And Another Little Thing...

 

Towards the end of yesterday's post I mentioned there was another example of a small joy in the picture of the clutter under my monitor. In that image it's at the upper-right of the lower section, beneath the screen. Hard to make out what it is, especially if you haven't seen anything like it before.

It's a wooden crate filled with albums. Specifically, Lana del Rey albums. Each of them only about two and a half centimeters on a side. An inch if you prefer but let's not go through all that again. I've included the Vaillant Bunny for scale but here's another picture with a 50p piece, a standard visual clue in cases like this, at least if you live where I do. 

In this one, the crate is standing on a box file. Everyone knows how big a box file is. Maybe that'll help.

Mrs Bhagpuss gave me this little collection for Christmas last year. Or maybe it was my birthday. And maybe it was the year before. It wasn't that long ago, I know that much.

Hang on... I ought to be able to date it by the albums because at the time she commissioned it, the guy who made it put in every official album Lana had made, plus a couple she hadn't. There's the Lizzie Grant one and another that was only ever released in Germany. 

He was nothing if not thorough and I really ought to include his name and contact details in case anyone wants to get him to do their favorite artist, only I don't know what they are. Maybe I'll ask Mrs Bhagpuss and edit them in later.

She's very fond of miniaturized objects like this and she'd had all of David Bowie's albums done by the same guy a few years ago. That one's down in the kitchen on a shelf. 

We used to play a game where she'd swap them around and ask me what was at the front and I'd guess. I used to get it right a disturbingly high percentage of the time. We haven't played that game for a while.

The level of detail is astonishing. Not only are the covers correct, front and back, but every tiny sleeve contains a tiny vinyl album, complete with an even tinier label in the center. About the only thing that's missing is the hole in the middle.

Looking at the albums now, I see they're completely up to date, thanks to Lana's latest still not having appeared yet. Her most recent is Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, which came out in March 2023 and that's there, so it looks like I must have gotten this as a present either the same year or the year after. 

I'd guess I've had it for nearer two years than one but you know what my memory's like. And anyway,  it's so much a part of my daily life now, it feels like I've had it forever. I look at it often and it does, as per Krikket's suggestion, always make me smile.  

I wonder if the guy who made it has a service where he sends out updates whenever a new album comes out? If he doesn't, he should think about it.

[Edit: I was talking to Mrs. Bhagpuss about this post and she pointed out the lovely, white wooden crate was made by her, not the guy who makes the albums. He supplies them in a perfectly functional but nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing plastic crate. I'm not sure she told me that when she gave them to me but I thought I'd better mention it.]