I was never as fanatical about collecting as when I was a teenaged Rush fan. I loved the music of the Canadian progressive rock band so much that that was all that was on my mind for several years. I bought and constantly listened to their many albums (including some bootlegs). I recorded radio interviews with Rush over many years, I collected buttons and pins and patches, books about Rush, posters, concert programs, and band T-shirts. I also filled two thick binders with newspaper and magazine clippings (articles and interviews, etc), photos of all kinds, concert tickets, and many neat little bits and bobs (like a Rush headband and 3-D glasses given to fans on one of their tours). Every possible thing I could get my hands on concerning Rush, I grabbed it for my archive. Today, I still have everything except for the posters (I sold off all 40+ posters to a deserving new Rush fan) and most of the T-shirts (shrunken and tattered and long gone). I no longer accumulate Rush stuff... the interest just isn't there anymore, but I do hang onto those old nostalgic goodies. And share them here, so explore the blog for more info.
A selection of the Beatles books on my shelf
Before I became a die-hard Rush fan, I was a Beatles maniac.... that was around the mid-70's (the band was gone, but their music lived on). I got as many of their albums as I could find at the time (not so easy in a small-ish city in pre-Internet days), and over the years I gradually filled in the collection with all studio releases plus some rarities collections. I bought books about the band back in the 70's and still have them all.
About that same time, I was also crazy about the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories about the most famous fictional detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes. I picked up several different volumes that contained every Holmes story written by Conan Doyle. I also bought a bunch of spin-off novels by other authors, but didn't go too far with that. I enjoyed and bought some of the old movies (mostly the Basil Rathbone ones) based on the literature, but never made it a priority to be a completist in that department.
Rewinding a few years, long before Beatles and ol' Sherlock, I collected Hardy Boys books (the beginning of my detective fixation and collecting fandom), most of them Christmas and birthday gifts.
As a kid, I was into certain comic books, mostly Archie and his gang. I had big stacks of Archie comic digests on my book shelves. My comic collecting never got out of hand... I closely followed only a few titles, like Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu, and those Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf By Night comics of the 70's. Stuff like Superman, Captain Marvel, and Spider-man were all in there, but I wasn't insane about them.
I also bought random paperbacks.... novelizations of the weirdest crap, like Alan Dean Foster's Star Trek books and even TV's Happy Days in book form. Oh, and there were those Happy Days collector's cards, too. Weird. Shelves full of weird stuff.
Oh, and now that I've mentioned Star Trek, I must admit I was a Trekkie of the nearly first order. I bought stuff shown in the backs of magazines, mostly from the Star Trek Fan Club... all sorts of unusual and cool items, like embroidered Star Trek uniform insignias, bits of film stock showing a few frames of scenes from the show, photos of all sizes, fanzines, and T-shirts. I had a modest collection of Trek books and still treasure them. I also built model kits of the Enterprise, the shuttlecraft, and reproductions of the phaser, communicator, and tricorder. And then there was that toy phaser that made bizarre bird tweeting noises. All gone now, but fun at the time. There's lots more about Trek on this blog, so search around, friend.
Just some of the Star Wars goodies I procured,
mostly from the 70's
When Star Wars (Episode IV) first hit the big screen, the world of collecting opened up like crazy. but I was sort of moving on from my sci-fi phase. I did buy (and still own) novelizations of the first three movies, a small assortment books about the movies, soundtracks on vinyl record, posters, photos, and T-shirts. No toys, though. I was in my teens in the 70's and that stuff just wasn't cool or acceptable then like it is now. Later in life, I bought VHS then DVD copies of all of the movies. I write more about Star Wars elsewhere on this blog.
Around the time of Star Wars, I caught a bit of the movie poster bug. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the earliest Star Wars prints, and a few other things adorned my walls. When music became more important to me, I concentrated more on band posters like Van Halen, Beatles, and of course, all of those Rush ones (most of which never even made it up on the wall).
The 70's saw me building a bit of a vinyl record collection, both LPs and 45's, but when I left home for college in '83, I made the grave error of selling them all. I went to the cassette tape format for easier storage and portability. Fine, but I still miss some of those records.
The 80's were all about amassing a collection of hard rock and heavy metal albums, mostly on tape, but I later upgraded to CD. Rush, Yes, and Metallica were my main focus back then, though I did keep abreast of other faves, like The Police, Triumph, Van Halen, Scorpions, and so on.
Music has always been a constant with me. My love of many styles has meant an ever-growing CD library. Jazz, classical, rock, pop, metal, dance, electronic, soundtracks, and small representations of the Motown, rap, folk, and country genres. And other miscellaneous stuff that I can't recall right now.
A few items from my growing collection
of James Bond paraphernailia
In the mid-90's, I found an entire set of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels at a used book sale. That was the beginning of another obsession, which sort of continues to this day. Not only are my shelves full of Fleming's novels and the many spin-off stories by other authors, there are books about the books, books about the movies and their actors, books about Fleming, and more.
