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I have been on a physical media kick lately. Partially inspired by nostalgia and those pre-smartphone days. But also partially because I’ve been influenced by the general online trend to try and get offline. I’d like to say that I’m collecting physical media because I worry about important things like censorship or proper ownership of a thing that has been purchased. But if I’m genuinely honest with myself I just like collecting physical media because I like collecting things. It reminds me a bit of that scene in Brooklyn 99 (Season 2, Episode 19, yes I did look it up) where Geoffrey Hoytsman is holding Jake hostage and says “I need belongings, Jake, to feel like a man!”

I just like stuff. And I like having stuff. So I’ve been on a mission to find all of the CDs I used to own, which wasn’t an extensive collection but had some gems I’d love to find again. And to maybe add some new ones I didn’t have but would now like to have as well. The good news is I’m now living in an area where there is older stuff to find again, back in the eastern part of the US. I found this more difficult to do on the west coast, there just doesn’t seem to be as much older stuff there or maybe I just didn’t know where to look. Regardless, we have some solid used physical media shops where I live now and I’m happy to say I’m currently the proud owner of 12 music CDs. That was all I could find to grab so far, I expect that number to go up over time though.

One album was found at a local thrift store. The rest were from our favorite local used/new CD and record store. I now have some of my favorite Motion City Soundtrack albums again. (Which, can we take a moment to appreciate they’re coming out with a new album?! What a time to be alive.) Some Fleetwood Mac, Rise Against, and Imogen Heap as well. Alongside those I found a City and Colour album I hadn’t heard before and I have to say, it’s absolutely a new favorite of mine. It’s The Hurry and the Harm and it’s been very fitting for how I am feeling about current times. (“But why are we so worried more about the hurry and less about the harm?“) I love when this kind of thing happens, whether it’s a book, a song, a video game. Just any of those moments where the perfect media enters your life at the perfect junction. It’s always an incredible feeling. To feel seen or heard or understood through the art we experience. My heart is so full in those moments.

And I got to have another one of those moments, simply by exploring the physical world and trying to curate my music library through stuff again. I had a similar experience at the library recently with a book I picked up on a whim being one of my favorite reads of the year ("The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society" by C.M. Waggoner). I don’t know that I would have grabbed it out of my digital TBR list any time soon (or that it was even on there) but because it was readily available to pick up and read in physical form I gave it a chance. This brings me to another topic I’ve seen explored recently which is the idea of deleting TBRs, backlogs, etc. I am not quite at the junction where I want to delete those lists because I do find them to be helpful references for things I forget about that may not show up in my physical world. But I do like the pattern of not necessarily prioritizing or worrying about what is captured in those lists as a form of to-dos. For me those lists are just there if I need a reminder but choosing media from the physical world around me works well too.

I think to completely rule out either physical or digital media is to miss things that might be new loves or useful experiences. (Yes I read Filterworld. No I would not recommend it. Instead, go watch pagemelt’s be your own algorithm.) So I don’t anticipate ever going fully analog (well, unless the world falls apart, which is not an impossibility) but I think generally we are starting to notice what we miss when we live in a primarily digital world. I enjoy having the option for curating the things I like out of both arenas, with maybe some extra fondness for the serendipity of finding things in physical form via used goods purchases or the library. It just adds some magic and whimsy to life which I find myself in desperate need of lately. But I also know that there are a lot of books, for example, that I desperately love that I never would have read if not for Booktube or other online sources. Our physical worlds are only so big and having access to the Internet gives us the chance to be exposed to so much more.

All of that to say, I found some neat stuff recently and hope to continue finding neat stuff, whether through physical media collecting or other avenues.