WOEBOT

At Home he feels like a Tourist.

Was up late last night and made the mistake of not checking my email. I found out this morning on an email from Jim Backhouse that he urgently needed the Kosmiche slot on Resonance FM filled. I would have dropped EVERYTHING and rushed over. Too bad. Of course, pursuant my earlier comments at Woebot, I'd be duty bound to play every Taxi Driver's favourite shmaltz.

Instead I was doing my VAT. Going through my receipts from record stores. I've never touched on this before but I have exactly the same love/hate relationship with this record-collecting affliction that I've noticed at both CNWB and Emerald Daze. It's just not on is it? I used to really beat myself up over it. I'd set totally unrealistic goals, limit myself to certain sums or certain amounts of records per week or per month. I'm still paying lip-service to one of my budgeting schemes at the moment! For a long time last year I actually stopped buying altogether, one of the most miserable six month periods of my life (ha ha). Actually it was probably five months. I kept the fever at bay by obsessively downloading mp3s, this might explain the record industry's near-collapse. I've had the bug since I was 15, and it's been the most dominating habit of my life thus far. To stop would be to tear a strip right out of me. It's not just the objects themselves you see, it's the practice: the hunting, the walking, the reading, the encoding, the community and, er, listening to them.

So I've given up worrying about it. I'm quite controlled in other areas of my life. I don't smoke or do drugs (anymore, titter). I don't drink Tea or Coffee. I probably manage a couple of pints of beer a month. And well the good thing about records is that they don't disappear. You don't wake up in the morning and rubbing your head as you peer into your wallet (escaping moths), "Jesus where did all that cash go?" They're not a bad investment. They're not as good as an investment as one sometimes kids oneself, but they're alright. For instance last month I picked up Stockhausen's "Illimite" on Shandar for $20 at a store in Islington. My friend Sacha reported that the same record went on eBay for $150 the next day. And it's a truly wonderful piece, Karlheinz at his most relaxed and "Kosmiche", intoning Indian wisdom in the steely american accent of an IBM engineer.

Still as I licked the seal on the Inland Revenue envelope (they owe ME money at least) I vowed to cut back. This time (oh yeah!) for real.

Posted by Woebot at December 2, 2003 10:37 AM