Full Up

The title does not refer to my stomach after a particularly hefty meal.  Nor does it speak of my frustration with the Car Park at The Oracle in Reading (is it ever not full?).
The title is a summary of the available space in the audio media storage solution.  In short, my CD shelves are full.  In the words of Sleeper's Louise Wener *: 'What Do I Do Now?'

* is she related to ex-Blue Peter presenter Chris Wenner?  No, his surname has an extra 'n'.  Mystery solved

When we moved house about 6 years ago, we did the thing that everyone who moves into a new home in need of new/replacement furnishings does, namely take a trip to Ikea.
This particular trip involved the usual routine of getting stuck in traffic on the North Circular Road, wandering through the showroom for what feels like a couple of days and losing a touch with reality outside, collecting the boxes of the chosen purchases from the warehouse and wondering how it is all going to fit in the car, paying at the checkout and not truly comprehending how much you've actually spent.
No trip to Ikea is complete unless you have bought a big bag of Tea Lights, a plastic box cheese grater and a cheap hot dog on the way out.
And as often happens, when I leave the Ikea car park I turn in the wrong direction and , to paraphrase Phil Daniels in Quadrophenia, I 'wound up in bloody Neasden'.

The first post-house move trip to Ikea resulted in the purchase of a couple of Billy Bookcases and 6 Benno CD/DVD towers.  All in a dark brown colour to match/compliment the wooden floor in the new house.
So, for the rest of that weekend I was unpacking flat pack furniture and assembling the planks of wood into something upright, solid, usable, functional and scandanavian (not sure that last bit is actually relevant).
After building the units, they were arranged in the room and loaded up with stuff - the next day we went back to Ikea to buy another couple of CD stands.
And now, they're full up.  I've already moved the CD singles and free Magazine CDs out to the cave upstairs, and thbits of the compilation section are encroaching into the DVD storage area, so there is no real free space I can utilise.
The obvious solution is to go back to the Scandanavian Shop Of Wonder and simply buy another couple of shelves.  A simple solution you would think, except that the colour is no longer availble

My wife's stunningly simplistic, yet somewhat drastic solution was: "You'll have to get rid of some, or stop buying them".  Neither of these options will be happening.
Another obvious solution is to go digital - copy everyhting to MP3 and get shot of the CDs - again, this will not be happening.  I've spoken before about my (possibly outdated) commitment to the physical product,  so joining the 21st Century digital revolution is not on the cards either.
Initial research shows me that an alternative storage solution may cost the thich end of £200 (if not more), plus this may also entail replaceing the other furnishings a the colours will no longer match (and the problem is?  women can be so touchy about stuff like that - I know, I've got the bruises to prove it).


Jona Lewie said that at social gatherings, he would invariably be seen where the food is being prepared.  I have a similar status - you will always find my be the CD shelves at parties.  Often muttering to myself, or anyone else in earshot: "I've got that one", "oo - thats intersting", "never heard of them.  Is it any good?", "why did you buy this?".
But it's not just a case of musiocal snobbery or inabilty to invlove myself in small talk with potentially dull people, this activity has a practical application.  Namely, research into how other people have solutionised (is that a word?) the CD and DVD collections.

I have always hoped that music magazines would introduce a correspondence section in their publications where readers can send in pictures of their Record and CD collections for the voyeuristic satisfaction of others.  Similar, I suppose, to those sections in Gentlemans magazines, this particular stream could be entitled 'Reader Shelves'.

<Reminder #1: Insert Photo Here>

<Reminder #2: Buy a Digital Camera>


A later blog post, probably in a couple of months, will be titled "I've Got Piles", meaning I've not sorted out any new storage, and all my recent purchases are now place in a teetering tower on top of the stereo.


Having mentioned Louise Wener and Sleeper earlier, let us consider the "Brit Pop Band Fronted By A Girlie" genre for a second.  Personally, I preferred Echobelly to Sleeper, and in front of Echobelly would be the band fronted by the most heavily Welsh accented person in popular music - Catatonia: