I've been thinking a lot over the past couple of days about nostalgia and how it can tend to morph and become a falsehood.
It all started when I saw a reel yesterday of someone with an old Sony Walkman. The same kind I had as a kid, as a matter of fact, the big yellow sports one. I started in the mode of, "Oh, I should get one of those, that would be nice to consume music like that again."
But then I gave my head a shake.
The fact is, I never liked tapes, even in their heyday. I hated fast-forwarding, flipping tapes and untangling them when they inevitably unspooled. I was SO EXCITED when CDs hit the market because you could skip to songs, fast-forward in a moment, and the sound was so much better. Static isn't warmth, it's bad sound.
Cassettes do have a couple of strengths. You could leave a tape on the floor of your car for weeks and still be able to play them ok. CDs didn't have that durability. But in our modern age of streaming - and even MP3 players before that - both don't hold any durability or portability points.
I often have to remind myself of these rose coloured glasses when I watch people working with vintage computers on YouTube. As much as I'd like to go buy an old Tandy 1000 on eBay to play all my favourite vintage games, I need to remind myself how slow and low-powered my old Tandy was. How I wanted nothing more than a computer that could show more than 16 colours or play something nicer than 8-bit sound. Not to mention, a PC that is 35+ years old is not going to just plug in and play. At least not consistently.
I have access to DOSBox and the Internet; I don't need a 286.
I suppose in times like these, when everything seems complex, expensive and dangerous, nostalgia gives us a break. But as was mentioned in a discussion at a party this weekend, times weren't better. We were just sheltered or forgot the bad parts.
And don't even get me started on the three shelves of vinyl records I have collecting dust in my living room.
Maybe it's best to just focus on the now, what we have and what we can make of it. It's certainly more affordable than paying $1000 for a dusty memory that never works.
1 comment:
Yeah, I think it has to have a enjoyable reason. I like records because I have to stick around them and flip them so I actually pay attention to the music more. Tapes and CD's don't get that.
There was an old Apple 2 or something like that on marketplace a while back. Would have been sweet to play around with but after the first day or two I would have been bored with it and it would never have been used again. Plus I never had an Apple 2 before.
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