No more records...

[wayne]

Your Friday discussion-starter...

In "Vinyl Junkies," Brett Milano consults with a psychiatric researcher to help understand his lifelong compulsion to buy records. The urge to collect, he learns, may come from a deficiency of serotonin, the enzyme that controls worries. It's an addiction for nail-biters.

Having lots of stuff can be strangely reassuring, especially when it's alphabetized. There's a tactile satisfaction to be had from flipping through old album covers, or shuffling piles of snapshots, hoping to rediscover an old keeper.

As art forms go, the art of collecting isn't particularly glamorous. Record collecting, writes Milano, has a dual nature: "It's pathetic and it's glorious. Yes, you're filling your life with extraneous stuff -- vinyl and aluminum slabs that will never transport you back to youth, or get you a hot date, or bring Nick Drake back to life. ... Never mind that you can't take it with you, you can't even find a tidy place to put it in the meantime."

Pile in!

No More Vinyl[B]

[Palmer_Eldrich]

My girlfriend did an M.A In Curating Design...One of the aspects was the philosophy of collecting. She handed me some papers Freud wrote on the subject: the gist of it was that he thought collecting acts as a bullwark against the idea of death "He (Freud) confessed that his passion for collecting was second in intensity only to his addiction to cigars"...hmmm food for thought, I posted about this on Soul Strut about a year ago and was accused of smoking too much crack!

[ladyboygrimsby]

I'm doing some work for a market research company at the moment, which culminates in a discussion panel on Monday in which we discuss our collecting and what it means to us. I have to fill in a booklet in the five days leading up the meeting with anything that relates to my collecting. And take pictures of anything that might be relevant to my collection, including the collection itself...

[Nick Cope]

Lots of Grimsby records then... this is really gonna freak them out!


As for collecting to stave off the reality of death: when will Freud be universally decreed a bunch of utter bollocks?

[Rich Hero]

Quote[/b] (ladyboygrimsby @ Feb. 20 2004,11:23)]I'm doing some work for a market research company at the moment, which culminates in a discussion panel on Monday...

Is that Vinylholics Anonymous Bill? I would *love* to be there - I can only imagine what products will be pushed on the great masses after they cop a butchers of your pictures.

[son of stan]

I often find myself strongly drawn to the idea of just getting rid of the lot. How nutty is that then?

I actually did this about eight years ago. And now look at me.

[ladyboygrimsby]

Quote[/b] (Rich Hero @ Feb. 20 2004,11:31)]

Quote[/b] (ladyboygrimsby @ Feb. 20 2004,11:23)]I'm doing some work for a market research company at the moment, which culminates in a discussion panel on Monday...

Is that Vinylholics Anonymous Bill? I would *love* to be there - I can only imagine what products will be pushed on the great masses after they cop a butchers of your pictures.

Apparently, there is one other record collector, so I'm fascinated as to who else is going to be there and what it is they collect. I've had an idea for a book called Obsession for years, about people who collect. But I might find out more about myself than is strictly necessary.

[Rich Hero]

Quote[/b] (son of stan @ Feb. 20 2004,11:44)]I often find myself strongly drawn to the idea of just getting rid of the lot. How nutty is that then?

Glad I'm not the only one then - I imagine it'd be a great release but I'm not sure how I (or what) would fill the vacuum.

[Belson]

Quote[/b] (son of stan @ Feb. 20 2004,11:44)]I often find myself strongly drawn to the idea of just getting rid of the lot. How nutty is that then?

I actually did this about eight years ago. And now look at me.  

It's not nutty at all, mate.

That's what I would have to do, if I wanted to call it a day. Get rid of the whole shooting match, and close that mental door.

[emperor tomato ketchup]

I fI could have a few quid for every time I;ve had this kind of conversation - I'd have enough to go and buy a few decent lps.

[cell]

There is a good essay on (book) collecting in Walter Benjamin's 'Illuminations' which gives insight into the psyche of collectors, if anyones intrested in the academia of collecting hit me with a PM and i'll dig out some of my old musings (mostly on others ideas).

[ladyboygrimsby]

Quote[/b] (cell @ Feb. 21 2004,03:37)]There is a good essay on (book) collecting in Walter Benjamin's 'Illuminations' which gives insight into the psyche of collectors, if anyones intrested in the academia of collecting hit me with a PM and i'll dig out some of my old musings (mostly on others ideas).

There's also Evan Eisenberg's The Recording Angel, which has some stuff about record collectors in it. There's a guy he meets who has 1m. records in his house...

[jerry]

Always thought record collecting or , better, record accumulation
is a result of the love for music. I actually listen to everything
in the crates ´cause I love listening to many kinds of music.
Every record suits my tastes and, consequently, makes sense owning.

Now, are you a collector or an accumulator?

[vibra]

While looking for xmas presents last year I noticed this book "Men and Collections"

It's a fascinating look at a variety of collectors (all from the UK I think?), one of whom is indeed a record collector. I didn't recognise him but I think there's a good chance someone on this board might - in the photo I could see a prominently positioned Stark Reality LP and a fair few other breakbeatrares.

One thing he said really stuck with me: "I buy records every day. Sometimes I'll buy 3 or 4 records that I don't even want." Ring any bells?!!

[Rich Hero]

That cover picture's great. The one person I thought that that could be is Mo (the record fiend - not the man with the huge ear trumpets   )...