Vinyl: eclectic assortment – punk, wave, folk-pop etc – from UK, by post

Yes, I love to buy records… I don’t get hung up on the “collectibility” or the rarity, but I am partial to quality, variety, but mostly… I’ll admit it, nostalgia & i buy em to play em.

Sure, I’m always trying out new bands, but there’s a sweet spot from the 80s and 90s (hello Gen X) which has a tractor beam on me.

Although I live in a country with stellar record shops, I don’t get out much so often do my shopping by post. Problem is: while for years, I never was charged custom duty import fees, I’m getting hit every time a new batch comes in – coupled with weak yen, and generally challenging shipping fees – gotta quit this routine. Also, I have the proverbial stacks of wax but I’ve yet to break into, even since the BC trip, which was almost well… Creeping up on a year ago.

So, with this unnecessarily long preamble in mind:

I ordered some records from a fellow named Alan in the UK, including 7 inch singles (including unusual double single), 12 inch EP/singles, and LPs (some double, some gatefold). I opened the box, took quick lousy snapshots, and voila, for your amusement. Minimal annotations included.

Generally 7″ singles

Generally 12″ LP (with some double LPs)

Generally 12″ EPs, extended singles etc

Bonus:

Note to Self:

I really really want to make a video unpacking each batch, telling the backstory, showing the details. I’ve got Internet friends in the “vinyl community” doing this, and I love it… the liner notes, the crackle of the package, the delicate holding of the disc by the edges, and the excitement of dropping needle for the first time.

However, three conundrums:

1) I have way too many projects going on at any given time between poetry, scrapbooks, publishing, home and garden, and just trying to stay up with my wife and kiddo and all their projects

2) My energy is really limited with “the illness” and video editing, especially is really taxing on the eyes/neurological system, as well as the back/neck/shoulders… Not to mention all the thinking about how to organize all the files, and then the laborious exporting and uploading

3) Finally, and maybe, most importantly, is, I love longform, and I am incapable of brevity (generally), which means everything I make ends up being more “Dr. Zhivago length” rather than “short attention span theatre length”. So I end up with lingering stacks of records and long video drafts waiting to be edited (which never will be) instead of just sitting down and listening to the records like I’m supposed to. Heh, I like to share & have a tremendous skill in making projects excessively complicated (and awsum,).

Again self, “this doesn’t mean you have to catalogue and inventory all of your records… This was just a distraction for this morning while you’re having coffee and trying to figure out how to shake the pain and savour the day with a bit of creative fun times” dig.