Compacting My Discs

I did something the other night I swore to myself I would never do. I murdered another human being. No - just kidding. I took all of my CDs out of their plastic cases and put them into one of those giant CD wallet-books. I kept the booklets (and in some cases the back covers) and bundled those into a clear shoebox. I was worn down to do this by realizing that I live in New York -- and though I am totally comfortable with the size of my apartment, the reality is in NYC space is always at a premium. I had not found a proper place to store my CDs since I switched rooms in my apartment (more than a year ago), and the majority of them were crammed into my clothes closet -- and thus not easily accessible. I wanted my music back out and in easy reach, and this seemed to be the most sensible solution.

But it’s the sensible part of this that’s killing me. Sensible? This is rock and roll, sister -- the complete antitheses of “sensible.” I used to be cool, man! What the hell happened? I never thought the day would come when I couldn’t make room for ROCK in my life.

But seriously -- I am a packaging man. As much as I love the fluidness of the digital age, there is something to be said about holding an album in your hands. When I was younger and I bought a CD -- I would first listen to it while reading along with the lyrics, and I felt that allowed you a deeper connection to the music than just putting it on as background noise. Packaging gives the music weight and a sense of permanence. As someone who grew up at the tail end of records, I always felt something important disappeared when CDs became the norm -- and the physical presence of music was reduced to a quarter if its previous size. And now that we’re losing even that fraction makes me kind of sad. No more staring down that long stretch of Abbey Road, I guess.

But progress is progress. And a nice benefit of having freed my CDs is that I can load a ton of new stuff on my iPod. It has been entirely Beatles-less the whole time I have owned it, but I corrected that last night. I have also grabbed a bunch of the crappy albums I only liked one song on, and will burn all the killer onto one CD with no filler. So upwards and onwards.

And I still have the booklets in that clear shoebox -- so anytime I feel the need to see those shots of U2 dressed in drag on the Achtung Baby sleeve, I know where to find them.