Chapin City Blues

I made a promise to myself that I would write more. At least try to write more. I had planned on spending winter break doing as much. I had also planned on cleaning. Neither of these things happened.

Instead, I spent the break watching movies and The O.C. (as well as The Sex Lives of College Girls, which has become quite the guilty pleasure for me). Not to mention the collected hours spent on TikTok, watching YouTube videos and playing Mob Control on my phone. (Journaling, at least, is still writing and we here at Chapin City Blues live by the mantra that writing is writing whether done for duty, profit, or fun.)

Returning to school has opened the creative well again, but I get stuck in my head a lot more these days than I did in my twenties. And my latest obsession with returning to analog media has taken control of my attention and my bank account. Even now, I am contemplating a track list for a new mixtape while also contemplating buying a better cassette player to record said mixtape.

In my last post, I mentioned giving into the urge and purchasing a We Are Rewind cassette player. The playback quality is decent (but according to seasoned audiophiles, it’s nowhere near the sound quality of the god-tier Sony Walkman). My issue lies in the sound quality of the recording aspect. I knew from watching reviews that it was not going to be the best, but it is decent once you adjust your hearing to tune it out, which is not something most people can do.

Part of me wants to go retro with the tape deck, but I run the risk of getting a dud. After watching reviews for the retro-styled new decks, I fear that I will run into the same issues I have with my portable cassette player even with the high price tags. So now I am on a hunt for something retro, serviced and tested, with a decent price tag. A video from Ill-Advised Records suggested Technics RS-B12 or B18. It’s just something that I am mulling over for the meanwhile.

There is a novel, yet familiar, feeling about buying cassette tapes. Aside from the blank cassettes I purchased to make my own personal mixtapes, I also purchased new audio from Bandcamp and Factory Obscura which include:

• The MIX-TAPE Vol. 3
• MIX-TAPE Vol. 4
• Tinderness by Nicole Morning
• Destroying Angel by Cora Lee
• Somehow, Here We Are by Faulty Cognitions
• How to fold a fitted sheet by S. Hollis Mickey

As of this writing I have only received the two MIX-TAPE cassettes and the Faulty Cognitions album, though all purchases came with a digital download from Bandcamp.

Maybe my attempted divorce from digital media (for the most part, anyway, because Kindle will continue to rule my reading world side by side with the printed word), will recharge the forces that once drove my creativity.

I think it was Amy Poehler, in Yes Please, who accused her cell phone of trying to kill her. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it was the way it is a constant distraction. When I read that over ten years ago, I didn’t quite understand what she was getting at. I think I do now.

ADDENDUM:

This dip into analog has set me back about $85. During a bout of insomnia, I scrolled too far into the depths of eBay and purchased a Technics RS-B12 which should arrive by the weekend. I have no speakers for it. I have no headphone splitter or headphone adapters for it. I am forever the impulsive shopper, not seeing more than a few steps ahead. Buyer’s remorse? At least it was $85 with the shipping and not $85 plus shipping.