The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting

Today we interview Robert Benson, who wrote the ebook called “The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting“.

MM: Robert, when did you have the idea to write a book about Vinyl Record Collecting? It is an unusual (but also very fascinating) topic.

RB: The ebook started out as a five page “report” about the subject and just grew from there. There is so much detail that is involved in collecting vinyl, and I just wanted to cover the topic in the best way possible, hence the ebook. And, I have made it very affordable at $4.99 a copy and certainly am not getting rich selling it, but rather I get a keen sense of satisfaction in detailing and explaining the hobby to others. But, the beauty of a digital product like this is that I can add information, interviews and updated material anytime, in fact just six months ago the ebook was at 40 pages, it is now over 70 pages. I wanted to delve into why people collect, the thrill and passion, that not only do I get from collecting, but what other collectors and dealers feel about the hobby. I have over 10,000 records and love adding to my collection, the thrill of the hunt is special to me (and as I found out, to others as well). I do not sell my records, rather, I think that they will be passed on to my family and continue to appreciate in value.

Many people argue about Vinyl and the “old good quality”, are they right? We lost something with digital media?

Oh, yes, there is a “sound fingerprint” that is lost when music is “compressed” into digital format. I call it “binary sound” and the human ear hears music in analogue sound and that is why music on vinyl sounds so much better. In fact, ask any musician (many of who are vinyl record collectors) and they can tell you what compressing the music into digital sound does to the music; that “sound fingerprint” is lost. As for my opinion, music wasn’t meant to be heard as a bunch of 1’s and 0’s compressed together to form the sound, and vinyl records have been around since sound reproduction began; and quite frankly, aren’t going anywhere (remember the reel to reel tapes, eight-tracks and cassettes? vinyl withstood those sound formats for a reason, the sound quality)

What can you tell us about the new media trends and their future?

I had to chuckle when I read about this marketing ploy-they have combined a CD and vinyl into one product. One side is the music in CD format and the other side is a 3 minute vinyl record. Now, I don’t think this is the answer, but I would assume if you can get a hold of one of these, do so, I would think they may be highly collectible once the dust settles.

I have also taken a keen interest in what the band Radiohead has done with their latest release, in fact I have an article on my blog about it.

I am also writing band biographies and reviews about new independent bands for an Internet radio station and I feel that, although a lot of bands still release their product via vinyl or CD, the distribution methods are changing, which to me, is a good thing; a music lover can get to hear so much more music that they may have otherwise not have heard. Many bands are releasing their music independent of the record labels (i.e. Radiohead) and going to MySpace or CD Baby to get their music heard. But, bands will continue to release music on vinyl, because that is what the consumer is looking for.

What about your next projects?

I am currently working on another ebook about “bird” and “animal” names and groups in rock and roll (a daunting task!) and I am having a blast doing this. I also write for www.gemm.com, which is one of the largest vinyl retailers on the Internet (I do band bios and articles). I am also busy working up a couple of more web sites, which I hope to go “live” very soon. I am also involved with a wonderful organization headed by Gary Freiberg called Vinyl Record Day, which helps educate the public about the cultural and social impact that the vinyl record has had on our society. Vinyl Record Day also helps promote and preserve the wonderful art work that has been created throughout the years. I also answer emails that people have about vinyl as well as pursue my fascinating hobby of collecting vinyl records.

On a personal note, I want to thank you for your time and the opportunity to discuss my ebook and hope that you got as much enjoyment out of reading it, as I did putting it all together.

And I thank you, Robert, I wish you big success, your ebook is really charming.

Posted in Arts, Culture, Ideas | 4 Comments »

Dreams are Real Enough

Peter Buckley just sent me this article he wrote for us, and I feel it to be really powerful… read:

Dreams are Real Enough: Notes on Writing and Dreaming

I wish to talk to you about dreams. I will try to resist sentimentality. Dreams are both beautiful and dangerous, and I want to demonstrate how they can be utterly pestilent, as well as a positive force that propels us through life, and writing.

