Another project started

[jducoeur]

Among the things we have taking up Far Too Much Space are a considerable number of LPs that aren't doing anything useful. We haven't actually played an LP in at least five years, so I haven't bothered to hook a record player up to either stereo system.

That said, we still own a fair number of records that I do *like*, many of which we don't yet have on CD. Worse, a decent number of them probably don't exist on CD, and in many cases never will. I mean, my very favorite children's album, "Fly, Hippopotamus, Fly", is so obscure that Google will not admit that either the album or singer even exist. So I've hooked up both a record player and cassette deck to the computer, specifically so we can take all of this stuff in less-useful formats and digitize it. (And perhaps then get rid of the LPs.)

One of today's projects was to prove that was working. It's a good thing I did that before we put the spare record players into the attic, because I found that, while the linear tracking turntable I got (years ago) from antoniseb works very nicely in most respects, it won't quite finish the album. It plays about 90% of the way through the record, and then stops -- the linear tracking won't track any further, no way, no how. So that makes two turntables we have going begging to anyone handy who would like to take them and fix them. (The other appears to have a broken grounding cable, based on the hum.) Just for once, though, being a packrat pays off -- we still have two intact turntables, so finding that two are damaged is no great tragedy.

Anyway, to start off I decided to rip something that was (a) pretty damned obscure, and (b) still in very good condition. So I now have a CD of Songs of Electronic Despair by The Android Sisters, certainly one of the weirdest discs I own. I am strangely fond of that album, especially such deathless tracks as "Macho Robot" (aka "The Banana Trilogy"), and "Invasion"...

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Just for once, though, being a packrat pays off -- we still have two intact turntables, so finding that two are damaged is no great tragedy.

Am I reading this correctly? You have four functioning turntables, in various states of disrepair? ...

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

We have two that are definitely in some disrepair, one that apparently works just fine, and one that we believe works fine. Yes, this is a long-term side effect of merging households: I had one back in grad school (the one with the hum), we got one from Anton either at a yard sale or as a settlement of some minor debt (the one with the tracking problem), J had one in college (works fine), and then there's the other stray one, which came from who-knows-where.

We are certainly packrats. Who else do you know who has both an 8mm and a Dual 8 projector? Not even eclecticmagpie, I believe.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Hmm...possibly my dad, as he's got two film projectors. But one is an editing console, not really a projector per se -- the film is shown on a tiny screen built into the unit. (I used to love this as a kid; it's like a video iPod from the 60s. Of course we only had about 4 films I wanted to see, but still....)