vinyl
last saturday i bought a record player on craigslist. it’s a crosley cr49 traveler, and it looks like a suitcase. when you open the suitcase the lid lifts off and it becomes a record player. i like the vintage look of it, that’s the main reason i chose to buy this specific record player. i’ve been looking for one like it for a decent price ever since i bought one as a house warming present for some friends of mine.
the best part of buying this record player though, is that i have inherited my mom’s old record collection from when she was in high school and college, as well as my wife’s uncle’s entire record collection. my mom’s records all have her maiden name written on them. they both had great taste in music! i am going to try to listen through the entire collection and see how long it takes to listen to every record. i’ve also started a collection of my own, i bought five used records and two new ones the other day.
i think something is lost in the listening experience when we download music, or even buy a cd and only ever listen to it on our ipods. there is something really cool about buying a physical record and seeing the big cardboard album art, the record slip, and whatever else is included in the package. there is also something really cool about about listening to music this way. the way it sounds, the way it works, the way it makes you sit and actually listen to the music… it’s something we miss when we make soundtracks to our lives by constantly pumping music into our ears through our little ear buds. listening to an album on vinyl almost gives it a purity you can’t get any other way. especially when i think about how i’m listening to records that are over 30 years old. i think we loose something in the way we listen to music, and i’m trying to get that back with my new record player.
