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Thursday, November 26, 2015

New Life for Old Media

I'll always miss albums. While I love digital music, losing the cover art is rather a shame. The small thumbnails on your smart device aren't quite the same.

And it is why I still like CDs. They are smaller but still have visible cover art.

Mind you, I use the digital tracks that come with the CDs or rip them, so I rarely actually play the music CDs I have (or the tapes I collected for commuting before I had a car CD player). But having a physical reserve for the music is a comfort to my 20th century self.

And what about the vinyl albums I still have?

I recently tossed my combination turntable, tape player, and CD player. I realized I hadn't actually listened to an album in ages. I have a few of the old albums in CD form now--and hence have digital versions. So why keep the turntable when I really don't have the space for things of low value.

If necessary, I can still play CDs and even tapes.

But the albums remain. Not a lot, mind you.

And what happened to all my albums, anyway? I know I had a lot more and they are gone. When did I lose them?

I was recently looking for one when somehow it came up in conversation (don't hate me, it was Lover Boy--which would never make the cut for display, I'll say) but I couldn't find it--and a friend said he remembered seeing it. But we were once college apartment-mates so his memory could go back quite a bit.

Seriously, the Eddie Money album survived, but my Bruce Springsteen, The Knack, and Neil Young albums are gone?

And my AC/DC album! Good grief, I'm starting to think thievery is involved.

Or David Bowie.

Okay, I'll admit I dumped my Journey and Foreigner albums at some point. The shame.

I know exactly what happened to my 707 album. A good friend back in the day took it to get it autographed, and sadly, it was never returned with or without autograph.

If you are a certain age, you know this song:



I have a vague memory of seeing them live in Ann Arbor.

Yet I have the next two albums. How sad, really.

Anyway, at least some of my albums remain. I can't possibly part with them.

Unless whoever has been slowly stealing them cleans me out eventually.

They are icons of a lost age, really.

And then it came to me. You display icons:


Steal that!

This had long been a hole in one living room wall dominated by a large framed print in the center, flanked by a smaller piece over my daughter's desk on the right.

Once, the space featured a poster of kittens that my daughter had won at a festival (it's now in her room).

Because I have a daughter, I left off Candy O and Wild Eyed Southern Boys.

But I kind of like it. I might expand it with 6 or 7 album covers along the bottom and right edges in future years. That would be about it, although I won't do that if it crowds the main print rather than balances the wall.

When my daughter is grown, I suppose the other corner might work for a similar display on that side.

Or maybe I'll take them down.

Well, I have time to ponder those notions.

This is what you can do when you have a decorating notion and no wife to veto the idea!