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Finally Getting to So Many Unplayed Jazz LPs


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I accumulated a lot of LPs throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.  This was when everyone was unloading LPs and they were dirt cheap.  I would bring home a huge haul of LPs, clean the ones that I couldn't wait to hear, and place the others in the "to be cleaned" section, which eventually spilled onto the floor when I ran out of shelving.  I would then bring home another haul, so the unplayed LPs from the previous would end up further back in the stack.  The record room eventually became very unwieldy.

I moved a little over a year ago, and now have a much bigger record room.  All of the LPs now fit on the shelving, and I arranged the unplayed LPs in a manner which allows them to easily be integrated into the main sections without a lot of reorganizing.  

I realized when I moved all those CDs and LPs that my accumulation may be bordering on obsession, and I made a conscious decision to simply stop buying music and enjoy the records I have.  There have been exceptions - The expanded Erroll Garner Concert by the Sea,  Monk's Dangerous Liaisons, the recently discovered Coltrane - but these are the exceptions and not the rule.  

Every weekend, I've been giving all these jazz LPs a scrub on the Nitty Gritty and enjoying them with an Old Fashioned or two; or a glass of wine or three.  I feel like I am still still shopping for music, because there is always new stuff to play. 

I always imagined a day when I would have a room like this and finally get around to enjoying all the stuff that I was obsessively bringing home for so many years. Now it's here.

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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Sounds quite wonderful, enjoy! Speaking of "bordering on obsession", I find that I am hesitant to discuss or show my collection to most people, as they don't understand - their response is like "why do you need so many CD's and a (small, 10x15) room just for them? (and I don't understand some of their commitments/decisions, which also seem like  obsessions.  I'd rather drive a Honda and have music than to drive a BMW, am fine with a house that  is not as big as it could be, have no particular desire to travel the world, like my 40" TV fine, don't want designer clothes or expensive furniture, etc.).  I am happily married with a wonderful wife who allows me to be me in this area, for which I am thankful. (I am financially responsible, it is not an economic burden on our family).  Anyone else experience this hesitancy I am discussing?

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29 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I accumulated a lot of LPs throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.  This was when everyone was unloading LPs and they were dirt cheap.  I would bring home a huge haul of LPs, clean the ones that I couldn't wait to hear, and place the others in the "to be cleaned" section, which eventually spilled onto the floor when I ran out of shelving.  I would then bring home another haul, so the unplayed LPs from the previous would end up further back in the stack.  The record room eventually became very unwieldy.

I moved a little over a year ago, and now have a much bigger record room.  All of the LPs now fit on the shelving, and I arranged the unplayed LPs in a manner which allows them to easily be integrated into the main sections without a lot of reorganizing.  

I realized when I moved all those CDs and LPs that my accumulation may be bordering on obsession, and I made a conscious decision to simply stop buying music and enjoy the records I have.  There have been exceptions - The expanded Erroll Garner Concert by the Sea,  Monk's Dangerous Liaisons, the recently discovered Coltrane - but these are the exceptions and not the rule.  

Every weekend, I've been giving all these jazz LPs a scrub on the Nitty Gritty and enjoying them with an Old Fashioned or two; or a glass of wine or three.  I feel like I am still still shopping for music, because there is always new stuff to play. 

I always imaged a day when I would have a room like this and finally get around to enjoying all the stuff that I was obsessively bringing home for so many years. Now it's here.

I totally understand.  I went through something similar about 3 years ago, when I decided to relisten to all my music.  It took about 3 years to get through it all, but it was a wonderful experience, like seeing old friends again.  And along the way, I listened to albums I filed away without first listening to them.  My next bucket list item is to read all of those liner notes and Mosaic booklets I never got to.

