Time Capsule (or What Was I Thinking?)
So I pulled out my old audio cassettes and I realize I no longer have anything to play them on. Which is a shame, not only because there is some great music on them, but because of all the memories that are stored on that magnetic tape. (That reminds me…I’ve still got a box of vinyl records on the top shelf of my closet, but I haven’t reached that layer in the archeological dig yet.)
While it’s true I could go and buy all the same music again, I don’t have that kind of money. Besides, I already bought it once, and – news flash – I am cheap. (As a side note – I have never pirated a song, and I don’t intend to start now.) As well, a lot of stuff I have doesn’t exist anywhere else. I have live recordings and stuff I took off the radio (which is not pirating because it is ad supported). There are special events, old BBC radio shows, and even some stuff I wrote myself. (Those I’m going to burn.) The point is not everything is on iTunes.
My other option is to transfer all those tapes over to digital using an MP3 archiver. But that seems like a lot work. Those things are about two hundred bucks and, in addition to my being cheap, I am also lazy. And I can do math. If I have three hundred tapes at ninety minutes per tape, it would take almost three weeks straight just to record them. If you add in time editing and mixing, I’ll be done just in time for someone to invent a new way to listen to music and I’ll have to do it all over again. Maybe this time we’ll just jack straight into our brains. (I know Kung Fu Fighting!)
You were expecting Keanu maybe?
The same goes for my VHS tapes. What’s going to happen with those movies and concerts and all the other great stuff when the VCR finally dies. For example, I have this copy of Swimming to Cambodia. It’s the film adaptation of one of Spalding Gray’s witty and insightful monologues in which he recounts, among other things, the time he spent acting in The Killing Fields. It starts at CDN$58.60 for a used DVD on Amazon. I’m certain it’s not going to be at Best Buy. (I can’t even get The Guild DVD’s there.) By the way, the actual movie The Killing Fields goes for CDN$32.06. At least there’s always YouTube.
Anyway, going through the old junk has gotten me feeling all nostalgic. Twenty years from now will I be looking back at this blog and asking myself, “What the hell was I thinking. What a piece of crap. Can I delete this? Can I purge this from existence?” No, it’s on the Internet. It’s forever. Unless you plan to wipe out all of human civilization. (That would probably be an overreaction.)
Also, don’t get me started on the Betamax tapes. (I can’t just throw them away!)
Crazed recluse and sociophobe who has taken up writing after failing at everything else. Send pizza.
Verbatim Gibberish 
I still play those vhs tapes and also have some beta’s- though my player is no longer active.
Hang in there —everything old is new again- like its 5 oclock somewhere
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I’d like to see what’s on them but I don’t have enough time. I’ve started listening to podcasts at 2x speed just to try and catch up. I’m somewhere around Nov 2011.
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