My new Love, Elizabeth, and I, were moving stuff around in the bedroom. I keep common use computers available to the family, Dad is a complete techno-peasant. The Evil Roomie, and her daughters somewhat less so. My evil sysadmin computer tool is locked up. I don't let felons know what is possible on the intertubes. I don't let Spokane Police know what is possible with a networked computer. I just tell them watch the first episode of the new Galactica.
Well the girlfriend moved some boxes off my headboard, I rediscovered my old cassette collection. I thought I might end up having to un-gut an old boom box, or car stereo, in order to listen to them. Girlfriend found me a Clock Radio, that got the police band, and I hadn't gutted the cassette to make a card reader. Later she found, and cleaned, a micro boom box that Dad has once used.
This is awful! Once I had phone gadgets that recorded 12 hours use onto a 90 minute cassette. Now after a six hour search, I can find one recorder, and the only reason I have it, is that I can plug an MP3 recorder/player into it. I have a workbench project, over 4 years old, that is essentially a cassette case that houses a mp3 recorder/player. I had it 9/10ths built, when I realized I could just build a cable that connected a cassette adapter, to a computer's sound card. Now I am thinking of playing 400 odd cassettes into my netbook. I have some nice sweet amplifier, and sound equalizer components. Mostly tubes. I am confident that most of these cassettes exist nowhere else, as they are demos, and promos for local bands. Also a hundred or so are cassettes that never made it over to CD. I have downstairs, a High Fidelity Stereo Cassette Deck that I meant to do this migration with some 14 years ago. Dad actually greeted some of these cassettes with enthusiasm. Fourteen years previous, he profanely, pre-emptively, ordered me to never play some of those groups again. Kinda tough, as I was recording the live bands onto cassettes, later CD-ROMs.
It's kind of a treat to hear your 78 year old Dad sing the lyrics to "Cowboy, Biker Action" and "Reverse Cowgirl" without missing a beat. God knows, he must have heard them enough. He was totally astonished that 'Crave the Rave' never made it to the big time. Recording, mastering, duplicating. Running the pirate radio station out of the garage sometimes. I have a lovely Fostex 4 track of the sound of him busting out into the garage, cussing a blue streak, because the FCC was prowling the hood. The DJ promised to return after "Station Identification", twenty minutes later he was riding in a 68 lincoln, that could have guest starred on The Matrix. Driven by a snowy-haired black man, who used to run with 'The Panthers'. Local 40s Band, not the 60's agitators. Broadcasting from the sweet streets of Spokane. Offering fresh new sound that local stations "Didn't have the balls to broadcast!". After "Cat" left for his annual Vegas trip, we started taking tapes around. It was easier to talk the stations into showcasing local talent. Much easier than running a radio station ourselves.
