In Praise of the Humble Cassette

i mean, like, how easy was it to get wee spoken bits and cool stuff
in between songs on compilations for people on tape, and how cool it
was to just...mix it up mixtape style. mixtape that's what it's called
if you're doing a mix (limited to 70 bastard minutes cos some pillock
at sony liked a piece of classical that lasted 70 minutes 20 yrs ago and decided that shld be the lenghth of all cds. tw*t.) it's still
a mixtape, only on cd. i hate cds. grrrrrrrr

And as far as your comment about computers giving up half way, this doesn't happen with my Mac. Ever. Macs and iTunes rule.

the conclusion as always is that progress is lame

plus cassettes can't be played on a computer: a good thing

I think I hope I dream

i agree its a crying shame its tough to get CD-Rs burnt on PCs to play properly on Macs, and sometimes it fucks up but only about 1 in 50 times for me, the pros far outweigh the cons with CD as far as i;m concerned. they may not play on every single computer but they will play on every single stereo, unless the disc genuinely is buggered.

cassettes kinda suck cos the quality deteriorates rapidly - and rewinging/fast-forwarding is a chore, and i never had hi-speed dubbing so had to record to them in 'realtime' which is DUD DUD DUD - same goes for minidisc in that respect, altho Firewire and stuff looks cool

its funny that vinyl and now cassettes get so romanticised - obv. they have fine attributes (esp. bid bad vinyl) but both were just as flawed as CDs in their own respective ways, if not more so. but you just cant see people getting all dewy-eyed when CDs and even MDs eventuall bite the dust, to be replaced by those see-thru credit card things from Minority Report...but at the end of the day i dont REALLY care what format the content is delivered on as long as it works for me.

I just record straight to the computer.

---Maybe there'll one-day be some kind of flash card to exchange MP3s (or whatever) but where do you put the artwork (--and don't say "Why, digitally, of course." - you technofreakin' commie).

I might do a tape of tunes about WAR tonight.

cassettes suck, Dolby NR doesn't seems like it ever works properly so i always end up turning it off to hear the sizzle of the highs; when the track ends it's like "sssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

also i can't tell you how many times i've had to do the take-the-tiny-screws-out rigamarole to untwist the shit

hahahahahaha o yes you ARE

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ibY4C0wpSuo/TddMhC2x_0I/AAAAAAAAAF8/81RuWZY3Xvk/s1600/IMG_4298.JPG

man, dave q was such a visionary--i miss that guy so much

poll xp

I played my copy of Graffiti Bridge this morning. It sounds great!

polling david berman's cassette library btw

Dave Q miss you seconded!

i used to record live sound for movies on minidisc (then dump it to WAV). i thought they looked so fucking cool. mine were all candy-colored and i didn't even mind, they were the coolest-looking candy-colored anything. they were the best for filmmaking -- indestructible, re-recordable, hi-fi, takes divided automatically into tracks -- and i liked them so much that i even went to the pointless trouble of recording mp3s onto them, which had to be done in real time (this is what you did with cassettes, yes?)

i remember particularly i taped momus' "i was a maoist intellectual" onto one of them and walked around school listening to "I BECAME A HOTEL DOORMAN / I STOOD THERE ON THE DOORMAT / CLUTCHING MY FORGOTTEN DISKS IN THEIR FORGOTTEN FORMAT".

there was some love upthread for minidiscs, is why.

What a cool tape collection!

RIP, King: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/lou-ottens-dead/2021/03/10/2acec574-81c7-11eb-ac37-4383f7709abe_story.html

Bandcamp has significantly boosted my cassette purchases. i used to do one or two yearly ... now it's more like a few per month

"At least he got to see ninety" is this year's "Calzone Express"

RIP. cassettes are so fun. i got a walkman for my jasmine last christmas and she was overjoyed. starting a little collection in this format for the first time since i was very smol has been such a pleasure