I dumped 15-20 reels of 2-inch analog tape about ten years ago. Am I really ever going to remix records that I made thirty years ago that I reasonably satisfied with? I am finally getting to the point were I don't want to own things. I have a number of boxes in the closet and garage that I within the next year need to strain down to the bare essentials. Do I really need clippings from newspapers and music pubs in languages I don't understand? That said, do I really care that much about what BAM magazine or even Trouser Press said in 1984? (OK, Trouser Press and Creem, I still care...).
Email is another thing... It's my memory. If I have some fact, agreement, or tidbit in an email, a quick search will usually retrieve it.
As far as being overwhelmed by choices, could just be an indicator of too much time on one's hands.
I've allowed myself to let go of some stuff over the years, but my inboxes are in the 10s of thousands of unread emails. I have a lot of hard drives, a lot of analog tape, iCloud and 2 Drive accounts filled to the brim...
I think a lot of us who are of a certain age made the transition from the physical to the digital so slowly we didn't realize when it happened and our habits didn't change accordingly.
Music discovery has been a nightmare for me. Living in the midwest, it's a desert for any kind of niche shopping...
Glad to be heard! Yes, the transition from physical to digital (and then, sometimes, back again) has done a number on me. I feel at times overwhelmed by options, which I've written about before here - so overwhelmed with the immensity of what's available digitally - that I wind up going back and rewatching something comfortable. A mindset I would not have had in the prime era of physical media (aka before, like, 2005)
I moved to Iowa in 2005 and out of NYC a year before that, so a lot of my physical media never made it out of boxes. My digital media experience has been truly subpar. I went from shopping for records and CD just about anywhere I went to not having anywhere at all to shop for them. I default to Apple Music these days (constructed from the bones of my long lost favorite streamer, MOG) but I've lost touch with new stuff by artists I liked before or any new artists.
Ownership was a bigger deal than I think any of us ever thought it would be. Now I just put on Apple's algorithmically driven "Jason Lewis Station" and rarely seek out anything new.
TV and movies is worse and has gotten worse since everyone started their own streming service. 90% of what I watch is YouTube. Otherwise, I browse for an hour an ultimately choose something shitty out of exhaustion.
It was such a great platform. One of the only ones that seemed to focus on albums at the time. Or at least that’s how it worked for me. I don;t know how much of that original MOG DNA is still in Apple Music, but it’s the streamer I keep coming back to.
Thanks for reminding me that I wrote this song 🤠 for mature audiences only
I dumped 15-20 reels of 2-inch analog tape about ten years ago. Am I really ever going to remix records that I made thirty years ago that I reasonably satisfied with? I am finally getting to the point were I don't want to own things. I have a number of boxes in the closet and garage that I within the next year need to strain down to the bare essentials. Do I really need clippings from newspapers and music pubs in languages I don't understand? That said, do I really care that much about what BAM magazine or even Trouser Press said in 1984? (OK, Trouser Press and Creem, I still care...).
Email is another thing... It's my memory. If I have some fact, agreement, or tidbit in an email, a quick search will usually retrieve it.
As far as being overwhelmed by choices, could just be an indicator of too much time on one's hands.
Yes, a thousand times yes!
I've allowed myself to let go of some stuff over the years, but my inboxes are in the 10s of thousands of unread emails. I have a lot of hard drives, a lot of analog tape, iCloud and 2 Drive accounts filled to the brim...
I think a lot of us who are of a certain age made the transition from the physical to the digital so slowly we didn't realize when it happened and our habits didn't change accordingly.
Music discovery has been a nightmare for me. Living in the midwest, it's a desert for any kind of niche shopping...
I grow old, I grow old.
Thanks for the read. I feel seen.
Glad to be heard! Yes, the transition from physical to digital (and then, sometimes, back again) has done a number on me. I feel at times overwhelmed by options, which I've written about before here - so overwhelmed with the immensity of what's available digitally - that I wind up going back and rewatching something comfortable. A mindset I would not have had in the prime era of physical media (aka before, like, 2005)
I moved to Iowa in 2005 and out of NYC a year before that, so a lot of my physical media never made it out of boxes. My digital media experience has been truly subpar. I went from shopping for records and CD just about anywhere I went to not having anywhere at all to shop for them. I default to Apple Music these days (constructed from the bones of my long lost favorite streamer, MOG) but I've lost touch with new stuff by artists I liked before or any new artists.
Ownership was a bigger deal than I think any of us ever thought it would be. Now I just put on Apple's algorithmically driven "Jason Lewis Station" and rarely seek out anything new.
TV and movies is worse and has gotten worse since everyone started their own streming service. 90% of what I watch is YouTube. Otherwise, I browse for an hour an ultimately choose something shitty out of exhaustion.
I worked on MOG briefly as a consultant!
It was such a great platform. One of the only ones that seemed to focus on albums at the time. Or at least that’s how it worked for me. I don;t know how much of that original MOG DNA is still in Apple Music, but it’s the streamer I keep coming back to.
'And over here on Chapman stick — give it up for the Messiah'.
> old domains I spuriously purchased that I still keep active because I might just need them one day, like nick@dudewithachapmanstick.com
Oh I eagerly await this day.
https://www.redbubble.com/people/tangborn/shop?asc=u !