SOLO PROJECT

A difficult weekend. All friends are away; some at a wedding, some back to parents, one to Edinburgh. I thought one would be around but that failed and then ukulele practice got cancelled twice. So I have seen no one all weekend. What have I done? Organised my CDs...
Riveting I hear you say, but let me tell you certain things:

1. When you have over 1000 CDs it is impossible to find anything when they aren't in order.

2. Alphabetizing that many CDs tales ages.

First of all I thought I wanted something a little different. I had organised them loosely into genres at my sister's so I didn't want to a straight A-Z as you have to move everything up one when you get new CDs (not that I buy that many anymore). I first of all thought of having them chronologically, that way if I get a new CD it just goes to the end. But that took far too long and got tedious. Then I thought of doing it by the colour of the spine, but then I thought I'd never find anything. Finally I groups the most inportant bands together (Faith No More, Pearl Jam, Tool, The Beatles) and then any connections that take place between bands (Sparta/At The Drive In/Mars Volta).

After that I just grouped any artists together. Having done that I will alphabetize each individual rack (there are 4). It's taken a day and a half.

One thing I have learnt from all this is that CD packaging is too big. Whoever invented the jewel case should be shot. It makes everything so heavy and takes up too much space. Records didn't have a plastic case. In fact CDs should be packaged like records were. A gatefold sleeve with one side for the CD and the other for the booklet. Yes it doesn't have the same durability of the jewel case but you can print it all on recycled paper, and it will take up far less space. And everything in my collection that has a paper sleeve looks so much better than the normal packaging. Take the Pearl Jam albums, all packaged nicely in almost all paper (especially No Code and Vitalogy). The Puscifer album is just one bit of card folded in a way that keeps the CD from falling out. Do CDs need a plastic chair? No they don't.

Every CD should be packaged like the latest Counting Crows album, but shouldn't necessarily sound like it. And if you want something special, go down the Tool - 10,000 Days route.