Thursday, August 07, 2003

Vinyl Last night I attended a showing of “Vinyl,” a small but illuminating movie about record collecting which was set mostly in Toronto. After the movie, in which I appeared, I was involved in a q&a session with director Alan Zweig. It was amazing to me how many people stayed for the session and remained there with questions until the auditorium closed forty-five minutes later. Although the movie seemed aimed at a narrow audience, vinyl record collectors, it elicited a broad range of questions. Some questions were sociological, e.g. why were there so many more men than women record collector? Some were psychological, the collectors shown had a seemingly unhealthy attitude about collecting records. Some apparently wanted to acquire virtually every LP ever made. Their records were strewn over their apartments making it almost impossible to walk through them, or stashed in every available space including the bathroom. Some admitted that record collecting compensated for problems they had, giving them, in their eyes, much more control over their lives. “Vinyl” was clearly about more than collecting records. Zweig’s comments during the movie and in the q&a were witty and insightful. He seemed mainly interested in what motivated the collectors. Try to catch “Vinyl” if you have a chance, especially is Zweig appears with it to engage in a conversation with the audience. 10:04:31 AM