January 1, 2003 uh 2004

Separated at birth?

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 3, 2004

I changed the tapes on the index page today since I got tired of the ones before and half of them I don't own anymore. Also that tiki link page gets more traffic in a day than this 8 track one does in a month. Can you think of a less popular hobby?

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Have a cigar 

January 5, 2004

I was digging through the 8 track storeroom with Marlene and Sly today and after going through the 1000+ tapes he said that for a such a collections I don’t have too many quad tapes. I had to tell them that I go for artists more than forms. For instance, Any Andy Williams quad is just as bad as a stereo cart, maybe more so since this time we get 4 speakers of Andy instead of 2. Right now I have 6 8 track players in various parts of this house and not a single quad player. I have 2 quad player in the garage and was even looking at one with one of those joy sticks to adjust the speaker at Goodwill today. But why bother with such a small sampling of the artists. A lot of people say quad never caught on because it came out a little before the oil shortage of the 70s and was too expensive and used inferior materials. For the record, I keep my quads in a small vinyl holder that carries 12 tapes and its not full yet. Here’s the ones that I decided to keep just in case.

 

Kites Are Fun- Free Design

Metal Machine Music-Lou Reed

Touch Morton Subontnick

The Best of Sly and The Family Stone

Shaft St

Best of The Guess Who

Mama Lion

The only other tapes that I’d like to add to the pile are The Archie’s Sugar Sugar, and The Best of The Doors.

I bet this guy is going to hear from Russ Forster's attorneys 

January 8, 2004

I've been reading a lot of political commentary on line during this election year and and it seems that you can't be a successful columnist without making an analogy of the subject of your rant to being a Nazi. So in the name of fair play I've decided to do the same to an 8 track tape. The tape in question is The Beatles Parody band which I understand Michael Jackson gets royalties on - The Rutles tape titled Meet The Rutles. I love this cart and have 2 of them I had to get via auction, (I know some people refuse to buy 8 tracks from Ebay but I think it's harder to give up heroin than to stop bidding on some items). Between both of these tapes I've listened to this once without a problem since the Warner cart is so cheaply made that it snags, gets eaten and even with new pads fades in and out. I once took me 30 mins to rewind the whole mess only to have it get snagged again. If this isn't the Hitler of 8 track tapes I don't know what is? Anyone got a good one to trade?

And last months entry is very masculine and I have the site to prove it.

 

January 10, 2004

Last night as a last ditch attempted I switched carts on the aforementioned tape and it works like a charm. Suddenly all things are possible.

January 15, 2004

Before the 8 track Usenet became a giant flame war one of the fun topics use to be “What artists would you like to see on 8 track?”. My tastes have always been eclectic and I don’t think I’ve been a blushing fan boy for any single band since high school and when I go to a music store today I’m usually at the placards after the letter “Z” looking at miscellaneous compilations and the unclassifiables. When I feel the need to mourn the demise of 8 tracks all I have to do is look at the state of music today with all the over manufactured sound and the target market being 16 year old girls and I never give it a second thought. When I am rarely in the buying mood and either don’t have a clue or don’t care I look at album covers and a sure fire way to find something decent is look at a picture of the performer and if they’re ugly buy it. Today's audience doesn’t care about talent and mostly go for looks. So if you see an artist who’s unattractive with more then one CD you know that they’re more than just a pretty face and worth a listen.


I'm glad this was never released

January 19, 2004

Not a single tape to be found this weekend which is just as well since I've been recruited by some nightclub doing the interior. I have a zombie room and made a compilation of cheesy studio "Voodoo Music" that will be played on a continuous loop from a hidden Panasonic portable widestereo. It's always a pleasure to expose Yma Sumac and Chano to an unsuspecting public. This will happen next month, I'll put a link on once the page is created for the event. It's called Voodoo A Go-Go. Strangely this is the 4th club that I've done this to and I have no resume- it's all word of mouth. 

Today I'm all giddy and may have to order some Martha Stewart videos on wall papering since I scored a 13 feet roll of this cool 1966 Batman and Robin wallpaper. My bathroom may soon be the Batroom. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOLY Time to hire a contractor Batman.

