Let’s Discuss: Hoarding As Relates To Record Collecting

Here’s the deal: I wrote a book called Record Collecting For Girls. It’s a music essay book. It in no way holds holy the institution of collecting physical albums. In fact, there’s an essay in it aims to poke holes in the idea that to be a record collector you must collect actual physical product. The title is no more than an ironic twist on that idea of the quirky, obsessive, opinionated make record collector — because that is an archetype that is always painted, in pop culture, as male.

That said, I have my own collection of records. It’s largely CDs. It sits in a pile of several boxes on the floor of one of my closets (in the world of NYC real estate, I am lucky — I have two very large, well organized closets). That last time I opened them to find and listen to a record, vinyl or CD, was probably about three years and two cities ago.

In the last five years, I’ve moved myself and my albums from NYC to LA to San Antonio and back to NYC. Every time I’ve wondered if I should get rid of my CDs now. They’re all on my hard drive and at my fingertips anytime. Honestly, I listen to the things on my hard drive less and less now also — I prefer Spotify. 

I find myself unable to get rid of them. 

Science Daily ran an article recently on studies of the brains of hoarders. The headline reads: Brain Hubs Boil When Hoarders Face Pitching Their Own Stuff. Sounds terrifying.

But there were a few lines in it that sounded familiar to me. Like, “Hoarding patients’ severity of symptoms, self-ratings of indecisiveness, and feeling of things being “not just right”…” Wait, that’s me. That’s exactly what I feel when I think of finally ridding myself of these CDs of boxes. It feels like, for reasons I can’t articulate, that I’m making the wrong decision. Obviously since I’ve thought about it and been unable to make a decision, opting instead to move my records across the country multiple times at great expense to myself, I’m indecisive. 

So, I’m a hoarder. It’s not nostalgia. It’s not a cute hobby. I have a brain defect. But hey, I also have the original Twilight soundtrack on vinyl. Apparently I’ll always have that.

Seriously, What’s Your Guilty Pleasure? : Ke$ha “Blah Blah Blah”

I knew you had a guilty pleasure.

Spotify announced today, after the uproar about all of your music going to a live list of what you’re listening to on Facebook by default (oh and you have to have a Facebook profile to get Spotify now), that they’ve introduced a “private listening” feature. Their introduction, via Twitter, said “You can now temporarily hide your guilty pleasures.” 

I listened to Ke$ha’s not quite a hit single “Blah Blah Blah” on the way to work this morning on Spotify. Before Ke$ha I listened to R. Kelly’s “I’m A Flirt.” And as I did it, I thought to myself, “I wonder if anyone will LIKE that activity on Facebook.” You see, I listened to a Helium album the other day and my friend The Playlist got so damn excited he shouted me out in a FB update about how great Helium are and thanked me because he saw it in my instant Spotify-to-Facebook feed. Who is going to thank me for listening to Ke$ha? No one, apparently.

There’s an essay in my book, Record Collecting for Girls, entirely devoted to the Guilty Pleasure (read an excerpt on the Daily Swarm). Do you know what the overwhelming feedback to it has been? I DON’T HAVE ANY GUILTY PLEASURES! I knew every person who said that was lying except Colleen Quill, the woman who inspired the essay. Spotify knew it too and had to introduce a feature to let you make your embarrassing musical secrets private. 

Cough it up. What do you not want everyone you’re friends with on Facebook to know you’re listening to? 

Keeping Austin Book Readings Weird: The Wooden Birds “Hometown Fantasy”

Last Thursday, 9/22, I did a little book reading in Austin at the amazing Book People. Truly, that store’s coolness is through the roof. Since I actually hail from Texas, the guest list was especially entertaining. Here’s a snapshot.

* my Granny and her bridge club, in the front row

* my mom & stepdad, the latter of whom almost started a music fight with me during the Q&A — that’s just how the family rolls

* a girl I went to high school with, who declared to everyone that I read more books than anyone in our school but didn’t tell them our mascot was the Wildkats with a K and we’re all lucky to be literate

* one boy I dated for a few months when we both lived in NYC, yes he’s in the book but no I didn’t mention it to him in advance

* my friend Sheila and her husband Andrew who you’ll know when I explain below

* someone I’d only met on Twitter

* someone I’d only met on Second Life

* someone who heard about me on a podcast I did with a guy in Chicago and decided to come and tell me he hates Sonic Youth, but I get why he feels that way

* several other strangers who I feel might have been suckered into participating in the audience by free beer but then they kind of got into it

It was lots of fun but here were the two best moments, ranked in order.

