Just a little over a month ago, getting off the U-Haul truck and seeing my two sons easily haul the various book cases, boxes of dishes-books-art-memorabilia and the other various sundry items destined to reside in Condo-land until they came to the orange crated record albums made me smile. Yes, boys, they're heavy and they're fragile. Easy does it.
In many respects, the crates and their contents are the barnacles I carry with me like an old whale does with his necessary parasites. This year, and maybe by another circle around the sun, I might finally get them all transferred into my little pc with the itunes signature. I'm not sure what I'll do with most of them when I complete the task, but the goal is to transfer all the songs worth preserving on the discs to the current pc format in this era of of all-things-digital.
I started this journey back in 1975 when I felt after my first quarter at Cal I was staying up north and I needed my records with me to keep me sane during the long hours of school work and party work, or networking old style. Anyway, I hauled a pair of massive speakers, my tube amplifier, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck and turntable with over 500 records to Berkeley to start this lifelong tune-travel adventure in America's first hatchback, the all powerful AMC Gremlin. I remember the tape decks and turntable riding shotgun with me up I-5 and being a bit worried about the weight in the car, but made the trek without a hitch.
Funny, remembering so vividly now a trip 39 years ago as the first of what has just become the 14th move for many of the albums still in my little collection. Each move brought me to new places meeting new faces along this twisted life journey of mine.
Each stop on the route was an easy set up of uniform RCA plugs, antennas and grounding wire into the jacks on the back of the trusty amplifier to get the sounds going. Not this last one. Call it the law of averages catching up to me, or just time marking decrepitude on the calendar for Johnny in 2014, but this latest audio/video hook up gave me fits from the outset.
I never lost a piece of electronic gear during a move. Lost several this time around. I always pack my electronics with great care . Did the same this time, making a separate trip strictly to bring computer and sound equipment in the comfy almost-new Hyundai sedan. The key equipment rides inside the cab, the more durable goods in the trunk on top of the clothes packed in big 45 gallon plastic bags to keep them clean and tidy, if a bit wrinkled at the end of the line. Makes a great shock absorber, or so the thinking goes, riding on all that cotton, wool and synthetic fiber.
First night trying to get the internet going was cake, or so I assumed after making the very modest and easy hook-up of coax and telephone (ethernet) cables to the router. All was in the correct place, even took out the instructions and followed them to the letter. No connectivity. Hmmmm. Had to call my son. Came by checked the work, and then asked if I had contacted Comcast to activate the account. Hmmmm? In all my years of doing this the cable or phone was on after you established an account and you just plugged in using the jacks installed in the building. Not here. Dialed Comcast and set up the account and, voila, internet connectivity. Thanks, Winston!
Several days later after box unpacking, washing dishes forever, setting up/taking down wall art, rearranging furniture and generally nesting the place I was ready to watch some television and hooking up monitor, a/v receiver, speakers and dvd player was the order of the day. No worries, even mixed a vodka cranberry cocktail to kick off the festivities in the early afternoon
PC Monitor will not work with either the amplifier or the cable box. Wrong pin socket size. Ooops. Have to stop at number one on the vodka-cran. Hmmm. Shopping now becomes the order of the day for a new monitor and cables. Head to Best Buy and get a friendly sales guy who I explain what is needed and he gets me a nice Samsung 32 inch television. Lots of connectivity in back. I also purchase a new Samsung Blue Ray DVD player to match my new tv.
While wandering the Best Buy aisles I run across a Sony turntable clearance priced that will plug directly into a pc via a USB connection. I decide this will be a great benefit in my new smaller space, which will allow me to directly record my vinyl right onto my hard drive. My old method required two pcs. One to upload the records and burn the CDRs and the second to upload the newly burned discs as MP3/MP4A digital files for pc and apple itunes play. I back the songs up on a terrabite unit in case my computer has a stroke. I'm a genius, and very lucky to have stumbled onto such a bargain.
Get home, and my genius status gets immediately revoked. The new television will produce no sound through my receiver and speakers. The only sound is through tinny sounding speakers built into the television.The cables the sales guy at Best Buy sold me are mostly worthless, because as I find out through the Samsung website the model television I was sold has only input jacks, no output jacks. Grrrr.
I decide to check my receiver before going back to Best Buy to swap for a different model, which of course, will cost a bit more. I plug in my fm antenna and dial up the tuner with headphones plugged in. No sound. I discover a loose bit of plastic on the floor and note my headphone 1/4" adapter plug has broken. I'm not having much luck, and decide to go to Fry's Electronics to look for a receiver, and will swap the television following this purchase back at Best Buy. I'll shelve the old receiver until I can figure out if it's actually kaput, or just riddled with demented guy bad juju.
Find the perfect solution for around $400 with a Bose unit that will serve as both sound system for television and DVD player, and act as the monitor stand to boot. The best part- it fits perfectly into my little wood entertainment center that came with my condo unit. I swap the television the following day at Best Buy. Thank the fates these new monitors are very light. If this was 10 years ago I would have herniated to death lifting all this electronic shit around for two days running. I'm now in gear with my video part of the home entertainment equation. Or so I thought. Beautiful DVD Blue Ray pictures and sound, but no cable signal coming through. Argggh. Call Winston to come and check. "Have you called Comcast?" "We did that last week." "You might want to call and see if your cable has been activated."
Called and that was the ticket. Apparently you have to call to activate both sides of your Comcast package. Who thought that great idea up? A fucking marketing asshole, that's who. Oh well. Finally have the full audio/video meal ticket in place in John's Condo Hideaway. Thanks, Winston, for your patience and good sense. You did not get it from me.
So I now have two beautiful nightstands in my boudoir on either side of my bed. They are soundless Infinity 100 speakers from High Fidelity's golden age. A night lamp sits on one and my ancient Chinese Gong sits on the other. My receiver was toast. Still can't figure out what happened, but sometimes shit just happens. I have a new turntable that does work perfectly, but it took me a few days to figure the software out, and I did not have to bother my youngest son. The LPs sound great through my Sticks speakers driven by my pc.
The whole process took two weeks, and cost me about a grand. In every other move it would have taken two hours and cost me a neck ache. But, that's progress for you with competing electronic companies utilizing every weird type of connecter device for every new fangled gizmo that comes into our lives to make life easier.
Thanks for stopping by for a read. Until next time, put Patsy Cline's Sweet Dreams on the turntable.
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