Good one, Dogman. I like the buzz of buying a good CD for 50 cents at one op shop and then donating it to another to be sold for $3. It's a win for the shop and a good feeling for me, so also a win. Hence a win-win.
In a way it's sad to be acquiring nice things from people who've bought them for their full price (so I assume) and have enjoyed them, even loved them, but then had to part with them. But it happens to us all in real life, and it's good to be able to pass on things while one is still able to. I've had several friends who left it all too late and when they were no longer with us, their executors had a devil of a time trying to sort out the tangled messes of their estates. They had let things go and not made any sensible preparations for the inevitable journey across the universe...
My goal in later life, when I ultimately reach the 80 year mark in a few more years - with a little good luck I hope to extend my time by a few more years from then, but we will see - is to be living a pleasant minimalist life with only cherished objects around me, CDs, DVDs, books, music and a few of my favorite cameras and lenses. Saying farewell to my darkroom will be no great loss to me, I've been laboring with films and papers in the dark since 1961 so it's time to say goodbye to all that. Admittedly my partner has other ideas about what will happen to my possessions, and to keep the peace at home I defer to those, so for the time being it's all a sort of cherished fantasy on my part. And life's good and all's well.
Keeping all this on topic, tonight's music (YouTube) is piano recitals from the 1950s by Vladimir Horowitz. Every now and then I revisit Artur Rubinstein, I saw him in live performances in eastern Canada in the '60s when he was still touring the world, for a high school student with a part-time job as a reporter-photographer for a local daily paper an evening of Rubinstein at the piano was a unique event. A few years later I also had the pleasure (and privilege) of hearing Sviatoslav Richter in a live recital in Montreal, another cherished moment. His recordings are also on YouTube and I play them often.
Such a blessing is ours, to be given all these great solo artists and orchestral works on YouTube.