BOOM! Pop Culture Chronicles
Don’t Toss That Stuff;
You May Need It Someday
By Mike Olszewski
We live in a time when young people think Popeye invented fried chicken, James Dean created sausage and shopping malls are where old stores go to die. They look at the albums and photos piled up in our homes and think we’re hoarders because they store all that stuff on their cell phones.
“Get rid of it,” they say, but you’d be wise to rethink their advice—at least until you have a chance to transfer it to a digital format.
Keepsakes
All media is moving toward streaming. Convenient? Sure, and it frees up space around the house, but you pay for the media you stream. We’ve kept a good amount of our stuff and I suspect we’re not alone. Video stores are going by the wayside, and, despite streaming’s popularity, I don’t want to pay admission to my home theater every time I watch a favorite film. I hit a lot of pop culture conventions and pick up treasures that will never be issued commercially. Most of my DVDs fall under that category, and the same thing goes for CDs and rare LPs. All this brings up another matter: How do you play them?
VHS tapes were never a good storage medium so it’s in your best interest to get them transferred to disc or hard drives, especially if they are home movies. I recently found a box of old machines and it was like looking through a time capsule: Mini-disc and cassette recorders, a pager, a reel-to-reel deck, a new eight-track player that never left the box, iPods, a Walkman tape player and radio; even a film projector.
Do I use them? Rarely. I keep them around for people who want media transferred. Turntables came back with a vengeance, but they’re not like the sophisticated systems we had long ago. The vintage equipment sounds better than ever. But how many records do you really need?
You often come to that crossroads when you move, like we did a couple of years ago. Movers charge by the pound and if you’re going cross-country, you’ll pony up big time. Records are a prime example. Sentimental attachments are a factor. Maybe your grandparents gave you “Meet the Beatles” as a gift. That one gets a reprieve. But what about the same recordings you can access for free online?
Getting rid of stuff that you’ve had for ages is like doing surgery on one of your kids. I was at a film convention and saw an old friend who had a table full of equipment. I asked, “Did you buy a collection?”
He responded, “No. At my age, I asked myself if I wanted more stuff or more room, and more room won out. It’s time for someone else to enjoy it.”
The moral of the story is this: Keep the stuff that can’t be replaced but have a way to play it. Oh, and as a public service if you have any radio shows you taped and need to be transferred, reels or cassettes, I’m your guy. Email me. I have all the equipment.
Boomer Trivia: Last issue, I asked which renowned local band left audio instructions on their debut album for the best way to enjoy their LP. It was none other than The James Gang, who included a “locked groove” on both sides of their LP “Yer Album.” If you have the original vinyl, the words “Turn me over” repeat in a loop on Side One, and on Side Two, the words “Play me again” are repeated.
For next time, a tough one: Which of the hippie comic strip trio the fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was from Cleveland? You’ll find out the next issue.
