I hope this will count as a viable topic for the 'New Recordings' section. I have just received my latest issue of the BBC Music Magazine with a cover CD of Mahler's 7th Symphony conducted by Gianandrea Noseda - a conductor I have a lot of time for. As always with these (and many other) CDs, it is wrapped in this seemingly impenetrable shrink wrap and NO TEAR STRIP to get its removal underway.
I know that I need to get a life, but this drives me to distraction. Is this just me, or does it annoy others as well? Most new CDs are thus wrapped. I have never quite worked out what the shrink wrap is for - CDs don't 'go off' if not vacuum wrapped or refrigerated as far as I know. And the shrink wrap is no guarantee of newness as machines to apply this appalling stuff are easy to come by.
Apart from buy a special gizmo to remove this stuff (why should I??), do other contributors have any tips to help me retain my sanity?
Go and make a nice cup of tea. :)
I think the idea is to make it more difficult to open the jewel box in a shop and steal the CD itself, because a CD-less jewel box isn't obvious as long as the booklet/insert is still there. But so few CDs are sold in shops these days that it seems a redundant idea.
Thank you, Mark. I had a nice cup of coffee to calm myself down (strange as it may seem). I know I shouldn't let such little trifles get to me, but they do. I have now 'broken in' to the Mahler CD and found myself disappointed. The performance lacks forward momentum or any sense of urgency - which this symphony needs, I think.
Anyway, thanks for allowing my little rant!
Quote from: Delicious Manager on Tuesday 03 August 2010, 14:12
I have now 'broken in- to the Mahler CD and found myself disappointed.
Couldn't this specific shrink wrap be there to protect you from a bad performance? ;)
I have a paring knife which is used exclusively for this purpose. It is literally a lethal weapon: trying to insert the razor-sharp end of the blade into any available part of the skin-tight wrapping without damaging the CD case or (worse) cardboard box-set, is liable to result in the loss of digits or, at the least, blood on the carpet.
I'm not sure why the shrinkwrap is there either, but somehow it makes me feel a nanosecond's worth of pleasure to 'unwrap' a new purchase (I suppose it's childhood Christmas syndrome).
My BBC Magazine cds come in a very, very easy to open plastic sleeve. Just pick it off the cover of the magazine, tear the glue off and it's done. Takes up very little shelf space. I wish more cds were packed that way.
Shrink wrap presents no problem for me: I use a a box cutter. The sharp blade easily demolishes the stuff and unwrapping is easy. What's no so easy is the stupid sticky label that too many American companies still put on the top of the disk. That's a mess! Rarely does it come off in one piece and you have a bunch of sticky bits all over. But things could be worse: I recall that in the early days of cds they were packaged in large, elongated industrial strength plastic containers that defied scissors for opening. A box cutter was even risky, as a slip could bring bodily harm.
I'm disappointed to read the review of the Mahler. I haven't received my copy yet. If it's forward momentum you want, try the new Jarvi on Chandos which is too fast, too impatient, too driven. It's ridiculous. Once again proving something about Jarvi I've known for a long time: he may be good at the Russian nationalists, but when it comes to the mainstream Austro/German repertoire he's out of his league. His earlier Mahler 6th and 8th are dreadful, his Brahms set is one of the worst, his Bruckner is weak...at least the sons are pretty good Beethoven conductors.
Quote from: mbhaub on Tuesday 03 August 2010, 15:47
What's no so easy is the stupid sticky label that too many American companies still put on the top of the disk. That's a mess!
The Italians do it as well, they're just as bad! >:(
Ahh, yes those silly silver sticky labels on American CDs (I do import a few). What a fine idea THAT was.
mbhaub: I would have to mostly agree with you about Neeme Järvi (Järvi means 'lake' in Estonian, you know). Even some of the Russian repertoire is a little suspect. His two Chandos CDs dedicated to Estonian symphonic music are wonderful - as are some of his Rimsky-Korsakov recordings. There are even Franz Schmidt's 2nd and 3rd Symphonies which I quite enjoy.
I wonder what he's like live (never seen him live)?
Quote from: Delicious Manager on Tuesday 03 August 2010, 16:22
I wonder what he's like live (never seen him live)?
I met him once and we had a short conversation. I found him really friendly, if not terribly shy. But perhaps that was just because we were talking about his recordings...?
What really annoys me is that on the CDs whose plastic wrappings have a tear-strip, it's impossible to find the END of the damn thing!
Quote from: JimL on Tuesday 03 August 2010, 16:59
What really annoys me is that on the CDs whose plastic wrappings have a tear-strip, it's impossible to find the END of the damn thing!
The end is, more often than not, surreptitiously secreted on one of the spines if the jewel case. If you peer at it REALLY hard, you can usually see where the two ends of the tear-strip meet. Of course, you then have to pick frantically at the whole area because you don't know WHICH of the two ends you can barely see is the one meant to tear off, nor which direction in which it's meant to tear. Joy!
Shrink wrap can be very annoying, I do agree - but I simply don't bother looking for anything to pull or tear; I use my carbon steel kitchen knife (which is always kept razor sharp) - this makes swift work of the tiresome substance.
