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"Is that a record??? "

I guess I just found out today how out of touch I am with the rest of the non-audiophile world. I went to the local USPS office to return a damaged LP. I still had the package it came in from Acoustic Sounds, which had 'LP' written on it in several places. So the Postmaster says to me incredulously "Is that a record???!!!" . I calmly say "Yes". The woman in line behind me says "Reeeally!!!...one of those plastic thingyyys???". Again, I repeat my reply, "Yes, it's an LP".
Postmaster: "Wow! I had no idea they even made them anymore."
Me: "Yes, they still make them".
Woman: "Are you serious?"
Me: "Yes, they still make them. In fact, more today than even 10 years ago."
Postmaster: "You mean they still make NEW!! records???"
Me: "Yes."
Postmaster: "What kind of music do you buy?"
Me: "Mostly Jazz".
Postmaster: "Why do you buy them?"
Me: "Because they sound better than cd's."
Postmaster: "I've heard that before, but all of my old records sound like crap."
Me: "Well you do have to take care of them."
Postmaster: "I thought I was taking care of them....I guess I wasn't".

Now I'm not trying to start another vinyl vs. cd debate, been there done that. It just blew my mind that here are two folks around the same age as me, late 40's, who were stunned to find out that vinyl was still availible. I mean I guess I don't expect everyone to know this, but I was a bit taken back by their appearant shock. You'd have thought that I drove up in a Hudson automobile wearing a Fedora hat.

Am I THAT out of touch? I feel like a ostrich with my head in the ground listening to tunes.....out of touch with the real world............

Cheers,
John
128x128jmcgrogan2
vegasears
1,173 posts
 
At work we have "Dress Down Friday". A few weeks back I wore my "Tubes Rock" tee shirt which has a picture of a tube on it. I got the same responses. I must have explained the why 20 times. I'll never do that again.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Fun at the Thrift Shops:

04-19-07: Qdrone
I get a kick out of what you can find in thrift shops and garage or estate sales... Last week for a dollar at the local Out of the Closet I picked up an Original pressing of Randy Newman/12 songs in mint shape. Ry Cooder plays guitar and slide on this baby!

I just returned from a hunting expedition at St. Vincent De Paul with 28 albums at $1 ea. Everything I picked up today ranges from VG++ to NM or opened but unplayed. It's a good thing I like classical; I picked some Sibelius, an opera or two, a boxed set of Bach organ stuff, etc. I also got the Reader's Digest/RCA 7-LP collection of '40s Big Band Swing. All 7 LPs in it are unplayed. Also picked up 11 Windham Hill records, of which at least half were recorded direct-to-2-channel on analog 1/2" running at 30ips and half-speed mastered either at MoFi or JVC.

A couple weeks ago I picked up a "real" Everest LP of Mozart wind ensembles, originally recorded on 35mm mag tape. Record looks like it's been through a war zone, but still has that uncanny "in the room" sensation.
sharpnine
14 posts
 
I have gotten that too, when returning a record via UPS. People seem astounded and curious. I got some of that same treatment for a couple years when I started driving a new mini cooper (people kept telling me "I used to have one of those in the 60s, do they still make them?").

I got back into vinyl (after a 20 year hiatus) not because people my age (middle age) were into it, but because I noticed all the young people were getting into it. My son (20 at the time) had roommates his age who only listened to vinyl. I went on to discover how all the DJs were still doing vinyl, the local record shops were mainly selling to a young crowd. I was also reading hi-fi magazines (something the young people definitely don't do) and realizing the great sound quality of vinyl. Now my son and I are both vinyl fanatics, although our tastes in music differ considerably.

These days, vinyl seems in a real resurgence. A local CD shop that had long since dumped vinyl now has devoted a good chunk of their shop to vinyl, and other shops have expanded their vinyl collections. They say they are thankful for vinyl because CD sales are gradually going away. Nobody cares about CDs when they can download. You can't download vinyl. I predict most music shops will be gone in ten years, with only the vinyl shops remaining. Everything else will be downloaded or more likely just streamed live on demand.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 

04-20-07: Sharpnine
I got back into vinyl (after a 20 year hiatus) not because people my age (middle age) were into it, but because I noticed all the young people were getting into it. My son (20 at the time) had roommates his age who only listened to vinyl.

Me too. It was my 20-year-old stepson, who found an old B.I.C. 912 in the garage, who hooked it up and got it running, and then kept bugging me to take him to some used record stores. Then one day we were out and he spied a garage sale with audio equipment. After a 25-year vinyl hiatus, I bought a Yamaha belt drive TT for $2, and then I got hooked too. 2 weeks later I bought my Technics SL1210 m5g and Shure M97xE. Since then (6 weeks ago) I've acquired over 100 LPs.
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
The scary thing about all this is that it shows what "sheep" many of us are simply because we have been trained to believe what we see and hear on TV and in the media.

Orwell was on target despite the fact that so many of us born in the late fifties that read his book in greade school are now seeing the effects of countless lies.

Throw enough money at any corner of the world and you can create "truth" there.

LPs always sounded better than CDs, I intuitively knew that but fought that for about 10 years, trying convince myself that CDs were superior as the mainstream tried to convince me until I finally had earned the resources to improve my vinyl playback equipment. I always get incredulous looks when new friends come into my home and see the turntable and the records. And they ask me why and I say because they sound better, and I get the unconvinced looks, and then I play the Count Basie Chairman of the Board on Classic and they remark WOW.

Writing this as I sip coffee and listen to Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation on CD through the tube system on a rainy Oregon Earth Day morning.
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