Feb 20, 2009

Cool Old Junk - what this is all about (part one)

First things first - I'm a pack rat. My mum says I'll end up on A Current Affair as one of those people with a condemned house with old car part and babies nappies strewn across the front yard and onto the concrete. I don't know why I love old junk, but I think it's a mix of a few things:

1. I don't like wasting stuff. When I was younger my Mum always bought the no name brand stuff and from a young age I op shopped. It's not that we were poor, it's just my parents are into budgeting and not wasting money. I always wanted the rip curl jumpers and expensive sneakers everyone else had, but usually ended up only getting them on special occasions, and the rest of the time I'd wear stuff like old woolen jumpers with weird patterns, work jackets complete with random people's names, ski jackets with zip off arms and "grandpa pants" - usually flared. This fit in with my "punk rock" attitude and also my extreme tomboy-ness (ask my friends if they've ever seen me wear a dress!).

I also never had a discman (although I had a rad boombox with detachable speakers, cd player and two tape decks) and only really got cds as presents (this was the time before cd burners - at least before every man and his dog could afford one) so I used to make a lot of mixtapes. From the radio, mostly, to listen to on my almost hour-long trip to and from highschool every day. My dad had a great sony sports walkman - it was bright yellow and bigger that even the oldest ipods, but it was my main source of music throughout my teenage years. It was covered in stickers and made fun of by my friends, but looking back I wish I still had it (it died).

There's something much more artistic about making a mixtape than downloading an mp3. My tapes were filled with my favourite songs, with radio announcers talking over the start or end of a song, and sometimes only half a song (if I didnt get to the record button fast enough). Id try to put songs on that would impress my fellow bus travellers (the bus driver sometimes let us put tapes on the buses' radio), there was nothing that filled my 13 year old self with pride more than when the year 12 boys at the back asked 'who made this tape?' and started headbanging to silverchair or nirvana. But sometimes it would cause fights- 'why would you stop the tape when it was a weezer song?' 'cause they suck, too poppy' 'you're an idiot!' (I was).

Many of the tapes they were taped on were stolen from music class. I think the school my have had a deal with deakin to get all their old lecture tapes, so they had boxes and boxed of them for kids to record music practise on? (i dunno, I never used them for the intended purpose). I used to grab handfuls of them, take them hope, tape over the edges and record away.
I have a massive collection of old tapes at home, and I can't throw them away. why? cause it's like throwing away a part of myself. I know that's a dangerous way to think, but I sure lots of other people out there feel the same way.

I'm going to split this intro into parts seeing I'm waffling on more than I thought I would. expect more up soon.

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