I can discuss dreams with little reference to the “dreamer”, or “myself” – self-importance is futile in my case because I am not one of those “lucid dreamers” who possess the ability to control their dreams. My current project, “Peter and the Hare” requires me to evoke dreams, not entirely to the letter of the original inspiration, but, still, they are not “mine”. To say I “write” dreams would be like saying I lasso clouds. How can I claim ownership of something that only half-exists? And who creates the clouds? Writing for me is a collaborative effort.

The “something” that reveals itself to me in my writing is not particularly mysterious. It is always the same thing I am chasing, and that it remains a “something” hardly matters, as long as I have the desire and energy to chase it.

What I hope to produce is a body of work akin to a body of a centipede. This strange insect constantly grows extra legs and on those legs, more legs and more, more, more, until it dies or I do. Just to confuse things, the legs might not always be those of a centipede.

It is important for dreams to run free, yet to capture them we must impose rules, or make compromises. The most skilled writers can capture the energy of the original ‘dream’ while making it easy-to-read and accessible to others. You are writing with your readers, not against them. This is what I occasionally (and sometimes deliberately) forget…that centipede thing? What was that about?!?

“Peter and the Hare” is very experimental; please do not assume that I know what I am doing. The stories on my site are more like impressions, and it is up to the reader what impact they are allowed to make. The overall effect is anarchy. It’s a playground, but one I take seriously. It’s also just a place I put my stuff.

The fact that it’s a weblog affects the content. The internet is insane, uncontrollable – it can make us more intelligent or more ignorant. It can broaden our horizons, or expose us to unhelpful ideas. It feeds us this exhilarating white-noise. I’m hoping “The Hare” will confuse, shock, and entertain in equal measure – just as dreams do, and the internet itself is a dream.

If my blog is about anything, (and I want it to go anywhere, and be “…about anything”) it’s reality. So in an article about dreams, I should say something about reality. But reality can not necessarily be singled out as a “thing” separate from dreams. And dreams are real enough.

The whimsicality of dreaming can be seen in my work’s humorous elements. Laughing is better than crying, they say, and I laugh a lot. I’m not sure what “their” stance is on doing both at the same time, so I’ll assume that’s ok too.

I’ll reproduce some of my poem, Bubble, here - one of my worst poems (!) but it might at least demonstrate a point. The full text is here:

“When you live inside a bubble
the archway of the stars
becomes the pattern of the ceiling.

The edges of each table-leg
are softened with used teabags
that stain the carpet mahogany brown,
and the stain lingers perpetually.

This character is trapped in a dream. Is he fortunate, or is he to be pitied? The most un-clichéd answer is “neither”, but even that’s been worn-out.

Dreaming = escape, and this is wonderful. But it can also take its toll. Firstly, it demands dedication – the dream will always demand “completion”. My characters often seem blinded by their dreams. “The Hare” is the most habitual dreamer – he can hop from world to world, and doesn’t seem troubled by this destiny. Conversely, there is Dmitri, a comedy-Russian stereotype I have a lot of fun with. Dmitri is a realist who has seen too much to dream. He dislikes dreamers. In the middle of this are a cast of anonymous people, who stage dreamlike conversations. It’s not clear when or where they are happening, and it doesn’t matter. What emerges from conversations such as “It Takes a Train to Laugh…” and “In England, We Say Toilet…” is the pain of dreaming; dreaming breeds loneliness, delusion, an inability, (even unwillingness) to communicate. Perhaps I feel guilty about dreaming and about creating, for as long as we each build our own castles, there will be wars.

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can play together all night.” - Bill Watterson

But we can deal with dreams in two ways – they’re both disposable and essential, because things can be simultaneously insightful and very, very silly. These “in-flight movies” can teach us to wander through life with a sense of humour. Confusion need not be a source of angst, but something to be embraced; a coping strategy that gives us hope.