1) Near the end of the line to get your book signed there was a very cute, very gay boy. Most everyone else in my line couldn’t stop talking or asking questions and this made it easy to inscribe their book. This guy was playing it cool. I looked him up and down hoping to will him to spill something, he arched his eyebrow at me and smirked, so I wrinkled my brow and looked down at his book. Our stand off was interrupted by a member of the Granny bridge club. She hopped in front of him and said to me, “Courtney, I know this book says ‘for girls’ but I think there are thing in it men might like, too. I think it’s for everyone!” 

The cute gay boy’s dry wit kicked in right then, as he looked over at her and said, “Oh…it’s for some of us.” NUT: CRACKED.

2) After I was finished signing books, Sheila and Andrew were milling around. I went over to chat with them. When I came back to sign some store stock, the event coordinator who was working with me says, “I just have to ask, is that Andrew Kenny of American Analog Set?” I forgot, Andrew is kind of famous in Austin among the music nerds. I mean, his band did a split EP with Ben Gibbard. You should know who he is too, god. At the top of this post is a video by his new band, The Wooden Birds. They are also very enjoyable, do give them a listen. I enjoyed texting Sheila later that night to let her know her husband was celebrity spotted at my reading and thank them for lending some Austin cred to the affair.

Uncensored Discussion: The Crystals with Kate Nash

When I was researching my “Where Have All the Girl Bands Gone?” essay in RECORD COLLECTING FOR GIRLS, I did a podcast with the fantastic Kate Nash on The Crystals. We talked about their sordid history with Phil Spector, the difficulties of being an all-girl group in the ’60s, and Kate’s work with young ladies who are victims of domestic abuse today. Listen to it at the link above.

Just Wanna Get Revenge: Spoon “Revenge!”

Last week a friend asked me to send him some hate-filled songs. As we got into why, he explained someone was being a jerk and using personal information against him at work. He told me he was thinking of putting this person’s head through a wall. I started making this pissed off, aggro, revenge-driven playlist and found I was discarding most of the things I’d put on my own playlist in that situation. Why?

The main reason is I don’t feel physical violence is in my toolkit of solutions to the problem of being angry. Not only do I not know how to fight, because no one teaches girls that skill, but I’m fairly short and not athletic. It wouldn’t be hard to kick my ass. If I were a tall, athletic guy with muscles like my friend, my psychological state would likely be very different. Just thinking such a thing is possible, even if you know you’re not supposed to do it, entirely changes the expression of anger. The outer limits of possibility are a lot further out.

I also found myself using a lot more male voices, thinking he might not find female anger inspiring or relatable enough. He’s not sexist, not in the least, and often listens to pretty twee/poppy music so I don’t know why my automatic reflex to censor that stepped in — other than noticing that more than just a few angry female songs are either about love or feeling helpless. This situation was neither and so a lot of my go-tos seemed inappropriate. I still feel like I went too soft with a few songs. I can’t sustain an hour of aggressive music. There’s no flow to it.

I found myself analyzing how I made this playlist because people have been asking me a lot lately if men and women listen to music differently. I’d imagine so, what with the genetic and neurological differences between us, but this was one of the most concrete examples I’d had in my own life in some time. When I could really finger a reason a man might listen to music differently than me. Now I need to start lifting weights.

Listen to the Just Wanna Get Revenge playlist in Spotify. 

What Happens on Book Tour Does Not Stay on Book Tour: A Recap

I’m freshly back from my first book tour and I thought I’d write down what I got up to and what went down, because a lot of it was much more entertaining than I expected.

Day 1: San Antonio to San Francisco

SFO is the nicest airport in the world. On the way to the hotel my driver explained to me that women in Brazil aren’t as attractive as they used to be. Huge BART protests by my hotel. Quick make-up reapplication and off to Books Inc, in the Marina to talk, read, and sign. They were very nice and offered me cupcakes.

Not a huge crowd, but one of my good friends from college who is in Berkley working on her PhD came and brought her very new husband. A pal from NYC was in town to collect an award for a film short at a convention (but he’s got an Emmy already anyway, so what does he care) and came by. Also in the audience: a member of a Smiths cover band who wanted to ask me some questions about why I don’t date guys who like the Smiths too much. Told him I thought we’d make lovely friends, but that’s the line. He admitted he quit the cover band because the guys in it were too much sometimes. Success! Bought a copy of Inflight Science to read on the plane, because I’m twisted.

Went to dinner with the friends, Goan food because Abby was just in India and felt nostalgic. Then drinks at the hotel and a full catch up with the Emmy winner. We had a very LA-sounding conversation and I think the bartender made fun of us. 

Day Two: San Francisco

Press day! I spent the whole morning doing phone interviews and writing out my answers to emailed interviews. When I was finally allowed to leave the hotel I went around the corner to an inexpensive sushi restaurant and had some of the nicest fish I’ve had in life, because SF knows how to do these things masterfully. Was supposed to meet up with Friendly Fire Records in the evening but got distracted by drinking in the hotel bar, reading the Willie Nelson bio, and scribbling notes. Fantastic oysters on the half shell.

