Fables Of The Reconstruction

Bless me bloggers, for I have sinned. It's been over a week since my last blog entry.

Sorry, but I've been either too busy or too pooped to peep. But I am happy to report that my CD storage unit did finally arrive on Monday. For some reason it came through Greyhound delivery, not UPS. Maybe that explains why everything went okay.

No shoes were harmed in the completion of this transaction.

Speaking of the wayward shoes, they finally left the building--yesterday! I saw the mailroom guy, Chris, as he was on his deliveries around the office (he bears a striking resemblence to SuperMario, even has an Italian accent), and when he saw me he said "The shoes are gone! It's over! It's finally over!"

Anyway, so I put the CD thing together over two nights. Last night I opened up all the boxes containing my CD collection. Wasn't really sure how to proceed, seeing as I had packed the CDs rather haphazardly; just grabbed clusters and put them in whichever box they fit, although I did try to keep artists together. So my Beatles, Stones, Neil Young, Dylan, Costello collections, for instance, were pretty much intact. I wasn't exactly sure how much of the rack the CDs would occupy, and how much room there'd be for DVDs and VHS tapes, so I just decided to throw everything on the shelves to see how much room there was. It all fit fine, but now, aside from the aforementioned artists, it's all pretty mixed up.

That's tonight's task. Arrange my CD collection into some semblence of order. Now, I'm one of those people who order their CDs quite meticulously. Within Artist, CDs are arranged chronologically going from earliest albums to latest albums, left to right. The major artists and favourites get prominent billing on the top shelves--so Beatles, Neil Young, Stones, Dylan, Costello, etc. Those are also my largest collections, so it's good to have them prominently displayed. I also try to group artists for whom I have fewer CDs by genre or association. Power pop, country, classic rock, jazz, reggae/world music, blues, soundtracks, etc. Then there's usually a shelf or two of Canadian indie artists, maybe female artists. Ah, but there I hit a snag and encounter ethical quandaries.

First of all, is it sexist of me to group female artists together? Shouldn't they simply go with whatever genre they belong to? Perhaps. But there are times when I want to hear a female voice, and when that's the case, I'll know where to look. And besides, isn't there something distinctly female about the way Kate Bush or Jane Siberry or even Patti Smith present themselves through their music? Something that is more than a mere genre? And what genre is Kate Bush exactly?

On the other hand, I have no problem putting Lucinda Willams and Emmylou Harris on the country/alt-country shelf. They can take care of themselves. But what about a group like Starling? Do they go on the Canadian indie shelf, or in with power-poppers like Big Star? And what about Badfinger? Classic rock? Power pop? Maybe they should be orbiting the Beatles shelf somehow?

Maybe I'm suffering from too much shelf-consciousness?

It's a tough chore though. Since 80% of the CDs are all mixed up across the shelves, how do I approach reconciling this CD diaspora? The only way I can figure, is to go through CD by CD, shelf by shelf and start shepherding them into the spaces where they belong. It's "Oh, there's a Tom Waits! That goes over here with the others. Jazz compilation! Let's put that in this stack on the floor. Lemonheads! That goes on the power pop shelf..." I think I'll have to make numerous passes through it all, and each time it'll get a little more organized. Then I'll probably have to make some wholesale shelf swaps. Country gets swapped with classic rock/brit pop/radiohead/coldplay/travis, etc.

I also got Stella back from the shop today, all happy with a new set-up and a new set of flat-wound strings. I'm listening to Wings Over America as I arrange my CD collection. I wanted to hear some good bass playing, and Macca's playing throughout that album always hits the spot. It makes for good CD-collection-arranging music. Not too demanding on the ears or attention span, and enjoyable for the spirit. Wings was the first band I really got into when I was a teeny bopper. These days I wouldn't call Wings a guilty pleasure--more like an innocent pleasure.

All right, back at it! These CDs ain't a-gonna library-ize themselves.