4 minutes ago, felser said:

Sounds quite wonderful, enjoy! Speaking of "bordering on obsession", I find that I am hesitant to discuss or show my collection to most people, as they don't understand - their response is like "why do you need so many CD's and a (small, 10x15) room just for them? (and I don't understand some of their commitments/decisions, which also seem like  obsessions.  I'd rather drive a Honda and have music than to drive a BMW, am fine with a house that  is not as big as it could be, have no particular desire to travel the world, like my 40" TV fine, don't want designer clothes or expensive furniture, etc.).  I am happily married with a wonderful wife who allows me to be me in this area, for which I am thankful. (I am financially responsible, it is not an economic burden on our family).  Anyone else experience this hesitancy I am discussing?

Yup, yup, yup.  I came to the conclusion that people will never understand, so I don't even go into it.  I find that people with more socially-acceptable obsessions don't get challenged in the same way.  For example, sports nerds: Is it really that important to know and argue every stat, and go to wildly expensive games, and have the jerseys and memorabilia, and go to fan fests, etc.?  Or wine?  Don't even get me started on wine.  But people get to show off their wine collections, no problem.  So screw it; I like what I like - deal with it.

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54 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

You have an idea how many LPs there are in your collection?

I was always afraid to count or estimate.  The shelving is more than that 13 feet long, floor to (high) ceiling.  I need a ladder for the top two rows.

I organize with some idiosyncratic genres, but I would say that the vast majority of my accumulation is jazz/jazz-related and film scores.  Also lots of classical, Latin, Brazilian, Moog/electronic, now sound, jazz/pop vocals, space-age bachelor pad, exotica, outer space, gothic/macabre/supernatural, crime/spy, French, eastern and middle-eastern.  

I can't begin to estimate the number of CDs.  Years ago, I ditched jewel cases for many titles and opted for thin sleeves, so I can't do simple multiplication based on numbers of jewel cases.  

53 minutes ago, felser said:

Sounds quite wonderful, enjoy! Speaking of "bordering on obsession", I find that I am hesitant to discuss or show my collection to most people, as they don't understand - their response is like "why do you need so many CD's and a (small, 10x15) room just for them? (and I don't understand some of their commitments/decisions, which also seem like  obsessions.  I'd rather drive a Honda and have music than to drive a BMW, am fine with a house that  is not as big as it could be, have no particular desire to travel the world, like my 40" TV fine, don't want designer clothes or expensive furniture, etc.).  I am happily married with a wonderful wife who allows me to be me in this area, for which I am thankful. (I am financially responsible, it is not an economic burden on our family).  Anyone else experience this hesitancy I am discussing?

Yes, I hate to sound like I am either gloating to people who understand, or to appear insane to people who don't.

My wife, fortunately, shares my love of music and had a large collection when we got together.  In the 1990s, we were dirt poor, but we were living like a king and queen bringing home all these dollar LPs! 

We picked up a lot of great tips over the years.  One of my favorites came from Poison Ivy and Lux Interior of the Cramps:  Go to a record show, go straight to the Beatles/Elvis dealer, and ask to look through the box of non-Elvis/non-Beatles.  You always find something amazing that is completely off their radar! 

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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I was lucky that my LPs once were counted by a young boy who was a little bored by the party his parents had taken him along to - back then it was over five thousand. Right now I'm down to about 1500 LPs, but probably 6000 CDs. 

Isn't there a thread where to post pics of your collection? Go ahead, TTK!

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I always imaged a day when I would have a room like this and finally get around to enjoying all the stuff that I was obsessively bringing home for so many years. Now it's here.

Now that's a dream come true.

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5 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Do we need third-party hosting, or can we post pics directly from our computers? 

You can use your own photo, then upload it to the site as an attachment (there is a size limit, which I cannot recall at this moment).  From there, you can insert it in a post.

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14 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Here is the record room, but it does not show the full width of the shelves:

 

 

RekkidRoom.jpg

I don't get why this forum seems to mess with the aspect ratio of some posted photos but leaves others alone. I assume that is what happened here and not that your wall is leaning in on the left. :)

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8 minutes ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

I don't get why this forum seems to mess with the aspect ratio of some posted photos but leaves others alone. I assume that is what happened here and not that your wall is leaning in on the left. :)

You are correct.  Although the original picture looks like this, so the aspect ratio distortion must have occurred before posting.  

