I don’t have to tell you how big of a nerd I am. I mean, I blog. It doesn’t get much nerdier than that, right? Oh, you’d better believe it does. It gets a lot nerdier, trust me. For the past three or four years I have been keeping an in depth catalog of my record collection. This includes both compact discs and vinyl. It is broken down (as only a Microsoft Excel document can be) into several categories: Artist, Title, Format, City/State of Purchase, Store/Venue, Date of Purchase. Although I cannot tell you the date on which I purchased my first LP (the list goes back as far as 1995 to a Smashing Pumpkins CD, and “Summer 2002″ for Sonic Youth’s Murray Street, the first LP I ever purchased), I can tell you with absolute certainty that Ian gifted me several LPs on December 13th, 2002 (Plastic Ono Band, Violator, & Yet & Yet, Donovan’s Greatest Hits) in an attempt to help me begin building my collection. The fact that my catalog includes dates of purchase and locations makes me feel like the biggest loser in the entire world. It reminds me of a weird story my father once told me about one of his clients.

My father, a lawyer, received a phone call from a relative of one of his clients many years ago. His client had died, and his family could not locate the will that my father had prepared for him. They wanted him to visit the man’s apartment and help them look for it, or at the very least help them clean up the apartment in preparation for an estate sale. Upon entering the man’s apartment, my father was shocked by what he saw. Boxes of shoes, stacked floor to ceiling, filled every single room. There were but narrow paths one could walk to move through the living space. The man’s bedroom was filled almost to the brim with shoe boxes. He was not a shoe salesmen. And, confusingly, all the boxes contained women’s shoes. The man did not have a wife. Upon digging through the man’s closets, my father unearthed what he described as “the largest porn collection I’ve seen in my entire life.” That always impressed me, as it was spoken by a man who I saw watching TV from the moment he returned home from work until the moment he falls asleep every night for twenty-plus years. Surely he’d watched some program and seen a ridiculous porn collection before, right? Nope, nothing that rivaled this guy’s collection, apparently. The kicker? All the magazines were foot fetish magazines. This, of course, explained the apartment filled with women’s shoes. Oh, the real kicker? Each magazine contained a small sticker on the inside of the front cover that described the name of the magazine, the year and issue of the magazine, the location where it was purchased, and the paid price.

Holy shit. I’m, like, two degrees of separation away from that guy.

Today Ian wrote to tell me he was beginning to catalog his own record collection. He’s using Google Documents, because it’s easily accessible from an iPhone and the program includes easily-accessible sorting options that differ from those available in Excel. Also, the document could be shared over the Internet with anyone, so long as they were invited to view the document. This all sounded too good to be true, so I’ve decided that I’m going to redo my entire catalog in this new format. And, at the moment, I’m struggling with whether or not I should include dates of purchase and locations of purchase in this new catalog. On one hand, it’s entirely geeky. On the other hand, I think it’s amazing that I can see the entire history of my collection including where I bought a record, what date it was, and what else I purchased on that day. On the other hand (what!? three hands!? what the fucking fuck!) I might — I don’t know why — regret one day not having that information at my disposal. My memory is so poor I can barely remember what records I own (hence the list, duh!). Maybe that’s why I think it’s so cool I keep details such as dates and store locations.

So, for right now, my new list includes: Artist, Title, Label, Condition, and Notes. Notes, of course, is a column in which I can make a distinction about which pressing it is, or if it’s a numbered/limited item. Would the addition of date of purchase/place of purchase be too much!? Why the hell does this even matter? I know why. It’s because I’m collector scum. But still…anyone want to offer some advice?

The other day I heard about a new pizza place on Figueroa and 54th Ave in Eagle Rock. I was told the place was incredible, and that they cook a unique pizza in that it’s not Chicago-style, but the toppings are buried beneath both the tomato sauce and cheese. Unfortunately, I can’t recall the name of the place. Tonight Nicci and I ventured out to Eagle Rock and found the place (it’s just above 55th Ave). We purchased a large pepperoni pie and brought it back to my apartment to share with Sali. It was really good. Once I remember what the name of the place is, I’ll be sure to edit this post and insert it here. Nicci said it was the best pepperoni pizza she’s ever had, but I eat that shit on a weekly basis so I’ve had way too many pies to judge which is the best. Oh well.

Hey, go click on all those advertisements would ya? That’s how I make money to buy all these new albums I’ve been sharing with you.

No Comments »

| del.icio.us | Digg it! | reddit | StumbleUpon