back in Denmark Street

 

I listened to and watched some You Tube videos by people who discuss turntables and vinyl records.

(For the record -- oops, a pun! -- "in the day" we didn't call them vinyl records, we just called them records, or albums, or record albums, or 45s.  But for 21st-Century collectors and debaters, "vinyl" is the key word....)

"The White Album."

The Beatles had a White Album.

So did Fleetwood Mac.

And one of Joan Didion's books was titled, The White Album.

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Some of the turntable videos are by people who are saying, "You get what you pay for!  This turntable costs too little money and so it's not good!  Rar-rahr!"

But I could not help but remember some expensive pens I bought in the past which I now use only as paper-weights / book-marks, to hold a book open to a page where I want to make notes, I don't write with them.

        (I will keep the ones I have, but I would not buy another expensive pen.)

        The problem with the expensive pens is, the re-fills are too expensive, and the pens are too bulky and heavy to use for long-term writing.  Some of them have a decorative band or something, right where you hold it when writing, so it's uncomfortable....  The best pens for me to use are the inexpensive ones -- Bic Clic Stic; PaperMate Profile; Uniball Power Tank.  Other Bic styles, as well.

        Someone who likes beautiful, high-priced pens that are pieces of furniture might look at my pens and say, "My God, you're like an ascetic with those plastic disposable pens, do you only consume tap water and stale bread at mealtimes?"

But it's true -- the plain ones are the best ones for writing.  And I wonder, then, about turntables, if maybe a perfectly usable one can be had for a budget-friendly price.

        One You Tuber, Norman Maslov, talks about vinyl records.  He has an extensive collection of albums -- in the videos you can see them behind him.  It's just walls, of shelves, of albums.

So.

Many.

That is a serious, dedicated collector who is passionate about his music and has layers and layers of knowledge.

Also -- layers and layers of records.

Just looking at it I thought, When you have that many of anything, you have bought yourself another job.

Music CDs are good.  Why would we need vinyl records now?  Vinyl enthusiasts have their reasons.  Some say the music sounds better in that form.

------------------------- Keith Richards on the subject of technological advances:

Very soon after Exile, so much technology came in that even the smartest engineer in the world didn't know what was really going on.  How come I could get a great drum sound back in Denmark Street with one microphone, and now with fifteen microphones I get a drum sound that's like someone shitting on a tin roof?  Everybody got carried away with technology and slowly they're swimming back. ...

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