Since my friendster blog is under maintenance (they are going to release a new Friendster, which I think will be imitating Facebook, oh crap), I can’t really blog…
However, you can still read them at j4ck-boy.blog.friendster.com
So, here is my new ‘home’ for “It’s A Break” until I find out how to resolve the problem.
Today, I have just found a ‘new’ toy. It’s not a real toy, actually. I was like giving a tour to my friend about where and how I live here in Bremen. And big thanks to her, I found out how to use a vinyl record player!
Well, Toto, whose flat I’m living right now, used to be an Indies music player. He can sing and is able to play accordion and piano. He used to record the music from his band in vinyl. From what he told me, the records were compilations he made with street musicians across Germany. And of course, I can see a stack of vinyl records here in the flat.
In case, you might ask, what a vinyl record is…. So, before the era of CD, DVD or event cassette ( I guess), people used to record and play music in a black vinyl disc. It looks like a usual disc (at the moment) with the size of LD (Laser Disc). It was so popular in the 60s-70s. (Remember, LD, CD and their friends weren’t exist at that time). In the old time, people play the vinyl using a player called gramophone (if you like old movies, you might notice it)
So, when giving a tour, I found a vinyl record player at the corner of my room. To be raised in CD era, vinyl records are some strange things for me. I have seen them in TV programs or films, but never really experience to use the real thing. Let’s say I came out of a jungle and knew no such “advanced” thing. So, I tried to find out how the player worked. Actually, it’s a rather ‘modern’ version of gramophone (minus the big brass phone-speaker).
I tried to browse on Toto’s vinyl collections and fascinated by them. There are a lot of albums, which I have in my computer such as Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan. I might sound stupid but to find the ‘original’ version of what I’m having right now (they are all digitalized) is some kind of great thing!
So, I picked one record and played it. Put the black disc on the player, lift up the needle and put it on the spinning disc. And taraaaa…!!! John Lennon sings his famous Imagine in ‘original’ version. Although I’m no expert in music, I feel back to basic, when everything was so simple and lively.
It was so nostalgic. Not to say that today’s inventions are bad, but as if I could turn back time, I felt excited that I could still do what people in the old good time did.
Ah, tomorrow, I will want to play Bob Dylan or Cat Stevens… (maybe Mozart and Heydn)
