What are records?

(Riette, see the record collecting topic - it's all said there. In short: any recording of sound, especially music, whether on wax cylinders, shellac or vinyl discs of all sizes, magnet tape, CD,... Often, when people say "record", they mean vinyl discs - singles or LPs - and want to differentiate between that and CDs.) I spend most of my collecting expenses on fleamarkets, preferably in rural areas. While the chance to find any rare avantgarde LP or some other far-out stuff is slim there, chances *do* exist, and prices will be lower than in a metropolitan area. Also, the chances for finding cheap 78s are better there, though most offered are operettas, and other things that don't tickle my fancy. From my last hunt: Lamont Dozier - 70ies soul 2x Curtis Mayfield - 70ies soul Dusty Springfield - White soul singer, late 60ies, british? Recently deceased. Kraftwerk - German electronica, 70ies Mother's Finest - Soul-funk Herbie Hancock - Rock It (the 80ies superhit on 45 rpm 12'') Also bought some scores for "5 o'clock tea-time dances" from the 20ies and 30ies, with foxtrots, waltzes, tangos, etc. Great Art Deco covers!

Art Deco - love that. I collect books with Art Deco and Jugendstil covers. Cool stuff!

Nice jewellery, too! Jugendstil - or Art Noveau for our English speaking friends - is big in Bad Nauheim, a small health-ressort that boomed during that time (1890s to WWI). The Sprudelhof is the largest intact ensemble of Jugendstil buildings. (I was born in that town, which once was home to an - at that time - US-president-to-be and an American king).

With jewelry my favourite is African stuff. It's so inventive. But on pictures I adore those flowing lines and intricate patterns. And to think you were born into them!