Posted in Arts, Culture, Ideas | 3 Comments »

The Power of Ideas (Part One)

Like the power of electricity your Ideas have greater impact when they rapidly flow in concentrated streams of thought. You’ll find this and more in the article wrote by Deremiah, exclusively for ManuelMarino.com . Deremiah *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist), is the winner of the 2004 Nightingale-Conant Acres of Diamonds Award and one of the top marketing experts on MarketingProfs.com. Deremiah (www.byderemiah.com) writes extensively on marketing and business communications. Learn more about Deremiah and his easy to read smart book, 52 Great Weeks: how to quickly develop unforgettable, inspirational service when you don’t have time. Contact him at deremiahcpe@gmail.com.

And now… the article:

The Power of Ideas (Part One)

Although I’ve been drawing most of my life I can only really remember having the ability to control this talent somewhere around 4 years old. By the time I turned five I got a hold of an oil Paint by Number set. It was one of those cheap simulated board canvases with numbers that matched the numbers on the small plastic oil paint containers and they came with a few red enamel paint brushes. My mom who was very creative used these paint by number kits to paint pictures for the walls in the duplex we lived in. She often did these kinds of things along with sewing clothes. In between all this she’d drive out to the military base to create these ceramic roosters and salt & pepper shakers she used to make. Every now and then she’d take me along. There were very large multiple rooms like a cafeteria style set up and most of the attendees were military housewives. In one area they’d create the ceramic figures, in another they’d paint the figurines and in the last room is where they’d fire the objects that were painted in these ovens they called kilns. We were living in Fairbanks Alaska at the time because my dad was stationed there in the U.S. Army. During this time my father had an amazing collection of music and he used to love to sing in his spare time. But occasionally I would find him at the kitchen table doing a few figure drawings of people. My dad was very good at drawing full figure images of people and it was during this time that I began to recognize that I too had the gift to draw and the power to control my ideas. In this kind of environment burgeoning with creativity is where I uncovered multiple gifts. This is also where I experienced the beginning of my discovery of how diverse gifts influence one another and spring forth through the power of ideas.

THE OUTER WORLD CREATES ENVIRONMENTS FOR THE INNER WORLD…

It is easy for most people to see how we are shaped by the environments of our communities. Having lived in 13 cities here in the US and two cities in Germany and being a teacher of history I see very clearly how environments affect everything. We are all shaped by the geographical land masses, oceans and climates of the environments we live in. Those things alone dictate everything from what kind of clothes we were, which trickles down to how we look, what kinds of crops we grow, the things we manufacture, what we eat and even how we speak. But it doesn’t end there we are influenced by cultures, religions and the races of people and these things likewise affect everything I named above. However beyond those basic influences of culture, religion and races and our environment there are other things that also affect how we think and eventually how we behave. And with all these outer influences shaping and affecting who we become it is so easy to forget that there is an inner world of influence…a world of thoughts and ideas that eventually have more impact upon who we become than all the changes in weather put together could ever have upon us. It is here in the environment of our inner-hemispheres that we have the greatest control upon our present condition when we use the power of ideas to fuel our successes.

IF YOUR IDEAS ARE POWERFUL THEY’RE INFLUENCING THE WORLD…

Are your ideas influencing the world? Shoot me an email at deremiahcpe@gmail.com and share with me how your ideas are influencing the world. Think about it! It was the power of ideas that brought your parents together. And the power of their ideas that influenced the future of the world’s collective ideas when you were consumated and birthed into this planet. Every member of the world is a part of the collective governing body of our world, our countries, our cities and our communities through the power of ideas. From Steve Jobs release of the iphone to CNN’s release of the news everyone is influencing the power of ideas. Every person within this creation we call earth has the complete authority to change the future direction of this world through the ideas they release. Whether their ideas are productive or unproductive they still have influence. Like the butterflies in China can impact the weather in Italy we have the ability to affect the future climate of ideas. But the kind of effects that we desire to have must be considered before we take action. Often times our ideas are creating environments for us that are not strong enough to resonate the kind of powerful influence we want them to have. If you desire to really use the power of ideas to work in your benefit remember that powerful ideas have a life force that is very influential. So don’t you want to start thinking about choosing the kind of ideas that could really influence the world? (Part Two)

