just to clarify

I am actually in awe of real collectors, as long as their collecting doesn't get in the way of actual human relationships. In this instance, Billy is an obsessive (but so is Elyse, manifesting in a different way) but as will arguably be seen, it doesn't per se get in the way of their ability to have an actual (I hesitate to say human) relationship.

Part of my interest in owning (or at least having access to) actual artefacts, as opposed to reproductions etc, is that just like Hugo Weaving's character in Proof only nothing like him, I don't trust the conduit/enabler between the original and the facsimile to get every detail right that helps me understand. I have probably mentioned this numerous times herein the way that, by default or design, the gatekeepers to the tracks we tried to include on the Festival albums I was compiling a few years ago gave us the wrong source material or tried to push us in the direction of things they preferred, whether it was because it was easier for them or because they felt the things they were trying to get us to use were a better representation of how they saw themselves/their legacy. It's no big deal when it's minor but then one day it'll be a big deal because something major will be changed without anyone acknowledging/realising. Eternal vigilance! Old 80s music is a bad example in one sense. But in another (and this speaks to spotify, etc) when you take things out of their context it's harder to understand them. I guess collecting a specific artist/author is taking things out of their context, but a bit of context clings to them doesn't it. I guess that's why it's great to have anthology collections, you can look at the creator you're interested in and see who, at one stage at least, it was deemed socially valid to group them with.

Anyway, probably part of my beef with collectors is I'm terrible at collecting. I admire people who do it right. I've already said that. 

All in all, the above page - considering I never would have imagined it existing four hours ago - came out pretty well I think. Oddly, listening a lot to Blank Check the last week+, the occasionally expressed opinion on that show that auteurs do better when they have random (or very specific - e.g. budgetary) constraints imposed on them, works for me. I think this page adds to the whole, and if Steve now said 'no, I miscounted the pages there is no blank space' (or, 'and this creates a blank space') I'd then come up with something else to allow it to be retained.