The Whitest White Person Problem I’ve Ever Had
Almost 3 years ago now, when my life took a strange and unexpected turn, I began to do something that I in my very early twenties would have never imagined myself doing. I began to sell off my CD and DVD collection. Once a vast expanse of media madness, the likes of which few people had ever seen, it has now dwindled (I use this word loosely) to an eclectic collector’s collection of perhaps 350 CDs and 400 DVDs (sans TV on DVD.) Seem like a lot to you? Hook up with Doc Brown take that Delorean back to 2007 and, oh yeah, prepare to be totally. Fucking. Blown. away.
I was always something of a habitual collector of stuff, and DVDs and CDs were no exception when I reached adulthood. My niche in life being that of an “artsy” person, I truly saw my collection as, I assumed, yuppy scumbags saw their own much more ostentatious status symbols. My collection proved to the world that I loved music and film more than they did. Well, in time, I realized that simply wasn’t true, but that doesn’t negate the fact that I lived for collecting CDs and DVDs.
I always made it a point to weed stuff out and keep my collection as fresh as was possible (if we were to talk the total number, oh God, I shudder to imagine) but finally, when things took a turn for the fucked, I had to get rid of a decent chunk of my collection. I finally accepted the fact that, like it or not, CDs are becoming obsolete, as are DVDs. When I moved to LA and was briefly unemployed for a long-term period (yes, I realize what I just said) I actually began selling CDs and DVDs on ebay for a few months in order to survive. I survived.
Now I am not in a position where I necessarilly need the money, I more just want to rid myself of the clutter. I have my music on my iTunes like a normal twenty-something should, and will soon back it all up and store it at Gringotts. I think it’s time I shave my collection down to the absolute, quintessential, cannot-fathom-a-universe-without, albums: My YYYs. My Explosions. My Brand New. My Elliot Smith. My Cure. My Bright Eyes. My Rilo Kiley (okay, I’m just showing off now, that was more than enough.) The shit I simply can’t part ways with, even if realistically the discs do nothing but collect dust. Even a small collection of maybe 100 CDs still seems excessive to most people. The same with my DVDs, though they have more value in that I can’t back them all up like I can a CD. Ultimately, what I hope to do is replace my overindulgent CD collection with an overindulgent record collection. Getting rid of my CDs can aid me in doing so. What to do. Oh what to do : /
I don’t know why I needed to write this.