Now, in my previous place, the shelving did indeed start to buckle, and with quick thinking, I used some yoga bricks to keep them in place until I could put up brackets.  I took my time installing these shelves properly, after that experience!  

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I usually try to play every new acquisition at least twice before I file it away. OF course if I buy a large box set (like some pf Alan Lowe's collections or Mosaic boxes)  the unheard pile starts to get fairly high.    Also every few years I buy a cd and discover I already own it but have no memory of having listened to it.  

Edited by medjuck
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1 hour ago, felser said:

Sounds quite wonderful, enjoy! Speaking of "bordering on obsession", I find that I am hesitant to discuss or show my collection to most people, as they don't understand - their response is like "why do you need so many CD's and a (small, 10x15) room just for them? (and I don't understand some of their commitments/decisions, which also seem like  obsessions.  I'd rather drive a Honda and have music than to drive a BMW, am fine with a house that  is not as big as it could be, have no particular desire to travel the world, like my 40" TV fine, don't want designer clothes or expensive furniture, etc.).  I am happily married with a wonderful wife who allows me to be me in this area, for which I am thankful. (I am financially responsible, it is not an economic burden on our family).  Anyone else experience this hesitancy I am discussing?

I understand very well. :D Visitors every now and then marvel at my music room where one entire main wall is taken up by most of my vinyl (and the opposite wall by my music books and magazines). However, I also happen to move in circles where collecting records as part of the music hobby is not such a rare thing, so some friends have substantial collections too (though not quite as much as I have accumulated). OTOH, there are some visitors (who are very welcome anyway) to whom I'd not really show my music room - just to avoid the reactions you describe.
As you say, I also limit my expenditure elsewhere (without any economic burden on my family either) and don't need an upmarket, expensive car or the latest electronic entertainment gadgets, overly expensive garb, etc. (Though to be honest, my "other" hobby - 50s cars and the spares and literature that go with them - does take up a lot of space too but the main investments have been made long ago and this hobby has in part paid for itself through sometimes intense parts swapping etc. Obviously that stuff is outside the house except for the "old car papers" - where I have severely cut down my buying in recent years too ;)).

Having a room all to the music is ideal and I was glad to be able to furnish our house like this but you can get carried away too - or misjudge how fast the shelves tend to fill up. For quite some time I had my 12in LPs stuffed way too tightly (having run out of space) but last winter I finally shifted my 78s to the room next door, shifted my 10" LPs into where the 78s were (all this rearranging involved much more work to free up space for the 78s in the first place but that's another story ;)). I now have quite a bit more looseness and free space on the LP shelves and hope this will last me for a while.
As for unplayed LPs, I try to give my purchases at least one listen before filing them where they belong and this usually works out within 2 weeks or so after buying even when I grab bulks at special sales, but I now have a (small) stack of LPs bought in March, July and September that I still haven't listened to (they are nice to have and it's nice to know you have them but they have not yet made it to my top listening priorities since).

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25 minutes ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

Did you just buy LP cubes and mount them individually to the wall with anchors?

Home Depot sells - or used to sell - these modular units that stack using a little pin in each corner.  That's what these are.  I anchored them into the wall at the studs, top to bottom.  I also put in side brackets on one side, and screwed them together horizontally from one unit to the next.  I suspect that these are pretty secure.

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9 minutes ago, JSngry said:

What are yoga bricks?

They are these lightweight blocks a little bigger than a brick, used for various yoga and pilates exercises.  The are of a strong rubbery material, but with enough pliability that I was able to wedge a few of them in the space between the bowed shelving and the adjacent wall.  They held everything in place until I was able to hit a hardware store and install the brackets.  Quick thinking on my part - I don't know what made me think to use them.  

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