like in the old days with the record player

[fflo]

Danged hypersensitive CD recorder, and/or a lousy CDRW, and another several tracks from various records not properly recorded. Now it's late at night, too, and I'm thinking maybe the fates are trying to tell me something about potential recipients by mail; no time tonight to get after those songs again, let alone the ones I didn't get to, and mail deadlines are fast approaching. I can't be overnighting in the ambivalent case.

Yeah, kinda vague I suppose, but I'm feeling a little vague about sharing this little conundrum.

I did do the dishes and a load of laundry and succeeded in not setting foot outside the house. What else. Watched that "Six Feet Under" DVD. That's some good shit, man. Didn't do the bills.

Playing old records & taping from them eats up time like crazy. It's a kind of time I usually like to be in, but it helps if I can stay up as late as I want---and feel free to enjoy, and go with the flows. And, boy, playing records has a history of keeping me up all night.

One of my friends, who used to live next door to me at college, reported wondering why she'd hear the very tail end of one song over and over again, and then the same with another song, and then another. Or maybe it was my former gf before she became by gf. It was either her or Laura, I'm pretty sure. What I was doing was a count of the gap between the end of one song and the beginning of the one I wanted, so's to catch the edit. Not have too much space between the two. Or, even worse, I might have been doing a "storytime"---a story told in clips of other songs. That was a specialty of me and pijeanf at one point.

It's not been a terrible day or anything, but sadness is with me today. Most decidedly so. Sitting next to me, or sidling up to whisper in my ear, or just having that presence in the room. Like one of the dead people who hang around the "Six Feet"ers. I'd try to tell it that its being the same old sadness is getting a bit tired, and inquire about whether maybe it doesn't feel a little silly & think maybe it should be moving along, but I know it's not going to listen to me. Not much, anyway.

Time for sleeping now. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (that was quick) zzzzzzzzzz zzzz z zzzzzzzzzzz. .z..zz..zz.....

Comments

[groovesinorbit]

Ever since we bought non-Maxell CDs to record with, our machine has been acting up. Much wierdness, capped by the bizarre behavior the other night. Sorry yours decided to act up, too.

Storytimes--I haven't done one of those in ages.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I just got some TDKs, and I'm crossing my fingers. The ones that act up the most are some cheapies (Digital Media, I think). The Memorex ones weren't too good, either. (My machine's a Phillips.)

One of those two blues CDs I did for you a few years ago took me forEVer, dealing with glitchiness.

When my Teac died I lost the capacity to do a good storytime. The Luxman---one of the few cassette decks I could find w/mic inputs back in '90-something---has a delay in pick up when releasing pause. I liked the mechanical pause button much more.

[groovesinorbit]

The Sony tapedeck we have (by the kind offices of S in Randallstown--when he left the Institute some equipment went with him) has a delay, but it's pretty easy to gauge.

Yeah, glitchiness on some cds is really annoying. Out of the pack of Memorexes I made yours and disclaimerwill's Q Vol. 1s from, half fucked up on me. Or I thought they screwed up, but when I finished them and then played them in the playback deck, all was well. Sometimes. Why should this be so hard?

One of those two blues CDs I did for you a few years ago

You never did the second one for me! I gots the men. Ain't gots no wimmin.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

It's the stuff on lps that's the problem for me. Even with my slightly underpowered iMac & the not-the-latest version of iTunes, I prefer to do whatever I can on the computer. And the youth of today doing everything there makes technology focus on those options, naturally enough.

I suppose eventually I could convert most of my favorite stuff on records & tapes to digital & then just use the record sleeves for decorations. Sometimes I like to put on a record, though. I think it was Ghost World (the movie) that got me sentimental about dropping a needle on a freshly Discwashered disc. But the first few seconds of "Back in the Day" (Ahmad), with its faux turntable scritchies, helped too.

[groovesinorbit]

Ah, I see. I eventually plan to transfer stuff I have on cassette that I want to save (open reel tape, too), just cuz tape deteriorates. Gonna do that with VHS tapes, too, when we get a dvd recorder. Records are gonna stay records, though. I love them too much to go completely digital, and really there's still an argument concerning analog vs digital sound quality and such. Digital is not the be all and end all, in my opinion.

records

[masculine-lady.livejournal.com]

When I worked at a classic country radio station doing the morning drive DJ shift, we played the majority (like 90%) of our music off of records. Not at all common at radio stations. I learned a highly sought radio DJ skill there-slip starting a record. Why this is a coveted DJ skill, as most radio DJs never play records, I have no idea. But knowing how to do it seemed to impress other DJs. It may halp you in your recording adventures for me to explain it. It really isn't that hard, IMHO, another reason why the mysteriousness of it escapes me.
Count the gaps on the record to find the song you want.
Put the needle down at the beginning of the song. Do not start the record. Instead, spin the disc with your finger slowly, until you find the beginning of the song. Then, rotate the disc around the other way until you have found the appropriate gap length. Then play the record.
If this just complicates things, mi excusi. If it helps, glad to oblige.

Re: records

[fflo.livejournal.com]

No excusi called for! I know about slip starting (though I've never done it), but my brother convinced me it's unwise for one's stylus. Lord knows how he feels about the craziness of performance djs!

Re: records

[groovesinorbit]

I slip start all the records I play on my show (but I think the professional grade turntables and styluses are built with that in mind), but I cue the stuff I record at home the way we've always done it. Tradition! (sung, you know)

Re: records

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I believe I've heard that about the pro turntables/needles, too. Makes sense.

(singing back at you) Anatevka! Anatevka! . . .

Re: records

[groovesinorbit]

HH

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

So what were these storytime recordings like? It sounds fascinating to me.

(I don't even TRY to record things right now. Sigh.)

[fflo.livejournal.com]

The first few were difficult because we hadn't realized the theme needs to involve sex/love for the fodder of rock 'n' roll to provide enough appropriate building blocks. One we hit on making them tales of romance, we had plenty of material.

I seem to remember David Bowie's Joe the Lion being a character in one of the early ones.

[groovesinorbit]

Ah, Joe the Lion. That was a good one. I think the art peaked, though, with Laura's Rainy Days and Mondays. A classic, that one.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I call it Rainy Days and Mooneys.

[groovesinorbit]

Hee. You ought to dig one up to play for anderyn.