All those musical CDs: a symphony in three parts

Oh, those compact disks.   This is a song-blog about my CD collection, in three movements.

My inspiration: The Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery.
Love those gold shelves!

Movement one:  The compilation and construction phase.   About a dozen years ago, I was entirely inspired by a combination of the Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery, on the one hand, and some Sky Mall cabinet on the other.  So I constructed this shelf out of scrap lumber.  

The advantage of this shelf is that all the different-size compartments disguises the fact that I didn't quite do things at right angles.  I did make sure I measured the heights so that CD's work.  The cost: screws and blue paint.  Cheap, and we've loved this shelf ever since.

Movement two:  More compilation.  More dust.  The shelves got cluttered and (did I mention this?) dusty.  Worse than just looking bad, the excessive amount of stuff made us just avoid it all.  We had all those CDs, and cassette tapes, and books, and knick knacks, but we never went near the shelf.  Couldn't find our favorite music quickly, so we didn't bother looking at all.  Fortunately, the movement began to be resolved by this summer's Children's Chores, as personified by N-son:

N-son dusts each and every CD and removes it from the shelf.

N-son dusted each CD and put them all in a giant pile on the floor.  We got ready to donate all our cassette tapes to the library (but C-son rescued them to his own bedroom before we could get them out of the garage.  Go figure.)  N-son also dusted all the shelves, and then (when he wasn't looking) his mom re-dusted them.  We did a triage on the giant pile of CDs, giving away those we no longer want, tossing empty jewel cases, and sorting the remaining CDs into categories.  Then they went back onto the cleaner, more spacious shelves.

Movement three:  Actually listening to the music.  Again.  and again.  This week, with my sons gone, I've gone through all my favorite old CDs.  Wow, what a wonderful experience.  I'm listening to Linda Rondstat's "Blue Bayou" right now, remembering seeing her sing it with the Muppet Frogs many years ago.  I've reconnected with Greg Brown, Michelle Shocked, Cheryl Wheeler, Natalie Merchant, Blues Traveler, Allison Krause, Patsy Cline, and Billy Joel.

Some of the CDs I've listened to this one week.

And, of course, this listening is the reason I got all this music in the first place.  I feel like I've come back to where I should be, in many ways.  Good for the heart; good for the soul.