o sweet outdated technology

there was a time (I think it was in 1993) I said I would never switch over to cds because they get scratched etc. plus, hello, you couldn't make a mix cd.

the other day one of my oldest friends called me & said she & her friend were going through old high school mixtapes & listened to one that I made her. I imagine that it had things like fishbone, king missile, sebadoh, very pleasant neighbor, the cure, & sonic youth (who I am actually listening to right now), maybe it had the toasters, heavenly, primal scream, the dead kennedys, op ivy, the bouncing souls, fugazi, the dead milkmen, the lunachicks (which was the first show I ever went to at CBGB's in 1990). I used to take soundbites & intersperse them between the songs, you know from the pixies or my favorite--meat beat manifesto's "hello teenage america." if I remember correctly my method was rather chaotic--following up a quiet, mellow song with something rather raucous. I would never do that now. that is just immature... the thing is I never made a mixtape for myself. the only ones I have are post-break up ones for ex-boyfriends. they are usually pretty bad blend of ridiculously sad songs (read tori amos) & ridiculously angry songs (read ministry). I kind of wish I made copies of the others for myself.

sometimes I make mix cds, but its not the same. it used to take HOURS of sitting on the floor with a 10000 tapes strewn on the carpet, rewinding & fastforwarding, taping over & over trying to get the beginning just right. hoping that you wouldn't tape over it so many times that you could hear the old music below the newer track. now, we sit at our computers, click click click. drag & drop. it's just not the same. the kids now, they don't understand.

bc tries to make me toss out my old tapes, but am I really going to go out & buy a new camper van beethoven telephone free landslide victory cd to replace my tape? maybe I should go out & buy a new tape player. do they still sell them?

I'm sad about technology. I know the robots like it, but not me.

ps. I know this is a contradiction to my normal self.