Posted in Business, Culture, Ideas | 1 Comment »

A comics experience

Mike Dominic wrote this article for us. He is a freelance illustrator and comic artist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has produced work for both print and online comics, including his own webcomic, The Journals of Simon Pariah. He has written articles about comics for Sketch magazine and 24 Hour Comics Day 2006, and he is currently a participant in the 100 Artists Project. His most recent work can be found at the Bruno the Bandit webcomic and his own sketchblog.

A comics experience

Comics is an old art form that is always new. In its current form, it is just over a century old, yet it is just as fresh as today’s strips. It has adapted to nearly every communications medium introduced in the last century, yet it is still produced with tools that are as old as the written word. It is considered lowbrow trash by some (see, for example, Jack Chick tracts or Tijuana Bibles), pop culture by many (see the current spate of comic book based films and the books from which they are derived), and high art by a few (see Gary Groth and Art Speigelman). Some creators have even managed to start at one end of the scale and work their way to the other (see Will Eisner and Robert Crumb).
Comic art is used for educational and instructional purposes as well as it is for entertainment value. It has provided icons for our modern culture, even as it tore down that same culture or provided an escape from it. Comics are to art what water is to a Taoist: infinitely adaptable, ever changing.
This is why I consider myself fortunate to have some small talent for comics; comics are, literally, for everyone. I write them, draw them and color them. I also read them and share my love of them with others, old and young. Although I’ve worked in other artistic fields, I keep coming back to comics. The lessons I learn from another medium make their way into comics, and somehow the influence of comics keeps making its way into other artistic endeavors.
No other creative efforts have challenged me as much as has the creation of comics. This field is, for me, simultaneously the most rewarding and most frustrating work I have ever undertaken. Comics just demands so much of the creator. It demands that I know something about just about everything, as I could be called upon to draw anything at any given time. As a comic artist, I must be able to create a believable image of just about anything, be it real or utterly fantastic, and use that rendering to aid the narrative, convey action or create a mood. And do it in a few deft penstrokes. Usually on a deadline. On the other hand, it allows me to realize just about anything, be it real or utterly fantastic, with an effect as real and a scale as large as my mind and hand can convey, and with a budget no larger than the cost of a piece of paper and a stub of a pencil.
Yet when the job is done, comics is an ephemeral medium, flashed briefly on the screen or held briefly in the hand, then discarded or stashed away while the reader moves on to the next task of their day. In thinking about it that way, it makes you wonder why anyone would bother putting in so much effort to make good comics, and its probably that ephemeral nature that contributes to the perception of comics as an immature or irrelevant medium. Yet, if the comic creator has done their work diligently and well, they will have produced something, an impression or insight, that will last well beyond the short span that is spent actually experiencing the art. It is when that lasting impression is achieved that comics (in any format) has succeeded, and truly lives, as art.

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The story of carpet making

Here’s a very interesting article on the Art of carpet making, written by Alhan Keser. Alhan is in in charge of communications for Tip Top Design, a company that specializes in interior design with oriental rugs. He has lived in Turkey and France, working as a freelance journalist and documentary maker.

