Dan McAvinchey

Dan McAvinchey

Hockey nights, concert stubs, canned beers, and daily workouts.
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These are my interests and projects, the ones that have stayed with me over a lifetime β€” carefully organized, and finally brought together in one place.
5,889 albums Β· 2,381 films Β· 252 series Β· 296 documentaries Β· 492 LEGO artworks Β· 1,532 saved articles
The music itself, physically. CD spines running the frame, a shelf corner, or a stack mid-rip. Portrait orientation β€” this fills half the screen vertically.
One
5,889
Albums

A real focus on music without vocals

3,299 of these recordings are instrumental, which is what happens when you spend twenty years running a guitar label. 69,369 tracks in total, about 5,221 hours.

Browse the records
Guitar Music
From the archive
A classic 1981 release, Guitar Music is a self-explanatorily-titled instrumental album by one of the most wide-ranging guitarists of his era. Leo Kottke is influenced by a huge variety of musics, as evidenced by the covers of "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds", "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and a glorious…
Guitar Music Leo Kottke  Β·  1981
A build in progress. Trays of sorted bricks, a piece half-finished, hands at work. Portrait, and the messier the better β€” the finished pieces are already on the site.
Two
492
LEGO artworks

Mosaics and sculptures, built out of bricks

They go up on Instagram as they are finished, which shows them well enough but has never been able to sort them. Every one is now sorted by subject. Where a piece began with someone else's artwork, that artist is credited.

Every piece Design your own
Kept apart on purpose. Films, television and documentaries are different propositions, and you go looking for them in different frames of mind.
2,381 films Β· 252 series across 20,861 episodes Β· 296 documentaries
The physical shelf β€” spines of cases, a wall of them, or a stack being sorted. Portrait. What this many films actually look like in a room.
Three
2,381
Films

Every film, and the threads between them

Cast, directors, keywords, genres and awards, all cross-linked β€” so a film leads to a person, and a person leads to five more films.

The films
Box sets. Season sets stacked or shelved, spines showing. Portrait β€” what a run of complete series looks like on a shelf.
Four
252
TV series

Counted one season at a time

20,861 episodes across 1,184 seasons, with every guest appearance recorded. Owning four seasons of six is not owning the show, so the record says which four.

The series
Something that reads as non-fiction rather than entertainment β€” a shelf of documentary cases, or a single striking one held. Portrait.
Five
296
Documentaries

Concerts, mostly, and then everything else

History, the natural world, and a great deal of live music. Kept separate from the films because they get browsed for subject, not for story.

The documentaries
You cannot search for a connection you did not know was there.
Serendipity deals three things at a time that turn out to be linked β€” an actor bridging two films you would never have paired, a keyword running through both. The Hall of Fame goes the other way, straight to the award winners and the films history decided to remember.
Serendipity Hall of Fame
The Song Within
Also from the archive
Asaf Sirkis, the world class drum phenomenon reminiscent of Jack DeJohnette and Tony Williams at the height of their powers that's taken the British scene by storm over the last few years, is perhaps best known as the engine of the rhythm section of the equally phenomenal Gilad Atzmon & The Orient…
The gear as a mass rather than one instrument β€” a wall of guitars, a pedalboard mid-build, the room with everything in it. Portrait. It should look like more than anyone needs, because that is the joke the section is telling.
Six
19
Gear sets

The Power of Nine

A relentless armada of guitars, effects and other gear, marshaled into strict legions of nine. Every collection carries an unrequested title and a highly questionable explanation.

The gear
The magazines as objects β€” a stack, a box, covers fanned out. Portrait. Evidence that all 1,500 of these were paper before they were scans.
Seven
1,532
Saved articles

A working library, pulled from the magazines

4,457 pages from Guitar Player, Keyboard, Electronic Musician and eleven others. Technique, recording and production β€” kept since the eighties to work from, and now indexed so going back to them is possible.

Search the music reference
Cans, en masse. A shelf run head-on, or a pyramid standing. Portrait, colour and repetition doing the work.
Eight
900
Beer cans

Emptied, kept, relentlessly stacked

All of them have been built into 58 unique pyramids, which are cataloged as well β€” because structural engineering is nothing without proper documentation.

The cans The pyramids
Instructional discs as objects β€” a stack of cases, or one open beside a guitar. Portrait. The point is that learning used to arrive in a box.
Nine
131
Instructional discs

When learning something meant buying a disc

Guitar, bass, drums, recording, production. Most of it was never reissued in any other form.

The lessons
Trace
And one more
The critically acclaimed French jazz trio led by guitarist Cyril Achard see the release of their new CD/DVD double pack Trace on Lion Music. The CD side of the pack sees the trio in acoustic guise while the DVD has some electric moments. On the release Cyril Achard comments, "My goal was to make a…
Trace Cyril Achard Trio  Β·  2008
Ten
197
Events

Reconstructed from stubs and programs

Shows, games and nights out, worked back from whatever came home in a pocket. The paper was the only record, so the paper became the record.

The events
Eleven
8
Books

A reading log, not a shelf

What was read, when it was finished, and where the copy currently is β€” which matters when family keeps borrowing them and forgetting.

The reading log
Guitar Nine as a thing rather than a website β€” the gear, a wall of the artists you released, or you at the desk in that era. Portrait. A screenshot would work too if nothing physical suits.
Twelve
150
Issues of Guitar Nine

Six issues a year, for twenty-five years

Started in 1996 as an online magazine and a small record label. 150 issues in all β€” technique, recording, songwriting, live performance and the business of it. Still up, still a reference.

guitar9.com ↗
The cards as objects β€” boxes, binders, a run of them fanned out, or the sorting in progress. Portrait. Again a screenshot of the site would serve if the physical version is boxed away.
Thirteen
390,000
Sports cards

390,000 sports cards, in color

What started with a fifteen-cent weekly allowance and a love of five-cent packs is now a site of its own, with a collecting community around it. It outgrew this one a long time ago.

cardcybermuseum.com ↗
The Heart Knows
Our rose Whose joy would grace us Often heard whispers Through which, rain cried.
Nine poems