Rant #2,852: The "Empire" Strikes Back

Everyone can have their own “empire.”
 
If Putin is hell-bent on destroying a country simply to expand Russia’s empire, then all of us can have our own, personal—and much safer—empires too.
 
That statement is not to belittle what is going on in Eastern Europe, which is a travesty.
 
I think the Russians could have destroyed that country even quicker if they really wanted to, but are doing it in a slow, methodical way so that the stench of war lasts even longer there.
 
It is like putting the knife in, and then turning it for full effect.
 
What he is doing is repugnant, to say the least.
 
But we can all have our own personal “empires,” and I certainly have mine.
 
I have attached a video here to show you my own personal “empire,” my record collection, and while it might not be that impressive to you if you are not a record collector like me, it has taken me nearly 60 years to amass all of these records—and that is not including my cassettes or my CDs to the mix.

 
I guess I am using the word “empire” the wrong way.
 
I really should be saying my “hobby,” or my “collection,” but whatever you want to call it, when you go into my daughter’s old bedroom that she used when she was a kid, I have almost wall-to-wall records lined up on the four sides of the room.
 
The singles are kept in heavy plastic files that mainly line the back of the room by the closet, and I have two ways that I store my LPs: on a bookshelf that is really not made for records—see the end of the video when one protrudes out from the rest, ready to fall before I save it—and I also have a record rack that turns, which is by the window.
 
I have thousands upon thousands of vinyl records, probably the earliest one coming from the late 1940s or early 1950s all the way up to the present day.
 
My mother bought my sister and I our first records—I remember my mom bought me records by the Chipmunks when they first came on the scene—and as my sister and I got older, we bought our own records—the first one I bought with my own money was “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” by the Monkees which I still have (see above) and which still plays pretty well.
 
My sister and I still bought records into the late 1960s, but when we moved to Long Island in 1971, my interest waned after the Beatles broke up, and during my high school years, I don’t remember buying too many records at all, other than some spoken word and comedy LPs, like the early Robert Klein comedy records.
 
And then college came, and my interest picked up again—and with what little money I had, I bought … and bought … and bought everything I could find.
 
My sister got married in 1980 I think it was, and she gave me her record collection, which included both her own records, and the records that I had bought myself that basically morphed over to her when I lost interest.
 
And really, since going to college in 1975, I have been a non-stop record collection for the past nearly 50 years.
 
It has been a fun pursuit, and when I walk into this room, I really see my own happy “empire” that I have amassed over many decades.
 
My favorite era is 1964 to 1971, when the Beatles ruled, and it runs parallel to the years I spent in the Rochdale Village, South Jamaica, Queens neighborhood that I grew up in, where AM Top-40 radio not only blasted out the latest songs of the Fab Four, but the hits from everyone from (A)association to the (Z)ombies.
 
And funny, now the younger people consider me a real hipster, because I prefer records over other recorded formats ... just like they do.
 
My nephews are amazed at what I have accumulated, and they are also into records and getting their own collections up to snuff.
 
Perhaps if I were a rich guy, I would collect paintings of the masters, including Picasso.
 
But being where I am in life, collecting records is a cost effective and fun hobby that really anyone can get into with not much cash … all you have to have is a love of music or comedy or whatever types of records you like, and you can start from ground zero today and amass a nice collection over a short period of time.
 
And in the record collecting community, there is one thread that goes back and forth—how do you store your records so you know where everything is?
 
I keep all my records in alphabetical order, so If I want Abbott and Costello, I know that they are in the front of the line, David Bowie is under “B,” the Shangri-Las are under “S,” etc.
 
Some people keep their records by category; so they have comedy in a separate section, hard rock in another, etc.
 
To me, that makes it even more confusing, because how do you classify acts that kind of fit into multiple categories, such as, let’s say, the Eagles, who could be found in the rock, country rock and country areas?
 
I simply make it easy for myself, because my “empire” is an easy one, one that has something for everyone, and one that certainly has something for me.
 
Your own personal “empires” that encompass your hobbies are the only empires we should be worrying about today …
 
And no, I have no Russian records in my collection, to my knowledge ... not on purpose, I simply don't have any.

Take that, Putin!