The story of carpet making

The story of carpet-making starts with nomadic Asian tribes and their traditions. These were – many still are – self-sufficient nomads who lived off of raising animals such as sheep. They would travel hundreds of kilometers in search of pasture lands for these animals, who would become the nomads’ food, clothing, shelter, bedding, and fuel. Some of their needs such as spices and luxuries like gold were bought thanks to the sale of animals and skins to city dwellers. And at some point in their history, they began selling their tribal rugs.
For the nomads, rugs have always served both a very utilitarian and symbolic purpose. Flat woven saddlebags on the backs of donkeys carry grains while other decorative pile woven carpets can serve as dowry for brides. Young girls are passed on the knowledge of carpet-making from their older sisters and relatives. Their small hands are best at making the thousands of small knots that make up the entire carpet, similar to the pixels of a digital photo. The carpets are woven with help of a small guide aiding them to count out the number of knots of each color to tie per row of weft. These guides are made by carpet designers looking to sell the works. The really special carpets are made by brides themselves for their future homes. On the carpet a bride will lay out the history of the tribe, her thoughts, and wishes for the future of her family. Though men were the ones who created the history of a tribe by fighting or trading, the women are the ones who record the history of a tribe through weaving. These are the truly unique works of art that are most precious.
Selective breeding of the sheep has gives the tribes people with higher quality fibers (today wool from New Zealand and high-altitude areas is regarded as the best quality wool for carpets in the world, not counting Alpaca wool, too rare to use for carpets). The wool is hand spooled, then dyed using vegetables found nearby (today superior azo-dyes are used to complement these natural dyes) before being handed over for weaving purposes. Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky wrote the following after his mentor G. I. Gurdjieff told him of his travels in Asia: He spoke of the ancient customs connected with carpet making in certain parts of Asia; of a whole village working together at one carpet; of winter evenings when all the villagers, young and old, gather together in one large building and, dividing into groups, sit or stand on the floor in an order previously known and determined by tradition. Each group then begins tits own work. Some pick stones and splinters out of the wool. Others beat out the wool with sticks. A third group combs the wool. The fourth spins. The fifth dyes the wool. The sixth or maybe the twenty-sixth weaves the actual carpet. Men, women, and children, old men and old women, all have their own traditional work. And all the work is done to the accompaniment of music and singing. The women spinners with spindles in their hands dance a special dance as they work, and all the movements of all the people engaged in different work are like one movement in one and the same rhythm. Moreover each locality has its own special tune, its own special songs and dances, connected with carpet making from time immemorial.

Posted in Arts, Culture | 15 Comments »

The mistery of being Artists

Here’s an interesting exclusive article Roland d’Humières, 56 years old psycho-analyst from Aix en Provence (France) has written for our Weblog.

The mistery of being Artists

Whatever is his/her Art, painting, music, dance, writing, or any other, whatever he or she chooses, this way is for an Artist, the most difficult activity he/she may choose in the life. Lot of people imagine that it’s an easy way to live…What a wrong perception of things!
Art is an unlimited way to express unlimited feelings of ours. Quite simple definition? Ok, let us see further on…
We are born in a civilization that strictly forbid emotions and feelings, since the birth:
Forbidden for a baby to cry, forbidden for preteens to feel, forbidden for teen to express themselves, then, forbidden again for adults to cry, to show feelings , endly forbidden for us to be sincerely what we are, deeply in our soul…
People learn to live without true, sincere, real emotions and feelings….
So, an Artist firstly have to find this famous inspiration. That means he must be able to find, to identify the most deepest feelings in his/her own singular beings, despite that was forbidden in his/her childhood, and remains forbidden already for the rest of the world… Easy? Try it!
Then, secondly, the Artist have to find his/her own way of expression. Here is the biggest difficulty:
As in this country of south-america where it is allowed to be “loco” but inside a real cultural codification, an artist have to find the best way to express himself, inside allowed codifications of the Art. As rules exist for everything, rules do exist for an artist in his /her discipline, as soon as society agree with it. So, to express unlimited feelings, the Artist is forced to use imposed standards! Great!!! Easy, did you say?
Here is the reason why the artist’s life is so painful. Allowed to express feelings, but with limited academic standards! Such circumstances do have a name in Psychiatry: schizophrenic situation. As well, everyone can understand why such genius lifes were so painful. Schizophrenia seems to be a professional illness, then…
When the Artist is rebel to those standards, the last wall to destroy is the misunderstanding of the other. He or she has to confront the other’s look. This “other”, you, me, everyone never learn to accept his own feelings. As well, never learn to express it… And those very others will judge if an artwork is or not a masterpiece? Unbelievable stupidity!
In fact, the art piece will, or will not, wake up our feelings, whether they enter or nor in echo with Author’s one. It fits or not, like a hazard game…. Like chemistry…
Then, the only way for us to understand art pieces, to appreciate it; the only way to help artists get possible through a patient singular work:
To be in a frequent contact with it, to tame our own feelings, and to open our mind to the other.
This has a name too: LOVE

