this probably wont last long
it’s a compilation of notes and ideas i’ve had stored in journals, written as texts to myself while out around town, thinking. s
as of recently, i’ve started to collect cds and cassettes again. I used to in high school- out of necessity, but now out of some form of yearning for a physical collection. i’ve grown exhausted from subscriptions, data, cloud streaming, social media. i rarely involve myself in my instagram, let alone this website.
i remember when blogs were linked to artist accounts, journal entries could be viewed, updated and interacted with. it seemed sort of… intimate. maybe im longing for something more personal than the rigid structure of facebook, twitter, instagram.
i’ve been looking to be even more disconnected from my phone more and more. i mainly use it to connect with my friends back home, to call my parents, and to know when my next shift is. there was a great moment of relief when i got rid of facebook a few years ago. it sounds overly dramatic, but i felt like it was becoming to much of a sensory overload. having physical items, media at my desk gives me a strong sense of grounding to where im at in life. plus, as of writing, a lot of these cds are fuckin cheap, and the whole stack is crazy to look at.
i love going through the inserts when the album is spinning, and fawning over the design of each album. some artistic choices truly complete the message the music is trying to convey. recently, i’ve noticed that bands like spoon, arcade fire, wilco and the matt and kim album “Grand ” do a damn good job of expressing these visual themes. the feeling is a callback to when old LPs were spinning, and the only shit you had to work with was the sleeve it came with to put you in the zone.
i recently repaired an old cassette/ radio player from the late 80s. the sound quality is less than perfect, but has a warm crackle to it that adds a fun layer to the sound experience. the radio signal is decent too, but there’s not much to listen to on the radio other than a few college stations in my area.
i toyed with the idea of creating some form of radio show, where i only do longplays of albums, and have a brief intermission where i’d chat or reflect on the album with a guest. we would share experiences or stories related to or inspired by the album, then jump back into it. turns out that would be hard to do legally, so i gave up rather quickly. it would have been legendary, probably one of the best radio stations ever made ever.
i’ll call it for now.
Albums worth checking out in the meantime:
Disc ‘O’ Lypso Various Artists. Trans Air Recordings, 2003
Earthology The Whitefield Brothers. Now-Again Records. 2010
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Lauren Hill. Ruffhouse Records. 1998