Well, for what it is worth, (that would be 'fwiw' in text-speak, but thankfully I am not relegated to that here) today marks the beginning of my fifth year of building this online museum. Since I am not even one-fifth of the way through my current 'holdings' of vinyl LPs to post, if I post the same amount over the next four years as I have during the past four years, then hold that pace constant, I may run out of items to post sometime in the year 2028.
Now, we don't really know what "the internet" will be like in 2028, if indeed the internet or anything roughly analogous to it will exist then. But, barring any intervening circumstances regarding my health, my ability to log on to a computer, or even to own a computer, or catastrophic meteor strikes, or world-devastating nuclear warfare, or whether 'the LORD tarries,' I should be nearing the end of the pile of LPs I currently have on hand by then. Of course, I may very well obtain more in the meantime; in which case any attempt at estimating the closing of this blog due to running out of inventory will have to be reconsidered.
It is one of the beautiful things about the availability of recorded music that the supply and variety are seemingly infinite. These things are not
truly infinite, of course; but the quantities are vast enough that no single human being or organization could possibly hope to possess ALL music that was ever recorded. Nevertheless, the empirical impossibility of the endeavor does not prevent me from wistfully wishing I could see and hear it all.
This 'museum' of my vinyl LP collection is not even all of the recorded music I have possessed. There are also the audio-cassettes, the CDs, and the .mp3s (and other digital music files). I do not have the audio-cassettes any more. I finishing digitizing them about three years ago. I am certain that my music collections are not even close to being as big as the largest private music collections, but they are more than adequate to my 'needs'; which doesn't mean I am about to stop acquiring new recordings. No, as long as there are musical recordings being made, and as long as I have the wherewithal to obtain a few here and there, I will continue to add to my collection.
In fact, by this time next year (hopefully a lot sooner, actually) I expect to have in my collection a recording to which I am contributing as a singer and songwriter. Look for 'Plumbline' coming in about six months to a CD outlet near you; or maybe on iTunes. Maybe in 2028, someone will be writing a 'blog' or its equivalent, and include our first CD in their ruminations. Ya never know, eh?
