I begin by conceding the randomness of this post, both because of the subject matter and because of the infrequency of my contributions to this blog of late. I showed up at my office this morning and had this thought (fleshed out below), but it's too "monday morning" to go try and talk to anybody in the office about it. So here goes:
I pulled out this mini-cassette player I have in my office because I may need to record part of a meeting later today. As I rewound the cassette to the beginning, I pulled it out to make sure I had rewound it to the beginning of side A. Given that I don't use the mini-cassette player frequently, I had to remind myself that with mini-cassettes, side A is fully rewound when the left reel of the two reels is empty, unlike regular cassettes where the right reel is empty (when looking at side A). (As a side note, I confess that I had to double-check the spelling of "cassette" because I use the word so infrequently anymore.) I've never understood why cassettes and mini-cassettes don't use a consistent format, but that's neither here nor there at this point. The bigger realization for me was that generations of people will soon have no idea how to use a cassette tape.
These people won't instantly appreciate the ability to queue to a particular song based on viewing the relative thickness of the brown magnetic tape on the left reel and the right reel of the cassette. They won't know the pain of seeing your favorite cassette getting eaten by the tape player only to salvage it through the art of tape splicing. I'm waxing nostalgic now. And sounding oldish. I will stop (accompanied by the sound of a mechanical click as I depress the button on my mental boom box) and get back to work.
Monday, May 19, 2008
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5 comments:
great to have you blogging again jared.
I, however, will never miss tapes. I will not miss the "ability" to queue a song by examining the thickness of the tape. and I will never miss having tapes melt in the hell-like temperatures of the interior of my high school car in fresno, california.
I still have box of old tapes lying around. I'll be sure to properly train elliot on how to use them. as much as I won't miss them, I want to pass some knowledge down to the next generation.
J-Rice - I'm with you. I think. As you know, I'm a huge fan of new technology. I was one of the first people to buy an mp3 player (a Rio Karma, before iPods exploded on the scene). I love the functionality and the ease of use. But I don't have the same sort of intimate physical connection with my music anymore. Maybe it's the technology, maybe it's just because I'm not a teenager with loads of free-time. I used to know details like which studio was used to record an album and who was the producer. Now, I can barely tell you the name of the artist on half the stuff I listen to. In all reality, it's my own fault - I could get the information easily if I really wanted it.
Anyhow, I'm glad you've preserved some tapes to teach Elliot about them. Seville will not be so lucky. I ceremoniously threw out my tape collection several years ago...
Ah, but Jared, your sweet packrat of a wife still has a box of tapes around somewhere. At least a box of my OWN tapes (the first Sibling Revelry album was a cassette), so you're in luck!
I was explaining to the babysitter the other day about how we used to have to call people for directions before going to their houses, and if we got lost, we had to go somewhere and find a payphone and tell them them where we are so they can explain it better. She seemed totally perplexed, like she had never imagined before what life was like before mapquest, google, and cell phones.
Ahhhh, I spent many a day winding the brown thin tape back onto the cassette after my brother or someone else dumb would unwind it for no good reason. My finger thanked me when I discovered the ease of using a pencil. Tapes wear out way faster than CD's. That's why I won't miss them.
I share your nostalgia for cassettes Jared. I still have my complete cassette collection from the 80's and early 90's (about 150 tapes). I have a little clock/radio/cassette player in our bathroom that I picked up from Goodwill for 5 bucks. It only has one speaker but if I turn it all the way up it will just drown out my singing in the shower. Nothing gets me moving on a weekend morning like a nice shower sing-a-long with Van Halen, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, or some other "music of my life" cassette! I've tried to throw them away the last 3 times I've moved and I just can't do it.
Cassettes have their problems; many of mine are worn and don't sound too good anymore, but I've had worse luck with CD's because of scratching them. I still have my very first cassette "Hotel California" bought in the late 70's. It still plays, although one song is a bit distorted from leaving it in the car when it was hot. As long as I can find a working cassette player I'll probably keep the dang things forever!
PS - Sorry I missed you the other night; hope to see you soon.
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