your description of the goodies from berlin awoke that fetishy new record thing in me: the joy of getting the albums (ants & otherwise), of examining liner notes & tiny little collages of pictures - oh the joy! the delicate handling of the vinyl so as not to smudge or scratch... it still makes me undeniably happy to play a much-played record & see where i carefully taped it up where it fell apart!
& lex: your description of adam rocks, & wow yes those days were fantastic. i've always loved androgynous boys, either because of adam or not i don't know (that's a chicken & egg type thing). daniel ash, marc almond, boy, robert smith - those pretty boys were all up on my walls, but adam, well he had the goods like no-one else, such a fiercely sexual masculine energy & such foppish good looks = ideal boy.
my girly husband i suppose is the one who should be most thankful to adam!
when he's all made up before the dress & wig goes on i am ga-ga... to me there is no equal to a boy in makeup, waist cinch, high boots & precious little else!