Synchronicity

When I moved from Melbourne to Phoenix I had a lot of decisions to make regarding what to bring with me and what to abandon. As it happened I abandoned almost everything. And whilst I could abandon my LP collection (What are LP's daddy? :) ) I couldn't bring myself to abandon my CD collection.

On the other hand, 800 or so CD's are pretty bulky when packaged in jewel cases and rather expensive to ship. So I made a good bad decision. I grabbed a few empty CD recordable spindles and stripped those CD's down to the bare essentials; the CD itself on the spindle and the paper inserts from the jewel cases.

The plan was, of course, to buy jewel cases on the other side of the ocean and reconstitute em. Perhaps it would have worked if all that was needed was water. First problem is what does one do with 2 or 3 CD sets? If you can purchase those kinds of jewel cases I haven't found where.

More, it's the sheer amount of work needed to assemble em. It was bad enough breaking the sets down over there in Melbourne on the 3rd and 2nd last nights. Reassembling them is a much bigger job. One can go through the spindles to find the CD and stick it in a jewel case. But then one has to search through the paper inserts to find the right one. Same problem if you do it the other way.

As a consequence I haven't really done much about it. Being blessed with both a good memory and the internet I find I don't really need the paper inserts; if I really want all the information on the Michael Nyman Songbook I can hit Amazon and there it is.

Meanwhile, my CD collection has become an amazing grab bag. Time was I'd think to myself 'I'm in the mood for some Delius' and there I'd go, CD at my fingertips. Now it's more a case of 'what CD will I find if I grab that spindle and grab the 37th disc from the top?'.

To my immense surprise, the random choice has overwhelmingly turned out to be a Bax Symphony. Which is good because he's just what I need to listen to right now!

Yeah, someday I'll reassemble all those CD's and their paperwork but for now it's just not all that important.

The Footscray Public Library benefited. I donated all those empty jewel cases to them. Which is only fair; I borrowed quite a few books from them in the 1960's.