I read an article the other day about how some members of the younger generations are wandering back toward non-digital things, especially in the area of entertainment. Thus the interest in vinyl records and analog watches and cameras with actual film in them and other paraphernalia of a bygone era.
I think it’s all interesting, and I have to admit that once in a while I’ll think back fondly on all the little routines I used to follow to keep my vinyl records in good shape, which included cleaning them with special solutions and special brushes, storing them vertically in their envelopes in rooms where the temperature did not hit extremes, and using a stylus weight on my Technics turntable that was as light as I could make it.
But I’ve already had my vinyl period. It started back in the early 50s and continued until CDs appeared on the market, when I began to notice there were several advantages to the new format. Certainly there were drawbacks as well, but the advantages finally won me over. I still own music, but I do a lot of screening on the streaming sites like Apple Music and Spotify.
So if someone wants to look down their nose at me for being so fully digitized, and bore me to death with recitations on the sonic superiority of vinyl recordings, I simply nod, smile, and go my own way. Listening to beaucoup rock ‘n’ roll at too high volumes for too many years has left me with the sort of hearing disability that misses many of those niceties that these earnest people are describing to me. Since I can’t get that lost hearing back, I guess I’ll just go the rest of my way listening to music at somewhat less than the highest fidelity possible and be happy.
When it comes to cameras, I have fully embraced the digital age. The flexibility, the instant gratification, the ability to manipulate and adjust images … what’s not to like, at least for the casual user? And having a camera constantly on my person a la iPhone means that although the greats of photography have nothing to fear from me as far as their reputations are concerned, I can snap away with gusto wherever I am and whenever I desire, and what photos I take please me and mine.
And recently I was shown how to use the best toy ever for someone like myself. For instance, at left you see an elderly reprobate standing next to a lovely woman at her birthday party a couple of years ago. As a joke, I had ChatGPT make the fake magazine cover from that. Next I asked the software to take away the words and substitute a map for the cake, and a completely imaginary but very pleasing picture was the result.
At last I have the tool I need to construct pictures of the world I would like to live in as opposed to the one I’m actually in, even if only on the computer screen. For a Minnesota boy who grew up on movies, which are filled with imaginary universes on screens, that’s known territory and a pretty good deal.
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It’s Saturday morning and Robin and I are staying with her sister Jill in her very nice apartment in Hartford SD. We have traveled just under 900 miles to attend the birthday party of Robin’s grand-niece. She is now one year old.
We flew in on Thursday, and had dinner with the birthday girl, her mom Amanda, Jill, and some friends at a local and legendary steak house, the Hartford Steak Co.
It was unbelievable. Like a fifty year march back in time. There was a back-in-the- day decor, an excellent server, and a 6 inch filet mignon dinner for $16.95!
Robin and I are not red meat-eaters in general, but at that price (if i lived here) I would happily return again and again, clogging up what arteries of mine that were still patent. So it’s best for my health that we live far from Hartford.
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Only 3 1/2 months till the elections. so far I have postured and fumed and pontificated, but I haven’t got down to doing the get out the vote work. Time for me ro roll up my sleeves …
Little Home In The Valley 