Chuck or Keep?

[french frank]

The decennial spring clean has uncovered a box of minidiscs, lots of them with, mainly, recordings of Drama on 3. Apart from cataloguing them and treating them like most of my books - there should I ever want to consult (however unlikely that is) - is there really much point in keeping them?

[Beef Oven!]

The decennial spring clean has uncovered a box of minidiscs, lots of them with, mainly, recordings of Drama on 3. Apart from cataloguing them and treating them like most of my books - there should I ever want to consult (however unlikely that is) - is there really much point in keeping them?

You can't know, so keep them.

[Tevot]

Hello FF,

I'd Keep them - certainly if they don't occupy much space. I'm sure you'll have the opportunity to revisit them whether for the work itself or the particular rendition.

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You can't know, so keep them.

- you'll only discover how much you need them when - and as soon as - you chuck them!

[french frank]

- you'll only discover how much you need them when - and as soon as - you chuck them!

Last time I bought a new hi-fi - some years back - I chose one that would play minidiscs, just in case. I may investigate how to digitise them though (assuming they're still in a fit state to play). It looks as if R3 drama was going through a brief golden period just then.

[ardcarp]

Does this thread just apply to music 'platforms' or do we widen it to general household clutter?

If the latter, I gave up years ago and our kids will ultimately have to hire a fleet of skips when we shuffle off the mortal coil.

If the former I've got boxes and boxes of reel-to-reel tapes in the attic which were bequeathed to me. I was contacted by the executor of the deceased (a man with whom I'd collaborated musically in the past) saying that Xxxx had left me something in his will. Great, I thought, it's his Bechstein grand (which I'd always admired). "He wanted you to have his collection of tapes". Oh dear. The bequest turned out to be endless recordings of The Third Programme...presumably items he'd fancied....but he'd done it via a microphone aimed at his ancient valve-radio speaker. Consequently the sound quality is abysmal...but do I have a valuable archive? I've never bothered to listen to more than a few, so maybe it's chucking time.

[cloughie]

Last time I bought a new hi-fi - some years back - I chose one that would play minidiscs, just in case. I may investigate how to digitise them though (assuming they're still in a fit state to play). It looks as if R3 drama was going through a brief golden period just then.

Minidiscs were hifi's biggest missed opportunity. They were easy to use, editable and compact. You should definitely keep them, but if you're going to chuck them, chuck them my way and I'll do you an appropriate deal for them.

[Richard Barrett]

- you'll only discover how much you need them when - and as soon as - you chuck them!

That's true - but it never stops me from getting rid of things. I suppose it's something to do with having been through five international housemoves (so far!) (not to mention the non-international ones) and having to be ruthless about disposing of irrelevant clutter. The occasional regret is more than outweighed by the general sense of not being attached to stuff.

[umslopogaas]

Things become collectible, and therefore potentially valuable, when demand exceeds supply. That usually happens because most of the Things were discarded when they were of no perceived value. I know nothing of minidiscs, but I collect classical music on LP records. Many now command extraordinary prices, simply because when no-one wanted them, most were discarded. Now lots of people want them and there arent enough to go round. So keep! Put them in a box in the attic and forget them. Your heirs may bless the day you did.

For example, back in the nineteen eighties I bought an LP for perhaps forty quid, and everyone said I was mad to pay that much. I now see it go on Ebay for a couple of thousand.

[french frank]

There are some operas (Henze L'Upupa, Adès The Tempest and others that interested me) and some concerts, but mostly plays. Random (as picked up) first 20:

Cymbeline Shakespeare
The Fire Raisers M Frisch
Fuenteovejuna F Lope de Vega
Don Carlos F Schiller
The Maids J Genet
War with the Newts K Capek
Daughter of the Air P Calderón
Mr Puntila and his Man B Brecht
The Lovers of Viorne M Duras
Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare
Professor Bernhardi A Schnitzler
Playing with Fire/The Pelican A Strindberg
Portugal Z Egressy
The Provok'd Wife Sir J Vanburgh
Vieux Carré Ten. Williams
The Radetzky March J Roth
The Beaux Stratagem G Farquhar
Betrayal H Pinter
The Moving and the Still H Barker

That, for me, was a 'Golden Age', roughly 2003-2006. Abigail Appleton in charge.

[And as I see that's only 19, the 20th would be Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf E Albee]

[Petrushka]

I've just got rid of dozens of videotapes. Lots of Proms, loads of R3 concerts etc all recorded off-air but they were taking up an enormous amount of space and I've no longer got the means to play them. Some got transferred to DVD before the video machine packed in.

I'm in phase three of a major spring clean and this very weekend I'll be chucking away dozens of cassette tapes. Again, lots of off-air concerts but the tapes are more than likely unplayable and again, nothing to play them on.

My 700 LPs are sacrosanct, though. The nostalgia/sentimental factor is very high and a good number were birthday/Christmas presents from my late parents so they mean a lot. Nothing to play them on either so perhaps it's all a bit silly?

[french frank]

I'm in phase three of a major spring clean and this very weekend I'll be chucking away dozens of cassette tapes. Again, lots of off-air concerts but the tapes are more than likely unplayable and again, nothing to play them on.

I still have a cassette player on my hi-fi, but I did throw out a lot of cassettes a few years back. Even though they were off-air recordings, most music seems to be replaceable with at least equivalents if not always quite equals.

But plays …

Thebans Sophocles
Volpone B Jonson
Macbeth Shakespeare
Arden of Faversham Anon
Days and Nights in Bedlam F. D'Aguiar
Stalingrad Kiss S Baczkievicz
Snow Orhan Pamuk
Embers S Marai
Troilus and Cressida Shakespeare
Hotel Cristobal C Phillips
Talking to Terrorists R Soans
An Ideal Husband O Wilde
Pericles Shakespeare
Voices H Pinter/James Clarke
The Sicilian Expedition J. Fletcher
Heart of Darkness Conrad
A Bequest to the Nation T Rattigan

[P. G. Tipps]

Think about this logically, fellow-members!

On the simple evidence before us there are two sound (!) reasons why french frank should hold onto her discs.

1) The very fact she asked for members' opinions on the matter suggests a clear reluctance to actually do the awful deed and wilfully dispose of them.

2) As some have already pointed out one of life's cruel little experiences is suddenly yearning for something that previously had been thrown out in the annual sacrifice on the Altar of the Great God, Spring Clean.

Find space somewhere, anywhere ... my old cassette tapes are neatly stacked away in a mains electric-switch cupboard for instance ... so boldly resist the sacrificial temptation, french frank, and save those precious little discs!

[Alison]

I agree with PGT.

It's always worth considering the ease of replacing items should the need arise later down the line.

[cloughie]

,

Think about this logically, fellow-members!

On the simple evidence before us there are two sound (!) reasons why french frank should hold onto her discs.

1) The very fact she asked for members' opinions on the matter suggests a clear reluctance to actually do the awful deed and wilfully dispose of them.

2) As some have already pointed out one of life's cruel little experiences is suddenly yearning for something that previously had been thrown out in the annual sacrifice on the Altar of the Great God, Spring Clean.

Find space somewhere, anywhere ... my old cassette tapes are neatly stacked away in a mains electric-switch cupboard for instance ... so boldly resist the sacrificial temptation, french frank, and save those precious little discs!

I hope that there are no magnetic fields in your electric cupboard that have wiped the tapes.