Welcome, welcome! This is my (aka Claudine’s) music journal, masquerading as an online record shop that’s all pretend, probably fulfilling some kind of fantasy I live out in my brain.
During the pandemic, I’ve found myself looking through catalogs of different stores online and got excited doing that as it felt like I was doing some actual digging while stuck at home. At some point (partly thanks to getting into K-pop), I got a CD player and carved out a small corner in my studio apartment for lounging and spacing out to music. Recently, a simple turntable was added to the setup.
Maybe all this is is just to balance the (potentially) accurate but extremely convenient recommendations churned out by AI. I miss asking people what they like listening to and what they think I should try listening to. And I miss thinking and verbalizing why I enjoy the things I love! Nowadays, we see an overwhelming amount of ‘likes’ shared online, but does anybody talk about why we like what we like anymore?
(Also see Robin Sloan’s Fish essay and thoughts on ‘liking’ vs ‘loving’* things on the internet.)
*“To love is to return,” said Robin Sloan
TL;DR - I've always been a list maker, from playlists to movie lists, and this led me to create a visual catalog of the records I adore and adding notes on the side. This is really just me roleplaying as a record shop owner and putting my curator hat for fun.
Enjoy and have fun digging!
Related link: Crumbs 🧹