holding it in your hands
today i finally picked up the turntable i ordered after several months of searching, thinking, waffling on which one to get. it works with my current speaker, and as soon as i dropped1 the needle...i got it.
well, re-got it i guess. i'm old enough to remember cassettes (my family wasn't into vinyl) and i have fond memories of carrying around my CD player with N*SYNC's No Strings Attached in it, or eventually a CD i burned myself that had exactly four songs2 on it. i liked browsing the CDs at Barnes and Noble as much as i liked browsing the manga and fantasy novels. heck, i even imported some soundtracks from Japan as a teen3.
this is an experience i don't get with "modern" forms of media consumption. i don't get to hold this new album or book or game in my hands, put it in player or on the shelf or in the console, absorb myself in it in the same way4. for me, there's something transmitted via the tactile that can't be replicated digitally.
space here is at a premium, so it isn't feasible to pick up a physical copy of everything i'm mildly interested in, but i really enjoy picking up physical copies of books, albums, and games that i love. i like looking at them, naturally, but i also like using them, letting them fulfill their purpose. i still maintain my digital collections, but i deeply enjoy curating my physical ones.
i did not literally drop it. i did forget to take off the protective plastic bit though...yikes.↩
those songs were Eyes on Me, Melodies of Life, Suteki da ne, and Simple and Clean. this might be the single piece of media that best captures me at like. 14.↩
among other things. never did ask my parents to let me import a $200 out-of-print niche film though...that was, and IS, a lot of money. but i kind of wish i did.↩
speaking of games, i fucking crave the nostalgia of opening up a game box, pulling out the manual, reading through it, and then pulling out that fresh game cart or CD and popping it in for the first time. that is a full dang EXPERIENCE.↩