[78-L] Vinyl documentary

[Michael Biel]

From: Mike Daley <mikedaley at gmail.com>

> I liked Zweig's Vinyl doc. It certainly isn't perfect, and it focuses on
> the pathological aspect of collecting, which is uncomfortable for some of
> us, and true of all of our experiences to some extent.

How about the pathological aspects of compulsive emptyness -- those who
have no interests and live in the midst of nothing?  Same thing, but
these are praised.

> I like that he uses his doc to work through his own issues - 

That is what is so sick about this film, especially when he brings in
his dog problems.

> he is not making fun of the eccentric collectors that he features, 

The hell he isn't. It is downright cruel to some of them, such as the
guy who thinks he stepped against a pile of his LPs.  He picks on one of
the most productive NON-eccentric collectors, the one who has compiled
in a wall of notebooks the entire life of Traumbauer (I think), and
makes him seem obsessively weird as a way to justify that he (Zweig) is
not weird in comparison.  Actually those notebooks were the potential
basis of a well researched biography which is now being posthumously
produced by another researcher using this collection of data.      

> he is trying to understand them so that he can understand himself and his collecting urge.
> Certainly that approach is not to all tastes as well. 

He is trying to find people to make fun of so that he can feel superior
and not as sick as them.  These prople are being used for his own sick
self-psychoanalysis.  

> That said, I think that the doc is worth seeing by anyone interested
> in some of the psychologically messier aspects of the record collecting hobby.   Mike

If he was treating this in a positive nature, perhaps it would be.  This
is as exploitative and mean spirited as all of the current crop of
irrational "reality" TV shows that litter the lower tier of cable.  

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com



On 2011-10-10, at 2:15 PM, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca> wrote:

> On 10/10/2011 1:32 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
>> From: Marvin Kaplansky<kaplanskym at gmail.com>
>>> Speaking of vinyl documentaries, "Vinyl" will be shown at 9PM on Wednesday
>>> October 19 (repeated three hours later) on TV Ontario. Marvin Kaplansky
>> 
>> Are you sure that the film you are referring to being shown in Ontario
>> is not the morbidly depressing "Vinyl" that was done about ten years ago
>> by Alan Zweig? That film is to be avoided if you wish to retain your
>> sanity. Zweig's film is everything that my daughter Leah strived to
>> avoid in her video documentary about record collectors, "For the
>> Record". Besides, her documentary is more about us shellac collectors!
>> 
>> The documentary Cary is linking to is different, and seems to be also a
>> more positive look at collectors like Leah's.
>> 
>> Mike Biel mbiel at mbiel.com
>> 
> I stood 20 minutes of Zweig's disaster and that was enough. If I recall 
> correctly, Mike borrowed my off-air copy of it. Unfortunately, he also returned it.
> 
> dl
>> 
>> On 9 October 2011 22:55, Cary Ginell<soundthink at live.com> wrote:
>> 
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-documentary-film-focuses-on-vinyl-records-2011-10-03
>>>> Cary Ginell
>> 
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