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August 1, 2009
One for the records
The other week, I had to reinforce the
plastic shelving that is holding my record collection. The 5-tier
shelf was really in danger of falling over, and some of the
records were falling off the sides, and the ones in the middle
were pushing and bending into the other ones, not helping the
cause at all.
So I got out my hardhat,
safety goggles and carpenter square to cut some boards to use as
“bookends” so now the records all stand up straight. In order to
connect the shelf to the wall, I had to remove a two by four that
was nailed in at an angle in the corner of the garage, for what
original purpose I do not know (hopefully – it wasn’t holding the
garage together). I was then able to secure the shelf to the wall
where it belongs. The only boards we had were ¾ inch, which is
probably overkill, but it will do for now, or at least until the
next remodel.
For the younger folks, music
used to be printed on circular pieces of vinyl that came in
cardboard containers, called albums.
 In
fact, they seem to be making a comeback now, and more and more
bands now advertise that their latest CD is also available on
180-gram heavy duty vinyl. Older music fans like me used to
exclusively listen to music on these things, and for some odd
sentimental reason, I just can’t seem to give them up. No matter
how hard I try.
The next task before me was
“alphabetizing” the records, so I could have a chance at finding
something, or in my case, so I could see if I had anything by a
particular artist. It always happens that after you physically
move your records from basement to storage unit, to condo, to
closet, to milk crates, to garage, to car, back to closet, and
finally to garage shelf, they are going to get out of order. And I
had country mixed up with miscellaneous, rock mixed with
classical, and bluegrass with jazz. Mixed up big time.
Two and a half hours later, I
slid the last record into place.
Success! There is actually a
small piece of paper with each letter of the alphabet tucked
between the records, separating L from M, C from D and S from T.
Don’t worry, I only used this system for the “rock” section.
Country, jazz,
bluegrass and classical just have their
section labeled, and that’s fine. I mean, I can’t get too detailed
on this, can I?
It’s funny when you do this
kind of stuff, because sometimes, things stick out like a sore
thumb. Take for instance, the letter I. It turns out, there’s only
one record in this whole category. Now who could that be?
Well, it turns out this artist
has been putting music in this category since she was 14; she
still tours and still puts out music when she has something to
say. I didn’t know this, but this songwriter-turned-author writes
science fiction on the side, and was born in a
New Jersey town not too far from where I
grew up.
Still stumped? OK, she’ll be at Skamania
Lodge in Stevenson on Aug. 14, and she was gracious enough to take
the time to get back to me.
Which, by the way, got me
thinking, maybe it’s time for a new record category:
“Artists who were nice enough
to get back to me for an interview”
Read Jim’s interview with Janis Ian
here.
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