Ramsayings

If you want to see a Cliffs Notes version of what I’m ripping and taking to AKA some time in the next month or so, follow the #ripfest hashtag on Twitter.

I’m going to be pretty aggressive about what I’m ditching, so we’re talking about some 600+ cds or so. If you’re interested in any and are willing to stop by the house to have a look, they’ll be sold for $3.50 a piece, give or take.

Not really. I’m finally getting around to doing something I threatened to do ages ago: rip the CDs I really want to keep and sell the rest.

Now I’m getting serious and I’ve begun in earnest. Sure, I’ll keep some hard copies as backup, but the bulk of it is going in a box and is headed for A.K.A. Music.

Wish me luck.

Remember when you used to evaluate prospective friends by the books they read, the movies they watched and the music they listened to? Feels like a long time ago, right?

Less than 10 years ago I would still scurry to bookstores and record shops, or spend beyond my means on DVD sales online. Then that suddenly stopped.

Now, as I try to make sense of my home without being overrun by my toddler’s toys, I find myself wishing I’d made better use of the library. Where’d all this stuff come from? When did I ever think I’d read all the books I bought on whims, or watch all the DVDs I hoarded. Let’s not even talk about the music that accreted in my apartments over the years.

Since things started going digital in one form or other I’ve been reluctant to go all in. For those of us who’ve had physical media all our lives, a hard copy is a reassuring thing. Now I wish I’d taken the plunge sooner.

This is all to say I’m purging vast swaths of my cultural collections. If you’re someone who still likes these things, be in touch. You get dibs.

I’ve been paring down my CD collection in recent weeks and it’s given me occasion to reflect on my behavior in roughly a decade or so of heavy music consumption.

What have I learned? Who was that guy? I remember spending many a night at Mondo Kim’s or AKA or pretty much any record store, fiending in the used bin for anything noteworthy. Now I’m reaping the whirlwind.

There are discs that I’ve owned for ages that remain unopened, yet they still have sentimental value simply because I can remember buying them and then carrying them from dorm to apartment to dorm to apartment to house. Yet I can’t part with them.

I’ve come to the decidedly rockist conclusion that the endgame of this purge is to select those artists whose work has ongoing meaning in my life and hold them fast and shake the rest out. Another way of saying this is that I’m applying the auteur theory in the most vulgar manner possible to reduce the number of total CDs in my collection, those that I won’t just rip and forget for all eternity.

For those of us clinging to physical media in a digital media world, it’s a game of “desert island discs” renewed, with a twist. What CDs would you keep to avoid your favorite tunes vanishing into the ether after your harddrive crashed?

Special thanks to Brian McTear and Weathervane Music for a lovely evening of great music, food and friends at Miner St. Studios, right around the corner in Fishtown. Port St. Willow’s music was perfect in that intimate setting. What a great way to start the Private Concert Series!

This is an amazing project that deserves more (and your) attention. See what Weathervane Music is up to here!