mundens | Nostaglia

Got up feeling pretty crappy, and just couldn't get on with all the things that I needed to do.

So I went and pottered in the lounge. For some reason I looked at a box of cassette tapes. I dug out several cassette tapes, none of which were younger than 1977. I dug out a chromium dioxide tape. It was so old the screws were rusting, and the glue holding the paper label had yellowed.

I placed it in my Technics cassette player, which was hooked up to my 60W RMS Technics amp and Kef 104 B speakers with bass reflex. The system is as old as the tape. The tape contained a recording of America's Greatest Hits. I switched the bias on the player to handle the Cr02 tape, and listened to a thirty year old recording. Damn, the audio quality of thirty year old tapes is crap! But the thirty year old stereo system is working fine!

Then I pulled out a commercial recording of Jefferson Airplane's Flight Log and listened to an entire side of it, trying to play guitar along with it. It reminded me of what music used to be like, with musicians willing to take risks, and why the White Stripes have done well. It's familiar and a place of comfort, and Grace Slick is no less effective.

You are your own best toy to play with, remote control hands
Made for each other, made in Japan
Woman with her greasy heart, auto-matic man
Don't ever change people, your face will hit the fan.
Don't ever change people, even if you can.

Which made me think about how thirty years ago the world was in almost exactly the same place, with America bogged down in a stupid foreign war it never should have gotten involved in in the first place.

Then I went shopping, came home and did some gardening.