April 12, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: April 12, 2018, only 2%?
Five years ago today: April 12, 2014, not your everyday experience.
Nine years ago today: April 12, 2010, stupidity as a requirement.
Random years ago today: April 12, 2009, bombs, instead of bombers.

           My day off, and upon checking my money supply, my last Friday in Tennessee for a while. A quick check shows I’m near out of everything from forevers (postage stamps) to prescriptions. Expect a trip back to Florida shortly. I’m also disappointed, Tennessee, with your rainy, drizzly, cool, and cloudy weather day after day. Duly noted, Nashville. There are nice stretches, like this morning at the lake. That was okay, but the right company always helps.

           How do you like the “new” vinyl recordings. You can look up your own, but I think it is yet another tacky remake to take the millennials money. The indoctrination system makes sure none of them are aware of anything before 1990, so they are about to get sold a ton of old technology, now in 3” format. What we were out to determine is if the turntable is able to play anything else, but knowing what suckers they be, chances are the answer is nope. Then, any excuse to get to the book store to see if the existing crop of “Bluetooth™” turntables will play the 3”. No info available. The next option was to ask the staff, but rather than waste that kind of time, we went for coffee.

           This time we were at the BAM, Books-A-Million. It took no time at all to find that ordinary 12” record albums in vinyl are now being re-released. To me, this amounts to selling repackaged garbage to idiots who cannot be expected to know any better. Are you with me, not the 3” vinyl, but reproductions of the original 1970s record albums. Only this time priced at some $28 each. That’s about what you’d expect to pay for an actual original.

           That amounts to you paying over 5x the price for an album like Led Zep II, churned out on equipment so outdated I believe it had to be bought back from the former Soviet Union. The turntable shown here was 33/45 only, with no Bluetooth™ or disc capability. Price was $160. Now, let’s move on to the 3” turntable.

           The 3” record player is a cult device in Japan. The cutting technology hasn’t improved, so the recordings are limited to around the same 3 to 4 minutes as would fit on any other platter with the same groove length. Called the “microtech” or the “8-ban”, the players reportedly sell for $70. After ten minutes I gave up trying to find out the speed. To anybody who can find the answer faster, I remind them that the Internet is NOT designed so that intelligent people can locate things quickly. I’ve had countless occasions where blithering idiots instantly found things I couldn’t.

Picture of the day.
Lapis Lazuli cigar box, price unknown.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Taking the day off with me is the lovely the Reb. Except for the pets, there is never a day off from the pets, not that there is a thing wrong with that. We’ve decided to make up some advertising videos, but ventures like that can have some rough patches. Why? Because I have no trouble learning on the job. But it entails a certain amount of arguing and baby-talk that not everyone has the patience for. Video production is no different, everybody has a system and no two are alike. Go back far enough in this blog and you’ve find I’ve listed why I knew this trend would happen due to computer hiring practices of the day. In the early computer days it was assumed ten programmers were better than one programmer allowing bad practices to become industry standards. Prime example: idiocies like i++ and ++i.

           Later, it turns out the best part of today was at the bookstore. A couple hours there never bothers me. As always, I find books to be priced around twice what I’m willing to pay. Enter a stroke of luck. It’s a Friday night, this is Nashville, meaning the aisles are empty. If you live in a modern country with cultural pursuits, particularly government-sponsored ones, enjoy them to the hilt. Because when you come to America, you will find there aren’t any, at least not where you live and in your price range. Back to the luck. We are deciding whether to grab a coffee in the store, or the nearby Starbucks, when I glance down and find a nice new twenty-dollar bill on the floor.
           We waited and looked around, then finally wrote it off to serendipity. We had both earlier expressed interest in magazines priced $9.99 and this made our day. Of course, we then opted to find a nice spot for ye olde nightcap. Nothing, as we drove from Mt. Juliet up to the pike. Then, we stopped at the Hermitage, but it was Deadsville. No entertainment and fifteen bucks a round. Correction, the entertainment stops at 7:00PM. Some night spot, huh?

           Then we drove to Donelson, the Irish pub, but let me explain something. I do not care for pubs that are primarily licensed restaurants. Further, I don’t expect the Reb to know any different. Some of the giveaways, I can tell you, are a place full of old married couples, a stack of high chairs in the corner, and having to wait to be seated. In this joint, all the prime spots were up around the stage, so if all you wanted (as we did) was a cold drink, you have to sit in the back section around the corner. We left. Another thing I don’t care for is people who stare at us. Okay, so we don’t look or act like they do and age alone is rarely a factor I consider as having in common with such people. I’m glad we left.
           I had a better time both at the bookstore and window-shopping at the mall y’day.

           Rather than poke around to find a nicer place or risk downtown at this time of night, we took the pets for a midnight stroll. We don’t lack when providing our own entertainment. Before calling me a stick in the mud, two points of order. One, she knows that I have never regarded going out to dinner as a type of reward. Two, as far as a know (which admittedly could be woefully wrong but I doubt it), I am still the only man with whom she would even somewhat regularly go out with to a crowded, noisy, bar filled with people half my age. This stems from the bands we played in back in the 90s. But don’t you rule out a thing, with her and I, music is a realm where anything could happen.

Last Laugh