Thursday, July 27, 2023

Old Tech

I dug out my old Sony Walkman Professional cassette recorder/player the other day. Still one of the best tape deck recorders ever made.

Being old, I have preferences that tend toward the anachronistic. I suppose that of my age I tend to really appreciate magnetic audio cassettes. It was a level of tech that allowed many people, even those without much means to record, play and archive audio. Even though most everyone in this country has a smart phone, and thus a way of recording and storing audio, most of this requires a subscription to some service, even if only a cell phone plan. And then making copies of those recordings gets complicated.

I think this might sound like justification for my preferences, so be it.

Today I made cassette recording of 3 of my albums, all on to one 90 minute cassette. It felt emancipating to be able to do that and to have my music available to play on the tape deck in my 1982 VW vanagon. It all kind of suits the "Lo Fi" nature of my music.

Something about all of this instantaneous acquisition that goes with the digital age just seems to degrade the value of each individual thing. Transferring a digital file is basically instant, where as I had to play the albums each all the way thru in order to record them onto tape.

I don't know what to say except that when things were a little less accessible, the seemed a bit more precious.

The slight warble of a cassette tape, is a bit like the scratchy sound of a phonograph record and I don't mind it really. Maybe it reminds me of how much different and even better it is to be witness to live music. I don't think this is so true these days when recordings can be hyper produced in a studio and altered digitally so that they can never really sound the same live. Even further, much of live performance is actually recorded audio, samples, pads and digital synth... It's kind of boring to me.

Monday, July 24, 2023

Made my first appearance at the Haverstraw Farmer's Market yesterday. It was a good time, even though I didn't really have much of a connection with the patrons of the market. It's never been a good fit, so to speak, culturally. My music is kind of "folky" and not at all of the current style of music being made. The biggest event I know of with a musical bent to it is the Latin Day parade, when cars attach big cabinet speakers to their roofs and trunks and blast music that thumps. Now that resonates.

Still, I had a good time and was glad I went. Two weeks ago, I think, I stopped in and played at the Nyack Market, where the market manager said "Your always welcomed here". That felt good.

The H.F.M. is kind of like my public practice space. I get to play out, in front of people, and I have very little stress about the whole thing. I get to set up with "Tooter" my vanagon, so it's the complete package, the van with it's awning, my signage, and me playing what ever I want.

I feel like if I go and play there regularly, I have the opportunity to get so much better at performing. What a privilege it is to have this situation. All I have to do is show up.

Home Community Farmers Market

Farmers Market

Front Desk

June 2, 2021

1024

Come and join us at your local Farmers Market, starting June 13th at 9am.

Fruits, Vegetables, Healthy Eating at the Haverstraw Farmers Market

June through October Every Sunday, 9am – 1pm