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Everything starts with an E
Last night I finally got round to it: I put my CDs into alphabetical order. I've resisted for a long time, but fundamentally, I couldn't find things any more.
It's not too bad: I didn't religiously order my CDs within artists. They're in approximate release order, but only so far as I could manage it without checking the dates. And compilations are at present all jumbled together, as I went to bed before doing anything other than bunging them on the shelves.
I may yet alter my policy, as at present all styles are mixed up together. Not a problem, in general, but it does mean I've filed Classical by composer, while everything else is filed by artist. And of course, it's common to find CDs with the works of more than one composer on. I've not yet come up with a good solution to this; suggestions welcome.
And yes, there were the standard problems: Does the best of Debbie Harry and Blondie go under B or H ? Do 4ft Fingers go under F, or in a numbers section before A ? I decided there was only one solution to this: it's my collection, I'll put them where I'd look for them. Andy accused me of being girly and irrational about some of my decisions - notably putting Dr John under D, and Andrew WK under A. I did resist the unjustifiable urge to file PJ Harvey under P, though.
I can also report (unsurprisingly) that I buy more albums recorded by artists whose names begin with S than any other letter. The C pile was the same height, but contained slightly fewer albums, owing to Nick Cave's habit of putting albums in big fat cardboard covers.
Incidentally: does anyone have my copy of D.U.S.T's From The Sublime To The Obscene ?
In recent weeks I've had the same conversation, independently, with a series of people. Numerous helpful souls have suggested that I buy some CD wallets, ditch the CD jewel cases, and save space that way. Today, someone went one step further, suggesting spindle-style CD cases, and throwing away the sleevenotes altogether (which is what he has done).
This is Just Wrong. It is, in fact, so Wrong as to have gone way past Wrong and into Criminal. Once a CD is out of its case, the music leaks out and sloshes about everywhere, and (particularly without sleevenotes) becomes all unidentifiable.
Yes, I appreciate that it's a space-saving policy. In the same way that ripping the hardcovers off books, or aputating your housemates' limbs is a space-saving policy. I can't believe I appear to be the only person who's realised this.
It's not too bad: I didn't religiously order my CDs within artists. They're in approximate release order, but only so far as I could manage it without checking the dates. And compilations are at present all jumbled together, as I went to bed before doing anything other than bunging them on the shelves.
I may yet alter my policy, as at present all styles are mixed up together. Not a problem, in general, but it does mean I've filed Classical by composer, while everything else is filed by artist. And of course, it's common to find CDs with the works of more than one composer on. I've not yet come up with a good solution to this; suggestions welcome.
And yes, there were the standard problems: Does the best of Debbie Harry and Blondie go under B or H ? Do 4ft Fingers go under F, or in a numbers section before A ? I decided there was only one solution to this: it's my collection, I'll put them where I'd look for them. Andy accused me of being girly and irrational about some of my decisions - notably putting Dr John under D, and Andrew WK under A. I did resist the unjustifiable urge to file PJ Harvey under P, though.
I can also report (unsurprisingly) that I buy more albums recorded by artists whose names begin with S than any other letter. The C pile was the same height, but contained slightly fewer albums, owing to Nick Cave's habit of putting albums in big fat cardboard covers.
Incidentally: does anyone have my copy of D.U.S.T's From The Sublime To The Obscene ?
In recent weeks I've had the same conversation, independently, with a series of people. Numerous helpful souls have suggested that I buy some CD wallets, ditch the CD jewel cases, and save space that way. Today, someone went one step further, suggesting spindle-style CD cases, and throwing away the sleevenotes altogether (which is what he has done).
This is Just Wrong. It is, in fact, so Wrong as to have gone way past Wrong and into Criminal. Once a CD is out of its case, the music leaks out and sloshes about everywhere, and (particularly without sleevenotes) becomes all unidentifiable.
Yes, I appreciate that it's a space-saving policy. In the same way that ripping the hardcovers off books, or aputating your housemates' limbs is a space-saving policy. I can't believe I appear to be the only person who's realised this.
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Also, I passed my 'Eyes of Alice Cooper' Album onto your velvet housemate - so it should be somewhere in your house, if not already in your possession.
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Thanks for the Alice Cooper - I shall query said velvety entity and demand its immediate presentation.
Re: The letter S.
Why this might be escapes me.
Re: The letter S.
I knew someone who made a similar claim but about the letter B... despite this being both statistically unlikely and patently absurd.
Re: The letter S.
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The man is obviously ill! The shiny things will be screaming in sleevenoteless agony.
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I also found a St Eve single which is something to do with you - can you remind me whether it was a freebie you passed on, or a loan I was meant to give back, please ?
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My most common letter is M.
And I agree about the CD wallet idea - that's heathenish. It's also at least part of the reason why I don't copy or download music.
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Singles I've kept separately, too, regardless of size-of-case. I was aiming for ease of location of required disc, not logic and rationalness :)
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Actually, that's not a bad justification for it. I may steal it :)
Not that I actually own any tribute albums, I don't think.
