
In sight of a theoretical moving out, I've finally started making practical steps. I've wanted to let go of the plastic for a while now, so that's what's left. If you were ever in doubt on my commitment to essentiality, here you go.
I felt remarkably little remorse throwing out the CDs themselves. CDs aren't beautiful. I kept my meager vinyl because it is. I plan, in my new place, to create a wall-of-art with the more striking of the cd booklets, but then again, I might not do that at all. I've lived a long time in this house/room and it had been overcompressed with little trinkets, toys and memorabilia for the larger part of that duration. When I get a new place I intend for very spartan interior design, at least for a couple of years.

Here's a few interesting thoughts that came with taking out the trash:
1. Curiously, some of my CDs have been breeding in the piles. I apparently have two "Lost Paradise" CDs by Paradise Lost, two "Invictus" copies by Virgin Steele and two of "Red" by King Crimson. Also three different print copies of Psychotic Waltz's "A Social Grace", but at least I remember how that happened. Not the rest.
2. Fuck, I bought a lot of trash when I was younger. I have Exxplorer's "coldblackugly" in here somewhere (and Symphonies of Steel, thankfully, but still). Probably the most putrid thing in here was however, and somehow twice, Jag Panzer's "Dissident Alliance". I do not remember having bought either of them.
3. I had a *lot* of cover compilations from various magazines. Turns out I remember most of the songs on them extremely well. I must have listened to them nearly as much if not more than I did real records. I'd never do that nowadays.
4. Melissa is still the best heavy metal cover.
5. I have absolutely none of the collector genes my brother and father seem to have in spades. For this I am thankful for a couple of reasons. One is that I do not enjoy the feeling of nostalgia, generally. In an indirect way this is also connected with how I'm trying to take positive steps forward in my life (the moving out is just part of that mindset) and being tied down with fifteen years of CD weight is something to be liberated of, definitely.
6. Once I got through the CD piles, I started tearing down posters and removing small items of no consequence that had accumulated through decades of teenage entropy. I threw away bad comics, I gave bad books to my dad (as he cannot bear the thought of throwing away books), I seriously didn't stop until I ran out of garbage bags. I wish I had more of them, actually. It's a good feeling. I'll finish up this project in the coming week. I intend to leave this room as bare as I arrived in it.

The horror, the horror...
ReplyDeleteAs a person that has the collector's genes, seeing all this mass of garbage bags, is a bit striking, to say the least. I have also done this in the past, when I left my last childhood toys, along with a perfectly working AMIGA 500, to the garbage, because I was also moving, and I no longer needed them.
However, I have to ask. Why did you decide to throw away the CDs, instead of selling them?
As for Jag Panzer's "Dissident Alliance", I have your answer: Greek Metal Hammer.
Hah, you're right on Dissident Alliance!
ReplyDeleteI don't want to sell CDs, not sure why. I can't explain it, at all!
Jean Michel Jarre, Equinoxe. Lots of psychoactive drugs used with that one and Oxygene and Zoolook. I'm not ashamed.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJBZluOfFy0
ReplyDeleteThis was a brave move but i can't see myself doing it. To be honest, i've done a little bit of ''cleaning'' myself a year back and gave a friend of mine about 200 cds for free since they were of no apparent use to me. An interesting thing though is that there are some genres of music (especially indie/alternative stuff from the early '90s) that had records released on cd only format back in the day and it's a bit pretentious seeing them reissued on vinyl (just an observation). Keeping the cds has nostalgic value for me (even though this feeling is a bit made up since i was a little boy in the early '90s) because that's the format i associate them with.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand i see myself regularly deleting my mp3s without thinking twice about it.
That's the spirit in which I cleaned out too: I've digitized that which has worth, and I've bought and perused the CDs of that which I found worthy in digital. So why fret over nostalgia?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have a challenge. Who can name the most records just from that blurry picture?
Anathema - Serenades
ReplyDeleteBlack Sabbath - Vol 4
Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond
Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
Faith No More - The Real Thing (Yuk!)
Fates Warning - No Exit
In the Woods... - Omnio
Jean Michel Jarre - Equinoxe
King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black
King Diamond - Them
Mayfair - Behind
Mekong Delta - Kaleidoscope
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Moahni Moahna - Why
Motörhead - Bomber
Othyrworld - Beyond into the Night of Day
Paradise Lost - Lost Paradise
Psychotic Waltz - A Social Grace
Queensrÿche - Promised Land
Queensrÿche - S/T
Rainbow - Rainbow Rising
Sacred Blade - Of the Sun + Moon
Saviour Machine - Saviour Machine I
Shadow Gallery - Carved in Stone
Solitude Aeturnus - Into the Depths of Sorrow
The Gathering - Nighttime Birds
Veni Domine - Spiritual Wasteland
Voivod - Nothingface
The brownish one under Rainbow Rising and the one with lots of white stuff on it over Moahni Moahna album and next to Sabbath and Gathering look very familiar too but nothing comes to my mind..
Errr! Motörhead's Overkill of course, not Bomber.
ReplyDeletebrownish is Tiamat - Astral Sleep and whiteish is Yes - Relayer. You did amazingly good, it's kind of scary.
ReplyDeleteAh I am familiar with both albums after all. Actually I kind of surprised even myself on this. Though some luck was involved too! I looked up that Moahni Moahna album on Metal-Archives just a week ago or so and would've never known it otherwise.
ReplyDeleteAnathema - Serenades
ReplyDeleteBlack Sabbath - Vol 4
Fates Warning - No Exit
King Diamond - Them
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Motörhead - Overkill
Paradise Lost - Lost Paradise
Rainbow - Rainbow Rising
Voivod - Nothingface
Tiamat - Astral Sleep
Considering I managed to spot all the albums I was familiar with, I would say I did pretty good.