1 yr anniversary

In the last year, I've been duplicitous when djing; I've been using my iTunes periodically instead of straight up using the turntables cuz' I couldn't be bothered to find certain records from my collection. You see, last year when I moved, during the Break Up, what once was a near-perfect complete collection of records, in alphabetical order, from two music zealots, became a scene similar to Ghostbusters, records flying all over the place; it was a ghastly muddle. (Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit here, it was almost civilized, almost... we tried to keep collections intact and they went to who loved it more but for a lot of titles, it was a tragic split.)

My records have become a burden. I don't have time to put them in alphabetical order again; I just can't. They've been just sitting there on the shelves, who knows in what kind of order; the thought of trying to find a record has become too imposing, cumbersome. I have a small stack which I hold dear to and that's about it. They've become boring now.

Sometimes, I just want to get rid of all my records like I did with my CDs last year. I'm slowly trying to simplify my life. I've been really into Dave Bruno's 100 thing challenge. I don't think I can reduce my life to a mere "100 thing" and I don't want to. I fancy the notion of feeling light and free and the ability to just move anywhere in the world at a moment's notice (well, you know in my own time really). This is what I'm trying to achieve these days... But I think the idea is not to be owned by material possessions; I want to own things I truly need and truly hold dear to... which when it comes down to, aren't many.

Alex, a burgeoning music pupil, offered to sort my records for me a couple of weeks ago. I didn't take him seriously at first. I mean, who would want to do that kind of drudgery? Well, the offer was offered again and again and so yesterday, he arrived right on time and meticulously sorted my records for me. It was enlightening to see how many "B" and "S" records I have. I guess I could go into the deep-rooted reasons why there are so many of these BS records but I'll save that for another time when I'm dry on words... But back to the amount of records... Daunting was the word! Alex kept his cool which made me keep my cool and I joined in on the "fun" and to my surprise, I found some records unopened, not realizing I had them in the first place. Record after record was played, and now I have a new Dublab set ready to go and they're all records! Yes!


Dear Alex had a lovely efficient system and in no time, we were finished and watched the Olympics wondering why gymnastics were created in the first place and admiring all the dolphin-like swimmers in the Water Cube.


My instructions: classical has its own section, so do comps and soundtracks and please sort by Last Name, from left to right, no need to sort by album title within artist name :)


And my cactus plant (the same one that bloomed its magnificent fuschia flowers back in May) bloomed again last night. This time it was pure white. Pretty magical. It's dead now though. Oh well.... nothing lasts forever as the Bunnymen says but the love for my records which I'm just rediscovering again. Merci beaucoup Alex.