That's what usually happens. Wow! It's like you read my mind or something! ;D
I got so fed up with shrink wrap, that i now only purchase downloads.
CD wrap seems to be specifically designed to be as difficult as possible to remove and I have little patience with such things.
Gareth would appear to have the best answer, but I am not allowed in the kitchen, so it would be no use to me.
Thal
I have no problem at all with shrink-wrap. Provided I sit down, breathe deeply, don't have anything else to do for a few minutes and (hopefully) haven't cut my nails recently.
Patience, friends, patience...
Who knew that there was such a well of misery out there, just waiting for Delicious Manager to uncover?
Maybe I should start up www.shrinkwrappedcds.com?
p.s. My bugbear isn't the tear-strip or the wrapping - I use a knife (or my nails if I'm desperate) running down the gap between the front and the spine. No, it's those pesky slivers of shrink wrap, left behind after the wrapping has been ripped off, charged with static electricity and invisibly clinging to the floor, the furniture, my clothes, me etc. for weeks afterwards.
This is beginning to resemble an episode of Grumpy Old Men.
Thal
Is this really an issue?
Something else is that I receive too often a new CD, and after removing the wrapper the box partly falls into pieces, especially the middle part where the disc is stucked. For that reason I'm never short in empty boxes.
Another thing is that it happens that I order a new CD, and receive it without a wrapper, as if it's already been used. The last example is the Kennedy disc with Mlynarski (jpc). In fact I don't care, but find the booklet with finger prints on it. I pay for a new copy. I know, I should have complained, but I didn't...
The most pesky things to replace are those special plastic boxes used for some SACDs. It's maddening if one of those arrives in pieces...
This looks like a good place to ask a question I've been unable to find the answer to: what's the actual name for the strips of tape-with-album-name-written-on-them that many shrinkwrapped CDs also have, along their top edges? I've wanted to do a google search to find out more about them (such as who came up with them, so that I can add them to my circle of infamy along with the inventor of car alarms). But I've been stumped as far as uncovering the actual term to call them!
--
Jim Moskowitz
The Unknown Composers Page: http://kith.org/jimmosk/TOC.html
My latest list of unusual classical CDs for auction: http://tinyurl.com/jimmosk
I don't know what they're called, but I suspect they're there as an additional safeguard against snatching the CD and leaving the empty case to be sold. I suppose that they're useful only if there is in-house pilfering at the shipping and/or distribution level.
Jim - Agree about those "index strips" which are stuck across the tops of new CDs. Happily, I notice fewer and fewer of them - DGG/Philips/London were the real culprits.
For those who struggle with the shrink wrap in general, there is a little gizmo which slides across the edge of the jewel case, and contains a small blade which slices the plastic for easy removal. Here's something close to what I use: http://www.topmic.com/250-0845.html (http://www.topmic.com/250-0845.html)
Or: http://tinyurl.com/2demsrw (http://tinyurl.com/2demsrw)
Quote from: Delicious Manager on Tuesday 03 August 2010, 16:22
Ahh, yes those silly silver sticky labels on American CDs (I do import a few). What a fine idea THAT was.
mbhaub: I would have to mostly agree with you about Neeme Järvi (Järvi means 'lake' in Estonian, you know). Even some of the Russian repertoire is a little suspect. His two Chandos CDs dedicated to Estonian symphonic music are wonderful - as are some of his Rimsky-Korsakov recordings. There are even Franz Schmidt's 2nd and 3rd Symphonies which I quite enjoy.
I wonder what he's like live (never seen him live)?
This no doubt is the wrong thread, but I have seen Jarvi live. Several years ago I went to America's Third World City, Detroit, to hear him do the Schmidt 4th. It was typical of Jarvi: no-nonsense, quickly paced, never quite pumbling the deepest parts of the score. The Beethoven Eroica was unlike any performance I'd ever heard. It was highly dramatic, a flowed marvelously. The finale was the stunner: it was actually amusing, and you could hear the audience chuckle from time to time at the way he did it. His style is quite reserved and undemonstrative and he conducted from memory. He also left the hall, into his limo, and left as fast as possible. Of course, given the location of the fine concert hall, I can't blame him.
The shrink wrap is no problem, I use a small electrical screwdriver which I slide along the top. It is getting the booklet out that I have the problem with. I usually put them back the wrong way round so that the spine is at the edge causing it to slide more easily over the bumps.
Nearly lost it opening the new Angelich/P. Järvi CD of Brahms PC2 this morning! Eventually turned to a small screwdriver to slit the sellophane open - very satisfying! The performance is a stunner, by the way. Grand, yet fiery, lyrical yet never self-indulgent. Marvellously recorded too. An instant classic - when I finally got to it!
Years ago I invested in a package of single edge razor blades. Works for the CD's that also have the attached label on the top as the edge slides underneath that also. You can also use it for seemingly impossible to pull apart sealed bags of food etc. Just be careful to slide away from you.
Thomas :)