Then there are the many Bond movie posters, photos, vinyl records (framed on my walls), CD soundtracks, all of the movies and documentaries on home video, and some other neat little things (like an MI6 shirt and cap). There are lots of other posts and photos elsewhere on the blog... enjoy!
James Bond led me to other great fictional spies and crime-fighters. Len Deighton wrote terrific espionage novels, some of which were adapted to the silver screen. His works take up a portion of my shelves, too, along with several mystery and crime fiction writers (Cornwell, Connelly, Nesbo, Parker, Block, and others). Whenever I find someone new that I like, I plough my way through their books.
A life-long movie fan, I always loved watching whatever was on TV back in the 70's and 80's. It wasn't until the 90's that I thought it would be a fun and informative hobby to build a collection of movies on home video. Like many other folks, I began with the Columbia House Video Club, starting out with stuff like The Shining, American Werewolf in London, and Terminator and T2. In fact, the first year or so of collecting these VHS tapes centred on classic horror and science-fiction. I did branch out into other genres eventually, but a huge portion of my library is comprised of those two fantastical categories. My movie collection goes back as far as 1920 horror classics The Golem and an early version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. VHS gave way to DVDs and then Blu-rays, and my shelves are packed. I've sold off all my tapes just to make room for the newer media.
My movie fandom reaches beyond the discs on my shelves; my walls are decorated with colourful posters of all of my favourite films.... Star Wars: A New Hope, Casablanca, The Double Life of Veronique, Three Colors: Red, Goldfinger, and Lost in Translation. Those are just the ones up at the moment... I rotate them with others that I keep in storage when not on the wall. There are other Bond and Star Wars posters, and another fave is an eye-catching Apocalypse Now image.
A sampling of my many horror movie publications
My fascination with the history of horror film extends to a small set of books about the genre. I never thought my home would benefit from the display of garish imagery from fright flicks, so I never went in that direction with poster purchases. But I do have both my childhood glow-in-the-dark Dracula and Wolfman model kits, AND my more recent statuettes of Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, and Wolfman. Science fiction and fantasy sort of naturally fall into the same catch-all category of fantastical films... I've got a healthy number of those movies alongside my horror titles. From Metropolis to Under The Skin, and then some.
I have slowed way down on accumulating stuff like this, but I do work at building a tasteful archive of cinematic wonders on my Blu-ray shelving unit. A fellow movie collector and I share our discoveries and discuss at length not just film but also this compulsion to collect. I recently listened to a series of podcasts about this very topic (at the CriterionCast site, start with Part One). The seemingly strange and useless past-time of buying and maintaining movies on home video is explored, discussed candidly, and is ultimately validated. Speakers on the program acknowledge, and make brave efforts to defend, the hobby of film collecting. Anyone outside of this community of hard-core collectors may dismiss the practice as ridiculous and wasteful of time and money. But those in the know feel it in their hearts and minds that this is a fulfilling way to spend their lives (for it is often a life-long passion).
As pointed out in the Criterion Completionist podcast, there is a comforting feeling for the collector who can view his shelves that hold the history of film. A sense of accomplishment isn't just an end result, but a motivation to continue to discover, assess, and self-educate through movies on home video media formats. As a stamp or coin collector would attest, one can admire the assembly of components amassed over a period of time. The complete or incomplete set brings pleasure and joy and fulfills a need... it's fun to seek out rare and unusual titles, and then enjoy them on one's home theatre, and in between viewings, simply behold the visual arrangement on shelves. I didn't think too much about such facets to what I was doing, but once I heard this explanation, I understood and realized that "yes, I do that, and I feel that way, too".
It may all seem nerdy, but isn't that always the case with anyone who devotes time and effort to a past-time, whether it's building model airplanes or Ham radios, reading the Encylopedia Britannica, or collecting comic books, stamps, or..... movies? As with all or most hobby choices, there is something to be gained. The dedicated cinephile reads the booklets that come with the better-quality releases, and reads books and websites... all to further his or her hunger for knowledge about the history of film and details of how films are made, and more. And more.There is really no end to how far you can go.
Just a few of my many shelves of movies,
cluttered with movie-related trinkets
I try to keep reasonably up-to-date on movie releases as well as learn more about film history by listening to podcasts. My two favourites are at Filmjunk.com and Criterioncast.com. The gang at Filmjunk are fans who talk movies, tell stories, joke around, and review flicks both old and new - mostly modern stuff, though. A very informal and silly podcast. The Criterioncast people are a bit more reserved but channel far more energy into their website and several series of podcasts. There is a focus on the Criterion Collection of films, but there is still plenty of discussion of movies outside of that niche. Very informative and fun in its own way.
One's budget will determine just how seriously you will want to approach this hobby. Because once you've started, it's hard to stop, and there is a snowball effect that can drive you crazy. Amazon sales, Criterion sales! Ack, they are always calling out to me from my e-mail inbox. Should I unsubscribe? Or do I risk missing out on that newly restored vampire film from the 1920's?
And don't get me started on how to arrange and store the collection. Another time? The guys at Filmjunk actually drew up a Movie Organization Manifesto (start with Part One). Yes, they put the "G" in geek. Wear that "G" proudly, film freaks!
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