Posted in Arts, Culture | 5 Comments »

Time Travel

Peter Cajander allowed us to publish this part from his book Fragments of Reality. It talks about life from a personal perspective covering areas ranging from self-realization, meditation, stress, happiness, death, and everyday living. Peter is a writer, philosophical thinker, entrepreneur, strategy consultant, business executive, and author to name a few titles. He has been exploring and experiencing different ways of living and expanding his understanding. Peter has travelled extensively and so far lived in Finland, UK, France, and Spain.

Time Travel

It’s funny that we desire to travel through time. Besides self-
ish interest, what purpose would it serve? We are actually time
travelers all the time. Or should I say channel surfers?

We get carried away either by thinking about our past or
piling up with dreams of the future. These two activities take
most of our time. The actual now moment we are currently
experiencing is something we would rather not like to have.
It’s far better and safer to sail in our dreams, where all the out-
comes are already known and we can speculate with endless
what-if scenarios. The future is even better. For us it has not
happened yet and, therefore, we can make it up any way we
desire. Well, almost. The only limitation is that we cannot just
dream about anything of which we have no knowledge. For
example, in medieval times people did not dream about hav-
ing cars and flying around the world in airplanes. So dream-
ing is also quite boring. All the outcomes are predictable in
one way or another—like LEGO blocks that can only be set
up in a certain way based on their shapes.

Our channel surfing concerns the current living moment.
We seldom stay in the channel. We’d rather jump on and off
many times in a second. This happens by switching either to the
dream or the history channel. Reality TV is something we pre-
fer to consume as a recorded version, just to be on the safe side.

Still, all the action happens in the reality mode. We cannot
change our history and cannot predict the future. We have to
do all the things right now. The paradox is that the only
unpredictable (and therefore nonboring) moment is the fresh
now time, what we are all the time experiencing. And the best
part is that it’s interactive. We can take part in all the activities
and get involved. It’s amazing how many of us are not taking
up this opportunity. People would rather switch to old classics
or sci-fi stories that have predictable endings. They’d rather
opt for something that smells, tastes, and sounds like real life
but is not. Artificial life seems to be the best act in town.

Considering the low ratings for actually living in the
moment, it is amazing that people would even dream of time
traveling. What would they do then if they cannot live now?
Sure it’s a more interactive TV show to go for the future and
know that you are able to come back to the original time
whenever things start to get too serious (or should I say real?).
Time travel would be just another way of surfing channels—
just a sportier version compared to staring at a glass box or
daydreaming from the sofa.

Nevertheless, the basic fact is that we always figure out
new ways to escape reality. We’d rather either skip to our own
natural channels or use the manmade “entertainment”
options. When was the last time you really watched some-
thing on the TV or listened to the radio? Most of the time, we
are desperate to fill up any silent moments by whatever back-
ground noise from TV, radio, or MP3 players we can find.
Still, the fact is that you cannot avoid living in the moment—
you can only pretend you’re not there. How good our skills are
determine how good our private scam is. Our consciousness is
always on, and it is permanently stuck on the reality channel.
And most of us just cannot live without constantly surfing
channels. Restless 24/7 escape from the reality—out now!

Posted in Arts, Culture | 3 Comments »