January 25, 2004

This would have been the poster for That Voodoo A Go Go shindig next month but we all found out the hard way that the state liquor commission has no sense of humor and won't let this fly by night operation work unless we get a little more official and accountable. So now we have to form a committee with a secret bank account and call ourselves a non profit organization before we get their blessings.  It's too bad since I got a hold of lot of shrunken heads and dolls that are keeping my parrots company in the sitting room. They may become permanent home props if this doesn't get resolved soon. I may have to put on my best suit and head to the state capital in Olympia and do my best Mr. Smith Goes to Washington impersonation since the deadline is approaching.

No tapes this week but lots of fun LPs like the genre of Christian teenage drug addicts finding God and singing praises of him. I forgot who said all the best music is made by Satan but this LP makes their case. Also The Free Design who make The Starland Vocal band sound like Slayer and the home spun country sound of Tom T Hall who's I Like Beer is so happy it would get the approval of MADD.

 

February 2, 2004

I still think that 8 tracks are rich man’s music. When you look at old ads for music 8 track tapes were always more costlier than records or tapes, my first experiences with them was in a spoiled kid’s Jag in high school hearing the Rolling Stones’ Some Girls in all its leather seated glory. Driving late night down the streets of Waikiki made me feel like a dignitary even though we were going to McDonald’s with no money. But because they were priced out of the range of the common man back then most thrifts get real old guy music taking over the shelves like Readers Digest instrumentals and piano solos. I use to buy everything and everything on 8 track in my salad days of collecting and remember dumping 6 garbage bags full of this stuff at a The Salvation Army before I moved and I think it may have reproduced since theirs no shortage of it around these parts and the most rocken tape I’ve seen in weeks is a Carole King tape from the early 80’s.

I think if John Lennon was still alive he’d add a verse in his song Imagine Saying “Imagine There’s No Ebay” and it would be just as deep, if not more so.

.... Meet the Faggot Family

 

February 6, 2004

I always thought that that girl on That 70's Show (Laurie Forman) was based on this 8 track tape... Ok I have a wild imagination.

February 15, 2003

I haven’t bought a player in months because most of them I’ve run into are either incredible cheaply made (Sounddesign) or they just aren’t anything to get excited about. Once you hit your 15th player you realize you can afford to be picky although it wasn’t too long ago when I’d buy anything with an 8 track deck even those giant consoles that come with a record player on the top (usually missing a needle). However this weekend at a yard sale that most of the merchandise was covered with a mysterious gray powder I found an industrial sized General Electric player recorder. This machine is like command central with it’s airplane control panel and loads of useless buttons. My favorite is the eject switch. I think the ultimate in laziness is having to press a button on an 8 track machine to release the tape instead of simply pulling it out. It also has a fast fwd and one of those “Full Cycle” or “One Cycle” settings. One day I’ll figure out what the AFC switch does but I don’t think it means American Football Conference.

On a side note that play does anyone know why The Vaginal Monologs is playing in three different venues in this peninsula this weekend? I just may take it in tomorrow, either that or finally see Nemo.

 

February 28, 2004

After being chased out of a sale for being an early bird I found one by a storage locker that seemed like it hadn’t been opened since 1974. I expected to find something like King Tut’s tomb in it but instead the retiree who owned it use to work at a radio station here with the call letters KAPY, when I heard this all I could think of was a jingle that said “The happy sound of KAPY”. The locker had boxes and boxes of old 45s and I snagged one filled with fun records from the mid to late 50s. When someone says the 50s pop culture has planted seeds and archetypes of Elvis, Rockabilly, Neon Diners and pink poodles skirts but the reality musically are people like Doris Day, Frank Hunter and his Orchestra, Jack Quigley and all kinds of show tunes. This box was all like this. I don’t mind, I think a true historian shouldn’t be so short sighted and get caught up in The “Laverne and Shirleyfication” of the 50s and see it as the whole mixed bag it was. A lot of this music is ripe for a come back, mark my words.

What made this sale was the guy had a whole box of those radio station “carts” with all kinds of public service announcements on them. These carts have taken a life of there own now. I don’t have a player and may never hear one but I like the look of them with the transparent “Visible Man” design and the whole endless loop of course. I have over 30 of them an will soon gut one and see if I can do a Frankenstein in an 8 track tape and play it. Commercials are a fun look into the past and I like them so much that when ever I tape something on the tube today I never edit them out. In 20 years they’ll be much more interesting than say that Terminator movie that was surrounding them.

