Vinyl

I do a lot of curiosity buying; I buy it if I like the album cover, 

I buy it if I like the name of the band, anything that sparks my imagination.

~ Bruce Springsteen

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Recently David asked Leslie to help him with his grandmother's record player.  Sara also told me that her daughter just got a record player and some albums.  Leslie and I talked several times about why people would be drawn to record albums now instead of CDs or other digital music formats. 

While we were talking, I remembered that my grandparents had an old Victrola - the kind that plays the cylinder records.  And I was fascinated by that.  

Why is it - with all the technology that we have - that we are drawn to the technology of the past?  Photography is like this too.  Now we make photos look like the sun-faded, over-exposed strangely tinted photos of our childhood albums.

Maybe the past is safe.  Maybe it is less intimidating than the future.  Maybe old record players and old-looking photos remind us of "the good old days."  Maybe it's about fearing the future.

Everything old is new again.  Well, not cheese.  I don't care what my mother says, scraping the green mold off of cheese doesn't make it "just as good as ever."  And leg warmers.  Those shouldn't become new any more times.  There are some other things too.  I think you know what I mean.  If not, between the two of us we could generate a pretty good list, I bet.