this morning one of my professors started to explain to us what records are. "they're like great big CDs, but made out of vinyl. you play them on a record player. record players have needles that fit into the grooves on the record, and that registers sound." then he stopped himself. "oh, this is completely over your heads."it was funny because i bought a turntable off one of my friends just last friday, and spent the rest of the weekend alone in my apartment listening to vinyl. here are the albums i listened to, all loaned to me by said friend and his roommate:
joan of arc - live in chicago, 1999 (which is on the turntable in the picture)
make believe - of course
microphones - mount eerie
echo and the bunnymen - porcupine
the minus 5 - down with wilco
blonde redhead - melody of certain damaged lemons
wire - pink flag
what i like best about this turntable is that it is portable, which means it has a built-in speaker, which means i can further delay buying real speakers (buying stereo equipment on my own is really intimidating, for some reason). this built-in speaker is probably of the same quality as the speaker in my laptop, if not a little less. yet i am convinced that the turntable sounds better. i have hundreds of albums on my iTunes but i know i'll be listening to the same seven albums until i have to give them back.
(not that that's a bad thing. i could listen to those seven albums forever anyway. i mean, pink flag nearly sends me into convulsions.)
in high school i dug out my dad's tape deck and started making and exchanging tapes. i bought a cheap walkman and carried it with me everywhere. when asked why i didn't use an iPod or at least a discman, i didn't know how to respond. i wrote an essay instead. in that essay i said, i am not opposed to convenience. i have a laptop and an iPod. at the same time, i recognize that it is easy to lose yourself in convenience, and then everything becomes the same. monotonous. and this goes much farther beyond mp3s--why would i bake something from a box when i have eggs, flour, and sugar? why would i drive four blocks when i have feet? is the time i've saved really worth the experience i've lost?
i just put on the second side of porcupine. the sound of the needle hitting the vinyl is totally worth the $75 i spent.
