Will Know Us for me, would have gone under A, and Spencer Davis Band, under S. But like you said, it gets tricky then if Spencer Davis records alone solo. For solo artist like James Tayler, John Denver, I put them under their last name: T & D. To further a maddening process, I put stuff in categories like jazz, classical, etc. For Classical composers, I just lump them under the composer name: Mozart, M.

    I'd read somewhere that one collector just files his stuff like this, no genre separation like jazz, rock, or etc., so files by their first names, so that A Certain Ratio, would be next to Aaron Copland, and he would be next to the Allman Brothers, and they'd be next to Art Ensemble of Chicago and so on. It's different, but I guess it works for that collector of music.

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HOBBY OR ADDICTION?

HOBBY OR ADDICTION?