 

March 9, 2004

Today I picked up what I think are the south of the border equivalent of American K-Tel 8 tracks. Here we have Viva El Norte and Viva El Norte II. They are both compilations and if I could read Spanish I bet it says “Original Hits, Original Stars. The cover art is similar (K-tel has the most pedestrian art and the only ones that seem to have any thought in them are either the one with the blonde chick on this page or that one that has the robot on Lost In Space on the cover.) but I would have liked it better if they were named something like, “Tijuana Dance Tonight“. Other than that it looks like the executive order in Goodwill’s power structure has raised the 8 tracks up to $.59 now. I read a tread on this a few months back in a newsgroup but like everything else in this town it usually takes about 6 months from a change in a big city to reach this rural hamlet. I can’t really complain, I was driving through Seattle last week and hit 5 different thrift stores and couldn’t find anything remotely interesting. I even asked a clerk about 8 tracks and was told a guy comes in there regularly to shift through them so I don’t need the competition and $.20 more a tape is a small price to pay to be the roster in the hen house. Goodwill is become obsolete anyway, my thrift is supplied by the Tacoma store which now lists the cream on ebay so I’ve become more of a yard sale person and love bargaining and hearing war stores of certain items and how they came to be, it’s more of a coffee hour.

March 17, 2004

This weekend at the estate sales was was an experience more like a socially acceptable form of voyeurism rather than the usual barging hunting. I went to a run down trailer run by the children of a woman who I later found out was nicknamed “Dirty Doris”. It was one of those sales that you walk in 6 hours late and they pretty much let you have everything in a box for a buck. Most of it was picked clean but being the bottom feeder that I am I hit a bookcase with old newspaper and found a small box filled with fun and nasty novelties and pictures of 70s pornography and gags. I have a Penthouse Forum from the 70s there where a few of the articles are socially redeeming like vitamins and exercise. A few other items were those boxed jokes that say something like “Bridal Shower” then you open it and find a mini douche bag inside. Also penis nose Groucho glasses and all kinds of inert flatulence toys and dirty greeting cards. Fun stuff and it was interesting to see the evolution of the sexy fold out how they were once fleshy, almost middle aged, with very average bodies and now how they look like they teach aerobic classes. Most of this stuff has a date with Ebay very soon, even the pen you turn upside down and see the strip show. So remember, if you’re going to die soon plan ahead or some wise guy might be thumbing through your personals.

And speaking of Ebay, I just made a score of such magnitude that the Gods themselves will be singing praises of it. I’ll bring up later as not to jinx it and once I get "My Precious" in my eager hands you’ll hear all about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 20, 2004

I got these two late issue John Denver 8 track tapes today, not a bad score. The guy at the yard sale was once a big John Denver buff and was streamlining his collection. What turned my stomach though was when he said when John flew his airplane in to the gorge that ended his life the rescue crew who cleaned up never found his head and it's still in those rocky mountains, yuk.

 

 

March 25, 2004

The tape I was raving about arrived today, and without further adieu for your consideration is a copy of Frank Sinatra With Antonio Carlos Jobim or in the familiar Sinatra Jobim. According to the elders the recording session for this tape was completed and there was a test pressing for the LP but for some unknown legal reason it was never released and only a handful of 8 track tapes circulated making this a legitimate collectors item. You can read an unabridged story of it here. I found it on ebay surrounded by such easy listening staples as The Carpenters and The Lettermen. The guy had a “buy it now” price and even with the shipping more than the cost of the lot I still can’t complain. It does go against my 8 track collecting philosophy since I like tapes because of their disposable quality and not having to worry about them unraveling or swallowed by a machine. I suppose I can make an exception on this one since I have most of the songs on the later released Sinatra and Company and can hear it there. But today I’m living on an 8 track score endorphin high and am going to fondle it for a while until it eventually finds its place in the shed with the other 1000 or so tapes. And when ever some wise guy tells me I have a worthless hobby I can throw it in their face and say “oh yeah“.

The odd thing is the number on the greyhound bus (7973) use to be my PIN number until last month

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