Earlier this month I finished my wife’s artist portfolio website. Check it out here.
Obviously it includes a store.
Obviously you check out the competition while setting up shop, and obviously it doesn’t take long to discover the stranger side of Etsy. Even books have been written about certain regrettable products.
One of the more interesting items I stumbled across was this Hi-Fi rack.
Just look at it. It’s gorgeous!
I have no idea what’s supposed to be “audiophile” about a few threaded steel rods and stained wooden boards you could buy at the nearest hardware store and put together in a weekend for a fraction of the asking price but hey, at least it’s functional and flexible.
It’s a popular design I had come across some years ago while looking for inspiration for the rack I built recently. While it certainly looks good (wait until you start running cables) and has its practical aspects, the design’s major drawback, though, is that the equipment is exposed to dust. I wanted an enclosed shelf over and above some place for records.
This brings me to the next point: Vinyl records.
The most recent archaeological dig in the basement archives revealed two boxes packed full of records. They’re all that’s left from previous sorting rounds and should now be regarded as the “interesting” ones. A few of those have actually made it into the “secondary collection” (the stack on the right side in the photo above, a work in progress).
The boxes also include an unusual number of records released by financial and religious institutions, and I’m currently stumped by a certain record with Christmas carols sung by lepers and orphaned/abused children put out by a Ponzi pyramid scheme organisation. Now there’s a cliché if ever there was one!
I’m undecided about whether that qualifies it for a spot in my collection.
Like many others, it’ll probably just get consigned to the rubbish heap (or recycled as raw material for arts and crafts) once they’ve been digitised/scanned and fed to the Discogs database monster. Some may even fetch something on the marketplace. And there’s at least one more box of CDs and tapes waiting for another day.
Why the sudden desire to clear out the space?
Too much stuff, obviously! And I need it for more media.
This most recent harvest has given me new ideas for another exciting project.
It’s obvious that I have a troubled relationship with physical media.
Or there’s something else wrong.
All photos by hmvhDOTnet unless specified otherwise.