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CD Wallets
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My videos used to be alphabetical, but I keep them in genre now (or did when they weren't packed up) so if I was after a chick flick I could compare all I had and then pick the one I wanted, without feeling I might've missed something. Not sure it'd work with cd's, but I do have my jazz and blues and classical stuff seperated from my indie-shite :)
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Having differing names for exactly the same band is awkward: favour the one you have most of, I guess.
Compilations go separately, listed by compilation title.
But this is hardly anal, oh no. Next stage is to look at all the CDs cluttering up your room and decide you want (a) any arbitrary orderings you chose - _simulataneoulsy_, and (b) all that space back. The point I became officially anal was when I put all of these CDs on a server, catalogued them all and generated millions of playlists based on various different criteria (original CD, tracks by artist, tracks by name, chronological order, etc, plus any old playlist I choose to make up). I haven't scanned the artwork and notes yet - perhaps I should! Anyway - the less commonly listened to CDs are now in boxes in the loft to make some space, and the entire collection can be accessed anywhere in the house.
But I should probably have got out more.
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Well, that's less Wrong, but it's still a bit... you know... dubious.
As you're probably aware, I'm slowly managing to stick my entire CD collection on my harddrive at work, but that's very definitely an as-well, not an instead-of. And it saves me carting CDs backwards and forwards every day to listen to while I'm here.
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O and Q both have only one CD in them (Carmina Burana, by Orff, and Plenty, by Quicksilver.)
U and Z both have only two (Ultrasound and Unbelivable Truth, Zombina & The Skeletones and Rob Zombie. Admittedly I have exacerbated this by filing the two Union discs under B; they were singles anyway.)
I own no CDs recorded by an artist beginning with X.
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The upside- when one runs out of room I buy another for that genre. Also no-one who steals them would be able to sell them on easily without the covers.
The downside- I have the back of the CD case slips in a box at the back of the cupboard "just in case" I decide to go back to cases, but some CDs don't have a track listing on the CD itself or the front slipbook.
Good luck!
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How do you mark them?
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Just to complicate things...
I agree on the sleevnotes front btw!
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The books are higher on the to do list though.
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I'd have thought they'd be easier, being more stackable. And easier to pull off shelves, which as everyone knows is really bloody difficult to do if you pack your records in tightly.
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(Anonymous) 2004-02-17 12:16 pm (UTC)(link)..and there is nothing more annoying than it not being there, so have you got my Alice in Wonderland/Through the looking Glass?
Spelunca
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By the way, I don't have the Kipling you thought I had either. But is that (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/kipli05.html) the poem you wanted ?
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Further trivia: I only own two soundtracks. (The Matrix and Pulp Fiction.)
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Named artists are sorted by surname. Fake titles don't count as names, so Dr. John is under D. I don't have anything by Andrew WK, but I'd probably put him under A on grounds that WK is not a surname. Rob Zombie I'm still debating - whatever I do he won't be next to White Zombie, so it doesn't really matter.
"X and the Ys" are filed under X, by surname if appropriate, unless I have other items by the same outfit under just the bandname, in which case they're moved. So the Bad Seeds are under C. Your Blondie example would be under B because they're also billed as Blondie.
I declare that there is no such thing as naming a band with the name of one person in it. So there is no means by which PJ Harvey can define herself to be in a band named "PJ Harvey" and thereby move herself to P. But if a band named itself after someone not in it, they wouldn't be sorted by the surname of that person.
Iggy Pop is currently under I, not necessarily for any good reason.
Classical music is by composer, unless the album is released under the name of some superstar soloist. Superstar orchestras don't count for this.
Soundtracks are sorted under the artist's name if its the work of a single artist (so Birdy is under G, Bladerunner is under V, Young Guns II is under B), or otherwise in their own section by name of film (so I'm guessing Young Guns would be under Y).
Compilations are dumped in a muddle at the end, with serial compilations (like Chilled Ibiza I and II) collected.
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I understood Inskauldrak to be saying that sometimes a band consisting of PJH and others went by the name of PJ Harvey. I filed Helen Love under H for this reason - despite HL being an individual, I believe HL is also the name of the band which she fronts.
Your system sounds reasonable, and in fact broadly what I was doing. Except with more justification and less "because it seemed like a good idea".
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(a) double CD cases which only fit into certain places in the racking, which necessitated moving other CDs by that artist into adjacent locations so there wasn't a break in sequence, even if this meant that there were occasional peculiarities where the C section was partly interrupted by Ds.
(b) compilations, soundtracks, and other such things live in a separate section, but again alphabetically/chronologically.
(c) singles, the boxes of box sets, overlarge cases and other such irritations lived on their own, precariously balanced on the top of the stacked racks. Again, alphabetically and chonologically except where space didn't permit.
Then of course I moved so all the CDs came out of their racks for easy storage and relocation. CDs belonging to herself also got mixed into the packing boxes, further muddying the waters.
Unpacking involved rapidly shoveling all the CDs first onto slim bookshelves (where it was decided that there wasn't enough shelf space and books should probably reside there instead) and then from there back into the CD racking. Order has not yet ensued, though this time round I am sorely tempted to file them in order of spine colour, running from white at one end through the spectrum finishing with black at the other. If nothing else it will while away an afternoon and it might just look aesthetically pleasing.
This comment has been brought to you by the most commonly found letters of C, S, and A.