Day Three: San Francisco to Los Angeles

Get up, get up, get up! Escort David met me and took me to West Coast Live [listen to it here for the next week], which was the most fun a girl can have on Saturday morning while not actually being in bed. Was excited to find out the show’s sound engineer was also the bassist in It’s A Beautiful Day! Told him “White Bird” is my family’s Christmas song. Really enjoyed chatting with the other guests. 

On the way to the airport my escort took me by the legendary 23 Club in Brisbane to see the buffalo heads on the wall and where every country guy played when they rambled through northern CA.

Quick flight to LA and directly to Book Soup, where I read, talked & signed in the evening. So many friends showed up! So did a bunch of strangers! Most interesting to me were a fellow writer who has a fictional book about being a lady in the music industry and a girl who started her own book store in Palm Springs and wanted to know which music books I’d recommend she carry. My friend Kerri made me sign a book for Neko Case, which I spent a good ten minutes trying to convince her not to do.

Out to dinner and drinks! What was supposed to be 6 people turned into 12 and the waiter hated us. My friend Brendan was in town from NYC and brought Matt Sharp of The Rentals (or Weezer if you flow like that). Sharp asked me if I was the one who wrote that Guilty Pleasures for Girls book, which made me laugh. Much too much drinking. Got back to Gina’s house and she had an iPad and a copy of a book about Tesla on the nightstand for me. Adorable.

Day Four: Los Angeles to Seattle (the long, slow, hungover way)

Got up to go to coffee with Gina at the new place in Silverlake called Broome Street. NYC coffee in LA, oh you kids today. To brunch with Russell, the gentleman who directed my amazing book trailer, and then we rushed to LAX because I was late. Shouldn’t have bothered, flight canceled due to mechanical problems. Five hour wait before the next available! OH GOD, stuck in the hell that is LAX with a hangover and no make-up on because this was supposed to be quick! The only thing to do was drink a giant beer and eat crab cakes, obviously. Got in to Seattle and went immediately to bed because…

Day Five: Seattle

For some reason, these people are crazy enough to put me on TV. Escort Susan picked me up in the morning to go to New Day Northwest, a local chat show. Very nice people, was impressed by how into music they were. The host even guilty pleasure shamed a girl on staff for liking Bread! 

Met up with Tricia for a long lunch. We ate like Parisans in Seattle, went to Nordstrom Rack so I could try on all the ugly sunglasses and she could try on all the black boots, and then to the Seattle public library which is one of the most amazing buildings I’ve ever seen. It was a block away from my hotel and I never would have guessed it was a library.

Some blisters later, met up with Susan again to go do the 4PM news on KOMO. Also lovely people, fun interview. Then we headed to Elliott Bay Books to sign their stock (and I bought the lovely illustrated version of The Elements of Style) as well as a local Barnes & Noble who’d actually sold some of the copies they were holding for me to sign. Going to assume that’s a good thing. Then to University Books for my reading, talking, and signing. Many lovely friends showed up and asked probably the best questions I’ve had on the whole tour. Followed by food and drinks, including this amazing salted caramel ice cream that is probably one of the top ten best things I’ve ever put in my mouth.

Day Six: Seattle to San Antonio

That wraps it up, the one item of note happening on this day being that I finally found the new Elle for October in a news stand at DFW on a layover and the promised write up of my book was in it. Thought about asking the pilot to announce to the flight, but then realized no one cared and read The Elements of Style quietly instead.

Lesson learned: making up things to inscribe in people’s books is a lot of fun.

Going West: Book Talks & Readings for the West Coast

Hopping on a plane in about an hour to do some West Coast readings of RECORD COLLECTING FOR GIRLS. Join me if you can, you know I’d love to see you.

9/8 @ 7PM Books Inc, in the Marina - San Francisco

9/10 @ 5:30PM Book Soup - West Hollywood

9/12 @ 7PM University Books - Seattle

Record Collecting For Girls: The Full Short Feature Length Book Trailer

Here’s the story behind the story of this book trailer. It was directed and masterminded by Russell Sanzgiri. You’ve seen his work before on things like the Arcade Fire’s Scenes from the Suburbs short, the Punk’s Not Dead doc, and the Black Mountain video for “Old Fangs.”

If you think the redhead in the clips looks familiar, she does. That’s Maria Thayer, who you may have seen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, State of Play, or perhaps an episode of 30 Rock. She’s pretty amazing.

It was co-written by a funny friend named Daniel Reid and myself, based on ideas from my book. Oh, and those voiceovers are me, aka the author’s way of being in the trailer without actually being IN the trailer. No one wants to see the author. Unless she’s drunk.

Many other people shot, edited, acted in, and otherwise helped make this beautiful bastard thing and I thank them all. 

Enjoy, I hope it makes you pee yourself.