I'm dealing with many 'things' this week in preparation for a yard sale I have decided to hold with my neighbour. Hosting a yard sale- eesh. Despite my better judgement and general loathing of garage sales and the like, I am busy gathering items to offer for sale to perfect strangers that I will invite into my yard, and allow to filter through my excess crap.
The Peter Gabriel reference is due to the fact that I slogged through our collection of CD's this morning in preparation for sale. I carefully examined each case and removed the empty ones, void of their contents due to thieves who helped themselves to the glove box of our car on numerous occasions. Seeing the empty cases made me sad. Lost is- in my opinion a great selection of music. Very eclectic and the soundtrack of many road trips for Spouse and I as we cruised through our 20's and early 30's -pre-kids.
We long ago abandoned owning a stereo system and recently sold enormous Cerwin Vega speakers that my husband was having an affair with for years while we waited for the kids to get older and less destructive before investing in another system to power them. I'm sure our neighbours will appreciate this sacrifice made by Spouse. Those speakers have great sound, but create enemies. We like our neighbours, but I'm certain they don't share our taste in music.
Even harder to part with was the CD's themselves. I carefully reviewed, examined and weighed the importance of each disk. I was suddenly channeling Rob the main character in High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (which BTW is a great read that I highly suggest) Each disk marks a moment in time, a location where we lived and documents a decade or so of life for Spouse and I.
How do you choose your favourites? It's like deciding which kid you like more. Spouse and I are both kind of music nerds, not as hard core as some and for the last 10 years out of the loop when it comes to current trends-but we know what we like and enjoy it. So I saved what I thought was iconic. Iggy Pop, Bruce Springsteen and Buffalo Tom. I salvaged all of the "Best of" Albums and the rare Live selections. Classics like The Jam, Billy Bragg and Wilco, all of the R.E.M. and Pearl Jam. I tried to be ruthless, knowing in my heart that I can likely find all of this music online somewhere. But something made me hang onto about half of the disks we had in our library. As far as decluttering an epic fail, but a small victory as I reluctantly part with some of the less favoured 'middle children'.
I will place these discarded, carefully sorted disks on a table in a week or so and hope that someone will walk up offer me a dollar or two. Deep down I suspect (and maybe secretly hope) that I will end up bringing most of the box back into the house and carefully place each one back into the library of those saved from the yard sale.
Alphabetized along with the U2 collection, wedged in between Hole, Ween and my Police collection (which will have to be pried from my cold dead hands).
I've saved the empty cases for reference. I have promised myself I will download all of those old favourites onto my iPod. Thank you iTunes.
I'm wiser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDDNH7GwAWM
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