Record Store Day, Wu-Massacre and vinyl in a quote

I try not share any (or at least not too much) boring, mundane stuff on here. I try to avoid the whole "I'm eating a sandwich" stereotype of blogger-types since Twitter came around -- and because I generally despise such things myself ( 'I feel your pain.' ). But I had to share this short conversation between Emma (my girlfriend) and I post-Record Store Day morning.

I had just spent way too much money, and I was talking about how I needed to take a break -- at least a few weeks -- from buying any records. I had been buying quite a bit lately, as this blog will attest to, not to mention the amount I spent last Saturday.

Me: "Yeah, I just can't really afford to spend much more money on this for a while. Plus I'm kind of cheap when it comes to spending that much at one time."

Emma: "That makes sense, you've been spending a lot on records lately."

Me: "Right. Well, I mean, I'm going to stop after I pick up this album I already had ordered from Melody [another shop in D.C.]"

Emma: "What is it?"

Me: "That new Wu-Tang album, on vinyl."

Emma: "Well, yeah. You gotta get that one."

I appreciate the sentiment. And the album Wu-Massacre is pretty damn good too.

Contradictions.. or welcome to the blog.

Welcome to this experiment I've taken to calling Wax Fanatical.

Basically, this blog will comprise stories of crate digging, ecstatic posts when I find *the perfect* record, my take on the record stores in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area, thoughts on the records I already own and just general musings on the idea of collecting records in the time of the iPods, MP3s, illegal downloading and that sort of thing.

To the last point, the inherent contradiction in running a blog on a subject some see as utterly arcane and out of date is not lost on me. But since I've started collecting records about a year ago, I've seen each purchase as one step along some kind of journey toward some ideal record collection. Now, thanks to these things we call the Internets, there will be a record of my attempts to get there.

Finally, a caveat: While I love collecting records, to me it's more about the music than the endless search for some obscure, super-rare record. So, yes, some of my collection might be cliche, or ordinary or whatever. But I consider myself a regular person's record collector. I routinely look for some of my favorite records, and if I buy any new albums, it tends to be on vinyl. That means I've got quite the array, from Vampire Weekend, Brother Ali and Wu-Tang Clan to Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan and The Ramones. I hope that keeps it interesting, and I hope you'll agree.

Photo: Unfortunately, not my collection or my photo. It's the BBC's.